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Why Should I Visit the Family History Center?
Presented by: Jay Gaudette
http://www.jaygaudette.com/
j.gaudette.genealogy@gmail.com
Learning all about the resources and tools available at your local Family History Center. Open to
the public, anyone can utilize the library and tap into the many resources they have access to.
Finding your local Family History Center:
1) Go to: https://familysearch.org/locations/
2) Enter your Zip code.
3) Look for the Family Search Logos (There may be multiple centers):
4) Click the one closest to you. It will give the location, telephone and hours. I recommend
that you call to confirm the days and hours because they are subject to the availability of
Family History Consultants.
Now what is available at your local Family History
Center?
1.) The equipment available at each Family History Center differs. I not been to all of
them, I can only tell you about the Franklin location.
2.) Here we have the following:
a. 4 Computers
b. Printers
c. 4 Microfilm readers
d. Microfilm printer
e. Some reference books
Page 1 of 1 Why come to your local Family History Center?
1.) Helpful and friendly staff. Please be advised that at staff can range from novice to expect
2.) Used of the facilities are open to the public without charge.
3.) Free access to the following genealogy sites (some which would be fee paid outside the
Family History Center.)
What Helpful Websites with free access can you find
at your local Family History Center?1
1.) The 19th Century British Library Newspapers digital archive http://find.galegroup.com/bncn/
“19th Century British Library Newspapers, managed by Gale Cengage, contain 70 UK &
Irish national and local titles with over three million pages of searchable digitized
content.
This full-text, fully searchable digital archive currently includes papers originating in
England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, carefully selected by an editorial board from the
British Library and providing a broad yet detailed view of British life in the 19th
century.”*
2.) Access Newspaper Archives – http://www.newspaperarchive.com
a. “More exclusive content
b. 171+ million pages and growing
c. 400+ years of papers: 1607 to today!
d. All 50 U.S. States + 19 other countries
e. Powerful time-saving search tools”*
3.) Alexander Street Press, American Civil War – http://alexanderstreet.com/
*The American Civil War Online is the most comprehensive series of electronic
collections available for research in perhaps the most extensively studied subject in
American history. Comprised of a number of highly respected and heavily visited
collections, the series includes the following:
a. The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
b. The American Civil War Research Database
c. Images of the American Civil War: Photographs, Posters, and Ephemera”*
d.
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Note: Throughout this document the * indicates comments under the website are from the website being mentioned. Page 2 of 2 4.) Ancestry.com – http://www.ancestry.com/
“Ancestry.com Inc., formerly The Generations Network, is a privately held Internet company based in
Provo, Utah, United States. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of
genealogical and historical record websites focused on the United States and nine foreign countries,
develops and markets genealogical software, and offers a wide array of genealogical related services. As of
December 2013, the company provided access to approximately 12.7 billion records and had 2.14 million
paying subscribers. User-generated content included 191 million uploaded photos and more than 16
million uploaded stories.
In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com operates Archives.com, Fold3.com, ProGenealogists,
1000memories.com, Newspapers.com, Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com, and Rootsweb.com. Family Tree
Maker software developed and marketed by the company is advertised as "the #1 selling family history
software".
Under its subsidiaries, Ancestry.com operates foreign sites that provide access to services and records
specific to other countries in the languages of those countries. These include several countries in Europe
(covered by Ancestry.com Europe S.à r.l.) as well as Australia, Canada, and China.”2
5.) ArkivDigital Online – http://www.arkivdigital.net
a.
“Swedish Genealogy – “We have talked with many of our customers and we
understand that our customers have different needs. Some are very experienced
researchers and know how to research the various types of Swedish records and
are anxiously waiting for more records to be added to the online archive. Another
group is comfortable researching in the church books but they haven’t researched
in other books such as the estate inventory registers and would like a better
understanding of those records and many of our brand new to Swedish research
and want more help in English.
Below you find tutorials, which can be useful when searching for your Swedish
ancestors.
