We added historical law guides for every U.S. state which give a summary of laws that affected the recording of marriage, probate, land, tax, and court records.
We also added 9 new articles:
Coats of Arms Belong to People, Not Surnames How real heraldic authorities work, and why mail-order family crests get it wrong
Comparing Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Findmypast A summary of what each site covers, costs, and does best
Cousin Relationships and Removals Explained How to count cousin degrees and removals, and why two different systems exist
Determining How a DNA Match Is Related to You What shared DNA totals, shared matches, and family trees can tell you
Eleven Substitutes for the Destroyed 1890 Census Where to find the household details a lost census would have recorded
Ellis Island Officials Did Not Change Immigrants’ Names Why the myth persists, who actually recorded immigrant names, and how spellings really changed
Ethnicity Estimates Are Statistical Guesses, Not Measurements What shapes those percentages, and how much to trust them
How to Begin Researching Your Family Tree The order to work in when you are starting your family history from nothing
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