Research Guidance

When we are struggling in our research, we often forget that there is an excellent resource available on the web..... FamilySearch Research Guidance. If you haven't used the Research Guidance files in the past, take a few minutes and see if they hold the hints or 'guidance' that you need to find your ancestors.

Let's walk through the process.

In our example, lets look for immigrants who entered Nova Scotia, Canada sometime around 1810.

• 1. Launch your Internet Browser and go to FamilySearch.org

• 2. Click on the 'Search Tab' and then click on 'Research Guidance' in the blue space below the tab

• 3. Click on 'Canada'

• 4. Click on 'Nova Scotia, Canada'

• 5. Now what? Only Births, Marriages and Deaths are listed.... We are interested in ship passenger records. That's ok... Just click on Births - 1760 - 1811..... Hmmmm... No passenger records are listed here, so let's click on Births 1812 - 1865. Good... there is a link to 'Passenger Lists and Border Crossings'.

• 6. Click on 'Passenger Lists and Border Crossings.

• 7. Look at that!.... the top link is 'Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867'. When we click on that link a list of book numbers for the Family History Library are listed. It looks like it is time to plan a trip to Salt Lake.

• 8. Also look at the list of other possible research resources on this page! Good stuff!

Again, since most of us haven't used the Research Guidance listings in the past or forget to use them, take a look at them today and see if there are any suggestions to help in your research.