Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen is joined by Jason Harrison of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

You don't have to travel if you don't want to.  The Family History Library or Familysearch.org is an easy way to check if you are a Mayflower descendant.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants has partnered with Family Search to digitize nearly 100,000 society applications that include supporting documentation.

Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen is joined by Jason Harrison, Supervisor at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

They talk about Mayflower ancestry.  This was a difficult time period in American history. 

There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower when it arrived in New England.  Half of those died the first winter, but even still, around 35 million Americans can trace their family history to the Mayflower pilgrims.  You may consider joining the General Society of Mayflower Descendant

Family Gathering is hosted by Grant Nielsen.  He and Wendy Smedley of Family Search talk about a new feature on the Family Tree app.

You can open the Family Tree app and click on 'more'.  Click on 'relatives around me'.  It will scan for relatives within 100 yards.  You can instantly see ways you're related to the people around you.  It's fun to use in a group setting like a party or at church or school.

Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen is joined by Wendy Smedley of Family Search.  They're talking about mobile apps in genealogy.

Family Search has an app called Memories.  The app asks you questions over time that end up painting a really cool picture of your life that can be saved for posterity.

The program is called "52 Stories".  One question is "Tell me about school lunch".  Everyone has different experiences but as you remember the school lunch process you start to remember experiences.

Grant Nielsen of Family Gathering and Wendy Smedley of FamilySearch.org talk about the new Family Tree app from Family Search.

As you build your family tree, you need records to prove the people in your tree actually lived.  These include birth, marriage, and death records among others.

The Family Tree app scours records that match names in your tree.  Then it displays them to you and allows you to verify them and attach them to your family tree.

Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen talks to Wendy Smedley, Marketing Manager at Family Search about two great family history apps.

Family Tree App- The most robust view of what exists on Family Search.  It includes everything people have added to your family tree.

Memories App- This helps you collect contemporary memories and attach them to the people in your family tree.

Family history is an amazing way to reconnect family members.  In the case of adoption, identifying biological and adopted families can be important to getting a complete family picture.

But sometimes those people don't wish to connect.  Dave Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search talks with Grant Nielsen about some of the rules in place that protects privacy.

Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen talks with Dave Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search about adoption records and family history.

The American Adoption Congress has a great website that can help you navigate the adoption records laws that change from state to state.

Dave Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search tells Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen about some of the great online resources for adoption records in family history.  Here are two.

familysearch.org

cindyslist.com

They also discuss the challenge of getting international adoption records.  

One of the challenges in family history is the growing "right to be forgotten" movement in which people are able to delete their records and references from the internet.

Family Gathering host Grant Nielsen is joined by Dave Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search

There are a lot of great reasons to pursue adoption records as part of your family history.  You can discover some important facts about your family including critical medical information.

You can also be reunited with family that you didn't know about before.