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Introduction to Swedish Church Books
ArkivDigital online and Släktdata
Introduction to the Swedish Estate Inventories
Introduction to the Fattigbevis
Population Register 1941 (Mantalslängd)
Name Register (Släktnamnsregister)
Non-existing persons book (obefintlighetsbok)
Introduction to Swedish Passenger Ship Manifests
Swedish Church Book Birth Record Examples
Marriage Record Examples
Household examination record example
Death Record Examples
Moving In (Inflyttning) and Moving out (Utflyttning) Records
Stockholm Folk Register Cards (1926-1939)
Malmö Research Tips”
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry.com Page 3 of 3 b.
Image database; ArkivDigital's image database is a precious resource for
genealogy researcher that has their ancestors in Sweden. The image database
consists of about 190 000 historical books, documents and records or 53 million
digital color images of Swedish church records, estate inventories, court records,
tax/census records and other historical records. We use modern technology to
digitalize the records directly from the original books and we extend the image
database with more than 600 000 color images each month.”*
6.) Create your Who Do You Think You Are? Story, for free http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarestory.com/
“In essence, you can become the star in your own Who Do You Think You Are? You
add everything you know about your family to our Who Do You Think ... We'll
create a unique visual timeline telling your Who Do You Think You Are?”*
7.) Find My Past – http://www.findmypast.co.uk/
"Findmypast’ is a privately held UK-based online genealogy service owned by British
company DC Thomson Family History. It was the first company in the world to make the
complete birth, marriage, and death indexes for England and Wales available online and
for this was awarded the Queen's Award for Innovation in 2007. There are currently a
wide variety of census, directory and historical record information available from across
the English-speaking world. Findmypast has over 2 billion searchable records worldwide
but, though it is possible to search their indexes for free, a payment or subscription is
required to access the full data.”3
8.) Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) – http://www.fold3.com/
“The Premier Collection of American Military Records, Browse US Military Records by War: a. Revolutionary War b. War of 1812 c. Mexican American and Early Indian Wars d. Civil War e. Spanish-American War f. World War I g. World War II h. Korean War i. Vietnam War j. Recent Wars k. Non-military Records”* 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findmypast Page 4 of 4 9.) Historic Map Works Library Edition – http://www.proquest.historicmapworks.com/
“Historic Map Works™ Library Edition is one of the most extensive digital map collections
available, with over 1.5 million high-resolution, full color historic maps.
Discover the physical places of the past—from big cities to small farms—with Historic Map
Works Library Edition. With access to more than five centuries of maps, genealogists,
historians, and researchers can gain insight into how physical and human geographies have
changed over time.
The core of the collection consists of land ownership (cadastral) maps illustrating the
geographic and developmental history of the United States. This unique content allows users to
track the "residential genealogy" of families and locations.
Historic Map Works collections include:
a. Property Maps, over 1.3 million cadastral maps cover the development of the United
States since the late 1700's to the present day
b. Antique Maps, over 100,000 antiquarian maps covering the world from the 15th to 19th
centuries, drawn from the University of Southern Maine's Osher Map Library
c. Directories & Illustrations, with tens of thousands of related listings, images, business
ads, and statistics from city directories, atlases, bird’s eye views, and more.
The special attention given to image quality allows users to see the details that are so important
to the use of maps in research. High-resolution digital scanning clearly reproduces even the
smallest features, including street and property names, plat dimensions, and structural details.
The straightforward interface lets users search Historic Maps Works by keywords, location
names, and other advanced features. Unique search features include:
a. World Map uses an intuitive point-and-click world map to help locate data visually.
b. Search by Address finds maps by street name, city, and state. Plus, by using the Geo-code
functionality, you can compare a modern Google map with the historic map to see details
over time.
c. GPS Mapfinder pinpoints maps via latitude and longitude coordinates, using the geocoded map data.
d. Points of Interest features over 60 different “Points of Interest” such as buildings,
cemeteries, churches, hospitals, lakes, parks, summits, by which to browse maps.
1. Plus, features like image previews, zoom in/out, and image cropping make reviewing
and using the maps easy.
