Latter-day Saint Life

New FamilySearch collab lets you research ancestors' social circles for free

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Free Storied accounts are now available to Latter-day Saint FamilySearch users, FamilySearch announced on November 18, 2024.
Screenshot from FamilySearch

Latter-day Saint Kendall Hulet spent much of his career at Ancestry.com, learning the ins and outs of family history research.

But eventually, he wanted to take family history research a step further—wanted to help people know who their ancestors truly were, beyond basic facts like names and dates.

That’s why, in early 2023, Hulet launched family history company Storied, which allows users to a build a “social graph” of information from their ancestors’ friends, teachers, religious leaders and others who influenced them.

And now, Latter-day Saint FamilySearch users can access Storied to create fuller, richer accounts of their ancestors’ lives.

On Nov. 18, FamilySearch announced a collaboration with Storied allowing Latter-day Saint FamilySearch users to receive free Storied subscriptions. They can subscribe at www.familysearch.org/en/access/storied.

Storied’s worldwide records collection dates back to 1607 and includes nearly a billion records, including newspapers, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, as well as census, immigration and military information.

But it’s the “social graph” feature that sets Storied apart from other family history companies. For instance, if a user’s grandfather served in World War II, Storied might connect the user to someone else who served in their grandfather’s unit. By reading that person’s account of the war, the Storied user can gain greater insight about what their grandfather’s life was like at that time, Hulet said.

“So many stories aren’t just family. ... You could be connected through so many different ways, not just blood relationships, and then that allows us to facilitate all kinds of new discoveries that you otherwise couldn’t get,” Hulet said.

Read the full article at Church News.


For more content on family history, check out the articles below:

How to film your loved one’s life story
Do you know how easy it is to read your ancestors’ patriarchal blessings on the Church’s website?
The simple, secret ingredients you need to create meaningful Christmas traditions

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