Diana Elder

About Diana Elder

Diana Elder AGⓇ AGL is a professional genealogist, author, and speaker. She is accredited in the Gulf South region of the United States through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Diana graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and has turned her passion for teaching to educating teens and adults in proven genealogy techniques. Diana is the author of Research Like a Pro: A Genealogists Guide and creator of the “Research Like a Pro” study group. She writes regular articles for FamilyLocket.com, the genealogy website created by her daughter, Nicole Dyer. She presents regularly at genealogy conferences, sharing the methods she uses every day to solve challenging genealogical problems.

Do You Have a Skeleton in your Family History Closet?

Oct 30, 2015

We all have them – ancestor stories that tend to be hushed up: illegitimate children, desertion, abuse, mental illness, etc. We call these life details “skeletons in the closet” because we like to imagine our ancestor’s lives as near perfect and may be tempted to bury these skeletons. What do we do when our family history research uncovers something unexpected? Recording these kind of details can be difficult. How do we tell our ancestor’s story with integrity and kindness?...

Getting to Know Your Mormon Pioneer Ancestor: Seven Steps to Success

Oct 25, 2015

Do you have pioneer ancestors who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in the 1800’s and came west to join the saints in Zion? The LDS church began emphasizing family history about 1890, so you may think that those branches of your family tree are complete and accurate. Just looking at your fan chart on FamilySearch’s Family Tree, it might seem that there are no more family members to discover. In...

What Do I Do Next? 5 Tips for Using FamilySearch Partners

Oct 16, 2015

Not sure what to do with the Family Search Partners that now appear on the Person page of Family Search? Have you clicked on one of them for fun and been completely overwhelmed with the amount of information you see? Or were you underwhelmed with the lack of relevant information returned? Because of FamilySearch’s partnership with Ancestry, Find My past, and MyHeritage, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have access to free LDS...

The Search for William Henry Kelsey’s Journal

Oct 8, 2015

Do you know of a diary or journal of a pioneer ancestor that used to be in the family and no one knows what happened to it? Would you like to hold the original and see your ancestor’s actual handwriting? If you suspect you might have an ancestor who left a diary or journal you can follow the same steps I did to locate, view, and share it. My ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, joined the Church...

FINDING FRANKLIN: Helping Youth Use Census Records

Oct 2, 2015

Need a fun activity to help your youth learn to research census records? “Finding Franklin” gives them the opportunity to discover the wealth of information that can be found in a census. Questions about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States lead the youth to find specifics about his family and occupation over a span of 48 years. They can then use the skills they’ve developed to find their own family in the census records....

Ten Steps to Success: Visiting the Family History Library

Sep 23, 2015

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah is the largest of its kind in the world. Chances are, if you love searching for your family, you’ll want to pay a visit to this amazing library. For information on location, parking, classes, hours, and tips, here is your one stop web page: Family History Library The missing piece of your family’s puzzle is probably somewhere in one of the books or microfilm available in...

MISSION POSSIBLE Youth Activity

Sep 13, 2015

Do you need a fun activity to help the youth in your ward get interested in family history? How about a Family Home Evening or Sunday activity for the whole family? Try MISSION POSSIBLE and see that it is possible to do family history! I created the MISSION POSSIBLE youth activity in response to Elder Anderson’s Find, Take, Teach Challenge. Purpose We wanted to give the youth in our ward an opportunity to teach their families...

Ward Family History Fair

Sep 11, 2015

Our ward family history committee, consisting of youth and adult consultants, planned this ward activity for all ages. Held on a Thursday evening it took the place of the combined activity for the young men and young women that week. Each organization had an assignment and each youth group ran one of the activities. One of our consultants did a fabulous job transforming the cultural hall into an old time country fair. Using the color...

Creating a New Source on FamilySearch Family Tree

Aug 30, 2015

One of the best features on Family Tree is the capability to create a source for your ancestor. Although FamilySearch has billions of records in their database, you are still going to find records on other websites, in books, and in your paper files that you will want to add to the record of your ancestor. How do you create a source for the death certificate you just received in the mail? What about the...