Online Courses to Help You Discover Your Ancestors

In 2013 Family History Daily launched as an online magazine to help family history enthusiasts discover their ancestors online. 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 new 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 Master Family History Research Course focuses heavily on providing you with free research sites, databases, collections, tools and resources. There are more than 125 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. We almost never recommend paid resources when free alternatives are available. While we can't guarantee that you will be able to find or accomplish everything you need online at no cost, our course will give you enough information to build a tree, conduct research and use important tools without spending any additional money.  

In a world where most sites charge monthly fees for their services, you might be wondering why we grant access for a lifetime. One of the main goals of Family History Daily's Course Center is to be affordable, and lifetime membership is the best way to accomplish that. We have worked hard to keep our prices low and a one-time payment with forever access means you never have to worry about future charges. Once you sign up, you get the course for a lifetime (including all of its ongoing updates). If you register for our Complete Access Package you get everything we have to offer plus new materials and courses in the future. Students who signed up when we first started offering courses five years ago are still getting newly added materials without any extra payment. Students are part of our learning community forever and we love that!

The price for courses is a one-time fee, no additional charges will ever be made to your credit card and you will have access to the materials forever. No additional paid materials are required for any course - nearly all research websites, resources and tools referenced in the course are free to use. In some cases we have recommended low cost alternatives where it makes sense, but they are never required. In fact, many of the lessons are specifically designed to help you find the records you need for free - with a directory of more than 125 free research websites included. Of course, options like buying paper folders for the organization course or purchasing a DNA test, hold an extra fee - but these options are not needed to learn from the materials. 

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, 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 Master Family History Course includes more than 110 lessons, our Organization Course is 36 lessons the Ancestry Crash Course is 21 lessons. Each lesson will teach you a valuable new skill or introduce you to new resources. Working through these lessons can take as little as half an hour, or as long as several hours or even days, depending on the topic discussed and your own research and goals. Many lessons include an estimated time for completion that takes into account reading time and basic tasks. You will have access to these courses forever so you can take as long as you need to work through them.

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. We just completed a major overhaul of our platform, added a new course and workbook, and inserted a wide selection of new lessons. You can expect to see even more additions to our offerings as we move forward. 

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