Your Guide to Using the Family History Center and Familysearch.org

You can use the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, in any one of its numerous Family History Centers located in cities and towns world wide, or on the web at familysearch.org. It is the largest and best genealogy library in the world and you will find much -- not all! -- of what you need to research your family by taking advantage of the resources found here.

Almost anything that is held in microfilm or microfiche can be borrowed at a Family History Center near you. (The cost is about $6.00 per film). It must be used at the FHC. You will be amazed at the records that you can have available to you by filling out a form, paying $6.00 and waiting a few weeks for it to arrive.

Many genealogists eventually decide to make a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City -- where you can use both books and films to your heart's contet.

 

Books:

Online

The website is at familysearch.org. Pay attention to the tabs and undertabs at the top of the page.

Home

Search For Ancestors (all resource in one search, i.e. Ancestral File, Census, IGI, PRF, SSDI and VRI search)

Search the Catalog

  • By location
  • By surname
  • By Keyword (if you have a common surname, this is much handier than the surname search because you can combine the name with a place or another surname, e.g. Smith Pennsylvania or Smith Jones )
  • And if you know exactly what you want, use the title or author search.
  • The film or fiche number search is handy if you want to see what the heck you ordered! Often more than one item is on a roll and you may have neglected to note which # is the one you want.
  • The subject search is especially useful for finding titles that are not specific to a name or place, e.g. African Americans or Adoption.

Research

Family Search Labs