Actress Olivia Colman has won rave reviews for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the award-winning drama, The Crown. It was also recently revealed that Colman is a distant relative to the royal family as well. MyHeritage researchers shared that Colman is the Queen’s 13th cousin once removed. We can see this path clearly in Geni’s World Family Tree, which connects over 150 million people to a single family tree. Image: Ibsan73, Wikimedia Commons… Read the full story

This Veterans Day, the U.S. celebrates the brave men and women who have risked their lives serving in the nation’s armed forces. Now is a good time to take a moment to honor members of your family who have served in the military and celebrate their stories in your family tree. Image: Library of Congress Military records can be a great source of information to better understand the lives of your ancestors. There are also… Read the full story

We’re excited to announce that Geni’s World Family Tree now connects over 150 million profiles!  This milestone was possible thanks to the collaboration of over 13 million users and over 200 volunteer Curators from all over the world. The World Family Tree has grown faster than ever with over 11 million profiles added in the last year.  The definitive family tree for the entire world, Geni’s World Family Tree allows millions of people to work… Read the full story

Geni’s World Family Tree continues to grow as new individuals are added and overlapping branches are merged. Sometimes after completing the initial merge of an overlapping branch, a little clean up is needed to resolve any remaining duplicates in the tree. There are multiple ways duplicates can be merged on Geni and in a previous blog post, we discussed how to merge through the profile page. For the purpose of this blog post, we will… Read the full story

We always love to hear stories about how Geni has helped to bring families together. Today we wanted to share with the community a story from Roberto Bastidas Buch, who after years of research, was finally able to reunite his family after decades apart. Arenys de Mar, 2017 family reunion / Photo courtesy of Roberto Bastidas Buch It was around the year 1978, six years after coming back to Colombia, South America, from the States, where… Read the full story

Do you know what occupations your ancestors held? If you haven’t been paying attention to what your relatives did for a living, you may want to start now. Knowing what occupations your relatives held can give you better insight into their everyday lives, their social status, education level, or even their migration patterns. Image: U.S. National Archives Occupations can also give you clues for new areas of research. Below are a some places where you… Read the full story

Today marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which stated “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” U.S. National Archives and Records Administration On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to ratify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, finally granting women the right to vote. The… Read the full story

MyHeritage has announced that they have unlocked their two popular photo tools – MyHeritage Photo Enhancer and MyHeritage In Color™ – for an entire month! From now until September 10, 2020, everyone can access these powerful photo tools for FREE! These two groundbreaking tools will bring new life to your old, faded, black and white family photos. Sharpen your blurry images with MyHeritage Photo Enhancer and bring them to life in vivid color with MyHeritage… Read the full story

In a recent interview with the U.K’s Capital FM, singer Katy Perry was in for a genealogical surprise when host Sian Welby shared that she and Taylor Swift are distant cousins. Although Perry dismissed it as a bit of fan fiction, it turns out they really are related! MyHeritage found through Geni’s World Family Tree that the two are in fact 9th cousins! Although the pandemic derailed her planned destination wedding with actor Orlando Bloom… Read the full story

Each year on July 4, the United States celebrates Independence Day in commemoration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the document declared the freedom and independence of the 13 American colonies from the rule of the British Empire’s King George III. Have some fun this Independence Day by incorporating your passion for genealogy with your 4th of July celebrations! Thanks to Geni’s World Family Tree, you can see how… Read the full story