Online Courses to Help You Discover Your Ancestors

In 2013 Family History Daily launched as an online magazine to help family history enthusiasts more easily discover their ancestors. As we grew into one of the leading publications on family history, we expanded our mission with online courses. Since that time, we have been updating and improving our offerings to bring you the best educational opportunities possible. The Family History Daily Course Center brings our ever growing collection of courses and other materials into one easy-to-access location. We know you're going to love it. 

Our Secrets to Free Genealogy course focuses solely on providing you with free research sites, databases, collections, tools and resources. There are more than 200 free sites listed that cover research around the globe - this includes directories by location, as well as deep dives into some of the most helpful sites and tools. Our FamilySearch Crash Course also exclusively covers the world's largest free genealogy site. While we can't guarantee that you will be able to find or accomplish everything you need online at no cost our courses will give you enough information to build a tree, conduct very extensive research and use important tools without spending any additional money. Furthermore, in all of our courses, we almost never recommend paid resources when free alternatives are available. You'll discover many no-cost options as you work through the lessons. 

The price for the Complete Access Package is a single yearly fee, no additional charges will ever be made to your credit card. The package includes every course, challenge and other resource we offer. 

The course materials are created by the staff of the popular online genealogy help magazine Family History Daily, and more than a dozen family history professionals. Full author information is provided on all lessons not created by Family History Daily staff. 

Family History Daily courses are self-paced and self-directed and all lessons are online. They are designed to help you improve your skills as a family historian by introducing you to advanced research techniques while expanding your understanding of available resources and tools. You’ll learn via easy-to-read, text-based lessons, step-by-step workthroughs, interactive guides, hands-on activities, automatically graded quizzes and other methods. 

We have created our courses so that everyone can learn from them, no matter how long you have been researching. Most of the lessons are at an intermediate to advanced hobbyist level with beginner content where appropriate. The Master Family History Course has an entire section just for beginners. The courses are for enthusiasts learning to improve their research and were not created to teach professional level skills or methodology - although many of these skills are included. 

The length of time it will take you to complete a course depends on the course you are taking and how much time you choose to put into it. Each lesson in a course will teach you a valuable new skill or introduce you to new resources. Working through these lessons can take as little as 20 minutes or as long as several hours, depending on the topic discussed, how it is presented and your own research and goals. Many lessons include an estimated time for completion that takes into account reading or interacting time and basic tasks. 

Most of the materials are applicable to research anywhere in the world and are not location specific. Having said that, our courses include a number of U.S. focused lessons, as well as special guidance on researching your ancestors in international locations. We offer a general international research guide and deep dive lessons on the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. We also offer a directory of free research sites and resources for Canada, the UK and Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand and others. Guides and free resource lists are also available for African American, Native American, Chinese American and Mexican American ancestors - as well as a Jewish research resource section.

The courses are offered for hobbyists interested in improving their research skills and are not academic in nature. While our courses are packed with information from experts to help you improve your online research, they are not designed to prepare you for professional certification. 

Family History Daily is constantly updating, improving and adding to our courses. You can expect to see additions to our offerings on a regular basis. 

Yes! You can contact support at any time for help with the materials or technical assistance. You will find instructions in the courses.