Visit my Family Tree Site with 20,000 Names
Family History Centers (or FHCs) are branches of the Salt Lake City, Utah, Family History Library. They can be found all over the world and are located near or inside buildings of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." FHCs are open free to the public and run on a nonprofit basis by volunteers. Nobody will preach to those who attend -- just as nobody would disturb you in a "regular" public library.
To find one near you, look in your local phonebook for a church and call. Size and hours of each FHC vary. Since they are branches of Salt Lake's Family History (Genealogy) Library, they have the index to all genealogical items there. That index is called the "FHLC" or Family History Library Catalog. It contains 2 main sections:
The first section consists of authors, surnames, and subjects of genealogy books. You could look up an ancestor's last name and see if a book had been written about his family and donated to the library. You could also look up a subject such as "Mayflower Descendants" and find what books were written about it.
The second section of the FHLC is the Locality Catalog. All kinds of records with genealogical value have been microfilmed. For instance, in any FHC you could look up "Virginia" in the Locality Catalog and see what kinds of records have been microfilmed from there. Records such as birth, marriage, church, probate, land, military, Bible, and more would be listed.
You do not have to be in that state to see those records since they can be ordered from Salt Lake City's Family History Library as a temporary rental to use in your FHC for a small shipping and handling fee of about $3. They will be kept at your local FHC for about 3 weeks (longer times are available) for you to come view on microfilm or microfiche.
Countries that have let the LDS Church come in and microfilm are accessible just as easily at your local FHC. You could look up German, English, Canadian, Hungarian, etc., records. The FHLC is on microfiche and also CD-ROMs for FHCs equipped with computers.
The IGI (International Genealogical Index) consists solely of names with birth or marriage information (and children or parent names, in some cases). You could look up an ancestor's name and see if it had been previously researched and submitted to us. If you find the name listed, you could save hours of research. Along with the name will be birth or marriage information and a place that event took place. This file is available on microfiche or CD-ROMs.
A CD-ROM search can be done from the Military Death Index. This government-created file lists people who died either in the Korean or Vietnam Wars. If you find a name here, you can get some more information about them. This index was released into the public domain by the U.S. Government.
Other indexes are available as you look for your ancestors. The "Family Registry" can be very helpful. This fiche file consists of names people are working on and a registry of family organizations or of people wanting to start one.
For example, if you wish to have contact with all the people named "Smith," you could look for a listing for a family organization here. If you are looking for a specific person such as John Smith, born in Australia in 1875, you could also search for him. Contributions to this file were free, but it is not being released anymore since names are going to be listed in the Ancestral File in the future. (The last edition just reached family history centers.)
Another microfiche file found in many FHCs is the AIS (Accelerated Indexing Systems). This is a census index for the United States. If you have an ancestor who lived in the U.S., but you have no idea what state, looking in this microfiche file could help. If you find his name, you will get a census place, year, and even page number. The census film could then be ordered from the FHC, if desired. The AIS is particularly useful for finding people who lived in the mid-1800s, but census years from 1906 (and some mortality schedules) and earlier are listed.
If the FHC is equipped with a CD-ROM computer, more files can be searched. (Some indexes discussed here are available only on microfiche and some only on CD-ROMs and some on both.)
One CD-ROM-only file is the Social Security Death Index another public domain file from the U.S. Government. If a person died between 1937 and 1995 and had a Social Security number (and his death was reported to the S.S. office), you could look him up here. You DON'T need to know the S.S. number, only a name or part of a name.
The "Ancestral File" is a large database found only on CD-ROM. This is a good place to start or check on your first visit to an FHC. It consists of pedigree charts and group sheets on millions of names. If your ancestor is here, you can get descendants' addresses and their pedigree charts. Keep in mind that this is only an "opinion" file. These charts were donated by others -- they are only as accurate as the submitters wrote them. A new feature has been added where you can submit corrections to this index which then appear on a future update.
Check out our Miscellaneous Microfiche & Microfilm Collections, a group of microfiche and microfilm records covering all sorts of useful topics. These are records from many sources which you can research right away when you come to the center. They do not need to be ordered since they are already on hand.
Don't forget to check the FHC reference books. Of special use are the "Research Guides/Outlines." If, for example, you are researching names in Kentucky, you could read the Research Guide for Kentucky. It will tell you about when and what kind of records were kept there, names and addresses of genealogical societies and MORE! Don't overlook these valuable booklets. Other books may be on hand such as the "Handybook for Genealogists" or "The Source."
Many people ask if the Salt Lake Family History Library is accessible online. The answer is no. Instead, they encourage you to visit your local Family History Center in person. We hope they will become available online, someday. If so, they told me that they would announce it on the Official Church Web Page.
Read the most recent issue of the newsletter from the Salt Lake Family History Library that has been sent to our Family History Center.
Have questions? Click here to send e-mail to Terry Morgan, FHC Director and creator of this web page or write to terryann2@aol.com. I do not do research for you, but I'd be glad to answer questions about Family History Centers.
