Tracing Your Ancestry
Uncover your family's hidden history by mastering the tools of professional genealogists. From decoding 19th-century census records to analyzing DNA matches, you will learn to build a verified, rich narrative of your heritage.
Like Duolingo, but for Tracing Your Ancestry. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
66 levels across 7 sections, about 132 minutes end to end, roughly 26 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The First Steps Backwards, The Paper Trail, Advanced Record Sets, The Science of Connection, Breaking Through Brick Walls, Context and Culture, and Preserving the Legacy. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Tracing Your Ancestry
- Working backward from yourself ensures every link is verified by a known parent-child relationship
- Shared surnames do not guarantee a biological connection
- Starting with a distant ancestor leads to 'working forward' into unrelated branches
- The logic of working backward to ensure lineage accuracy
- Family Bibles often contain handwritten birth and death registries
- The backs of old photographs frequently list names and relationships
- Personal letters provide context for residence and family connections
- Identifying primary sources within a domestic setting
- The unique value of oral evidence in family history
- Distinguishing between closed and open-ended interview questions
- The standard requires a thorough search of all available sources
- Each link in the tree must be supported by evidence rather than assumptions
- Conflicting information must be resolved before a fact is accepted
- Understanding the standard used to verify family links
- Pedigree charts focus exclusively on bloodlines/direct ascent
- Family group sheets include siblings and collateral relatives
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Tracing Your Ancestry the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You find a record for a 'John Smith' from 1850. Why is it risky to assume he is your ancestor just because you are also a Smith?
Get it right to open this lesson and 65 more in the app.
Where Tracing Your Ancestry takes you
- 1
The First Steps Backwards
- Starting with the Known
- Organizing Your Discovery
- 2
The Paper Trail
- Decoding the Census
- Vital Records: Birth, Marriage, and Death
- Church and Parish Registers
- 3
Advanced Record Sets
- Military Service and Pensions
- Immigration and Naturalization
- Land and Probate Records
- 4
The Science of Connection
- Choosing the Right DNA Test
- Analyzing Your Matches
- 5
Breaking Through Brick Walls
- The FAN Club Strategy
- Naming Patterns and Variations
- Resolving Conflicting Evidence
- 6
Context and Culture
- Local History and Geography
- Occupations and Social Life
- 7
Preserving the Legacy
- Photo Identification and Care
- Writing the Family Narrative
7 sections · 17 units · 66 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Tracing Your Ancestry is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Tracing Your Ancestry today.
Download Tomo, search Tracing Your Ancestry, and play your first lesson in under a minute.