Online Genealogy

Find Family at FamilySearch by Kimberly Powell

The Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City has the largest collection of genealogical materials in the world, thanks to the diligent work of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their online presence at FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) features more than a billion names in searchable databases — all of them free.

FamilySearch is currently in the process of digitizing the millions of rolls of microfilmed records preserved in its Granite Mountain Records Vault, for the purpose of allowing free online access to the public. In addition, they are partnering with other entities, such as the National Archives, to digitally capture, preserve, and publish other important genealogical records online. Look for these new databases and indexes to be added to FamilySearch on a regular basis.

Just Enter a Name

A variety of free online databases are available for searching on FamilySearch. You can either just enter a name from the Home Page, or select Show Advanced for additional search fields. Clicking Search will bring up a list of results, along with options on the left-hand side of the screen for narrowing and refining your search results.

Family Trees (www.familysearch.org/-form=trees) — Select Trees from the Home Page to bring up a search screen specifically for searching submitted family trees. This large database includes past submissions to the International Genealogical Index (IGI), Ancestral File, and the Pedigree Resource File, plus ongoing lineage-linked family tree submissions submitted by FamilySearch users worldwide.

Library Catalog (www.familysearch.org/-form=catalog) — If you're looking to see what records are available at the Family History Library, browse the Library Catalog. See more on this in the next section.

Historical Records (www.familysearch.org/-form=historical_records) — This tab (the main one) includes a search box at the top, plus a list of genealogical records below, organized by country. This is where you'll find the true “meat” of the FamilySearch website, with digitized images and transcribed indexes for millions of family history records from countries all over the world. The biggest focus is on vital record collections, including baptismal records, marriage licenses, death certificates, and even burial records. This collection also includes digitized images and/or transcriptions for the bulk of available federal U.S. census records, plus selected state censuses.

Make Use of the Family History Library Catalog

For a small fee, almost every microfilm in the vast Family History Library collection can be borrowed through your local Family History Center. While you won't be able to borrow or view the films online (at least not yet), you can use the Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) to view available records and plan your research strategy. This virtual catalog to the vast holdings of the Family History Library can be searched by place, surname, title, author, subject, call number, film/fiche number, or keyword. The default Place Search is the most useful search for most genealogy purposes because it will return a list of all available records from the area where your ancestor lived that have been filmed and are available at the Family History Library, along with links if the records have been digitized and are available online.

Borrow Microfilm

Once you find a record of interest in the FHLC, scroll down to the Film Notes to locate call numbers for microfilms that contain the record you seek. With the name of the record and the call number for the film, you can submit a loan request through your local Family History Center. They charge a small fee of a few dollars per microfilm to cover shipping and handling to and from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Most films will be available for viewing at your local FHC within a few weeks of your order. Books are generally not available for loan.

The LDS Church operates more than 4,000 Family History Centers (FHC) in more than eighty countries around the world. These branch facilities of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City offer access to the library's vast genealogical holdings, through electronic databases and microfilm loan. While these centers are usually located inside buildings belonging to the church, everyone is welcome regardless of their religious beliefs. Visit (www.familysearch.org/centers) to find a Family History Center near you.

Even if you don't plan to borrow microfilms, the FHLC is a great way to view the types of records that are available for your locality and time period of interest. A place search in the catalog for Edgecombe County, North Carolina, for example, displays a wide variety of records, from bible records to voting registers. By selecting “Court, Land, Wills & Financial” and then “Land Records” from the Category List, you learn that the county maintains deed records from 1732 to 1931, and an index to the deeds from 1759 to 1920.

Access Helpful Research Tools and Guidance

Another thing that FamilySearch does well is teach newcomers about genealogy. Select the Learn section of FamilySearch from the navigation bar at the top of each page to access learning articles in the Research Wiki, Research Forums, and links to online classes from FamilySearch and other providers. From the Learn page, select Browse by Country to learn more about family history research in a particular region, then select your area of interest from the list.

From each Learn page you can access both the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the FamilySearch Research Forums. The Research Wiki (www.familysearch.org/wiki) includes FamilySearch research publications such as research outlines and foreign word lists for various countries, states and localities around the world, plus user-submitted advice and content (similar to Wikipedia and other popular Wikis). The Research Forums (www.familysearch.org/forums), organized primarily geographically, allow you to search for information, ask questions, or offer answers to others.

Help Index Records

FamilySearch Worldwide Indexing (www.familysearch.org/indexing) is a big part of the reason that FamilySearch is able to make so many records available online for free to all researchers. Tens of thousands of volunteers from all over the world donate their time to help extract data from digitized records using FamilySearch's free online indexing tool. This user-extracted data is then used to create and provide free searchable indexes to digitized historical records on FamilySearch.org. Take the two-minute test drive, accessible from the main Worldwide Indexing page, to see how it works.

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