Roots to Records

a historicalpresent.com project

Every search, on camera. No edited-down miracles.

Roots to Records streams the research itself — the census page that doesn't match, the spelling that finally cracks it, the record that closes the case. Watch enough of it and you stop needing us to do it for you.

What a session looks like

Streams run a case start to finish. Nothing is prepped off-camera — if the search fails on air, that's the episode.

01 · The briefThe case comes off the queue and we read it cold — what the requester knows, what they've already tried, where the wall is.
02 · The huntScreen shared, searches typed live. Census, vitals, land, probate, newspapers — including the searches that go nowhere.
03 · The recordWhat gets found gets cited and handed over. Everything discovered belongs to the person who asked.

Getting on the stream

Watching needs nothing at all — the streams are public. A supporter account is for taking part: it's how we keep track of whose family is up next. There's no signup form yet, so email us at rootstorecords@gmail.com and we'll create your account by hand.