18 genealogy gift ideas

Here are 18 genealogy gifts for Christmas or any other special occasion.

1) This Family History Trivia Bundle is a fun and creative way to turn genealogy research into fun for the whole family. They can create their own game based on their ancestors!

2) Legacy Family Tree Webinars gift subscription. Legacy Family Tree Webinars has a library of nearly 1900 webinars and offers many new ones every single month. At only $49.95 a year, this is a steal. I use this all the time and it’s a great gift for a genealogy buff.

3) Professional genealogist services, like a personalized consultation or research package . If you know someone who is curious about their family tree but doesn’t know where to look, help them avoid overwhelm and get straight to finding answers.

4) This My Family History mini ebook is a fun way to write about your family history, or use it to ask your older relatives about their memories.

5) An Ancestry subscription. With different membership types, there’s sure to be one that your genealogy enthusiast will love.

6) Or a Findmypast subscription. This is a great site for UK and Irish research, but also has US records.

7) LegacyBox conversion services. This service will convert your giftee’s old home movies and pictures to a DVD, digital download, or onto a flash drive. This not only preserves them but makes them easier to share with their family.

8) An engraved handwritten recipe cutting board. This is a lovely way to use an heirloom recipe and is great for using or decoration.

9) Mastering Genealogical Proof by Tom Jones is a must have for the serious researcher. This book will help your giftee apply genealogical standards to their research. Each chapter also comes with exercises so the reader can practice the concepts.

10) Family tree software. It’s not enough to just keep an online tree. Tree software is critical, especially the more research someone does and the more information they collect. There are a lot of choices, but some of the most popular are Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Maker, and Roots Magic. I personally use Legacy, but each program has its own pros and cons.

11) An external hard drive. So much research is now done online, and genealogists have a lot of digital files. Backing up research is essential. You can get a hard drive with amazingly huge storage capacity these days, like this, this, and this.

12) Cloud storage is also a great backup option. (I use both cloud and external hard drive storage for all my genealogy documents.) Cloud storage comes in a range of prices. Dropbox and IDrive are two options.

13) The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors has great tips on breaking through brick walls, including pre-1850 ancestors and burned counties.

14) Photo editing software to help with hard-to-read, old documents. Adobe Elements and Lightroom are affordable options. I’ve used Photoshop countless times to make old documents clearer, which is also a great, but more expensive option.

15) Reading Early American Handwriting by Kip Sperry. Reading old handwriting takes practice. This great guide will get your loved one reading old writing even faster.

16) A My Family History Kit, complete with archival supplies like cotton gloves and storage for valuable family documents.

17) An historical map reproduction from where their family came from. World Maps Online is one site with a lot of historic maps for not just the US, but also other countries. They even have wall murals!

18) Tell Your Own Story: A Journal to Capture Your Legacy. This journal has prompts and questions to gather memories, for themselves or to share with others. Leaving your own story is as important as learning our ancestors’ stories!

Stocking stuffer ideas for genealogists

Let’s not forget about stocking stuffers!

Here are a few ideas of little genealogy-themed goodies:

1) Flash drives are a great stocking stuffer for trips to archives and libraries. They can scan documents to a flash drive for free instead of paying for copies. They can also be used as a backup method instead of an external hard drive. A couple of good ones are this one and this one.

2) Genealogy-themed stickers, like this cute one that says “Genealogy: It’s not a hobby, it’s an obsession”.

3) A beautiful magnifying glass so they can easily read old documents. This is a nice one, and so is this.

4) A family tree keychain with personalized charms.