2. Historic Maps Works Library Edition is an exclusive distribution and development
partnership between ProQuest and Historic Map Works, which brings the collection to
libraries globally.”*
Page 5 of 5 9.) Hungary Exchange - http://www.hungaryexchange.com/
“The goal of this website is to help anyone who needs assistance with their Hungarian
genealogy and Hungarian research. By sharing information and working together, we
can all tackle our genealogical obstacles, brick walls and find more information for our
Hungarian family trees. If you would like to share or contribute records and documents,
please contact me at nickmgombash@yahoo.com “*
10.) Legacy Stories - http://www.legacystories.org
“LegacyStories.org is a free living history library that provides life story learning,
recording, archiving and sharing to families, professionals and groups.
Our intuitive technology offers a variety of options to compose and record legacy stories
including multi-media story pages, oral history slideshows and the ability to record
powerful Pict-Oral Memories with our Apple and Android mobile app.
Our members can also link stories to over five billion ancestor records in the official
family tree of humankind. We'll show you how to discover your highest priority "legacy
stories" and tell them in ways that will fascinate loved ones generations to come.”
11.) Origins.net – http://www.origins.net/
“Origins is now part of the Findmypast Family”* 12.)
My Heritage -- Library Edition
“MyHeritage is a website for discovering, sharing and preserving family history. It
offers online, mobile and software platforms to its users worldwide. Users can create
their own online family tree, search for ancestors in billions of historical records,
share and preserve photos and videos while they discover and connect to new
relatives.
In 2003, CEO Gilad Japhet founded MyHeritage in his living room in the moshav of
Bnei Atarot, just outside Tel Aviv, Israel. Gilad started the company as a result of not
finding a tool that satisfied his own genealogy needs. With 42 languages, 80 million
users, 1.6 billion profiles and 28 million family trees, MyHeritage is a popular
destination for family history research.”4
13.)
Paper Trail – http://www.genealogytoday.com/
“This family history "content wiki" includes original documents, photographs and
public domain materials of interest to genealogists, along with explanations of
genealogical terminology. While genealogists often focus on their ever-growing
collection of names, dates and places; it's the stories and pictures of our ancestors' pasts
that can really bring the research "to life."*
14.)
Puzzilla - Premium Services https://puzzilla.org/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyHeritage Page 6 of 6 “The Puzzilla Descendants Viewer uses compact symbols to reveal new areas for
research in descendants of ancestors in the FamilyTree database. Where you see a
family of children with no children of their own, chances are that more research will
uncover their children and open up new descendant lines.”5
15.)
ProQuest Obituaries:– https://www.worldvitalrecords.com/
“Some of World Vital Records”*
16.)
FamilySearch - https://familysearch.org
“FamilySearch is a genealogy organization operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. It is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch
maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn
more about their family history. FamilySearch gathers, preserves, and shares
genealogical records worldwide. It offers free access to its resources and service online
at FamilySearch.org, one of the most heavily used genealogy sites on the Internet. In
addition, FamilySearch offers personal assistance at more than 4,500 family history
centers in 70 countries, including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
FamilySearch cites as its motivation "It's all about family. FamilySearch is a nonprofit
family history organization dedicated to connecting families across generations.
FamilySearch believes that families bring joy and meaning to life." 6
17.)
FamilySearch Learning Center - https://familysearch.org/learningcenter
“Browse hundreds of online genealogy courses to help you discover your family
history.”*
18.)
FamilySearch UTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/familysearch
Watch various genealogy features.
19.)
FamilySearch Wiki - https://familysearch.org/learn
Various Wiki’s on a wide areas of genealogy and family history topics.
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https://puzzilla.org/training http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilySearch Page 7 of 7 20.)
USGenWeb - http://www.usgenweb.org
“Welcome to The USGenWeb Project! We are a group of volunteers working together
to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every
state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free
genealogy access for everyone.
Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the
state genealogy websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The
USGenWeb Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level and
this website provides an entry point to all of those pages, as well.
Clicking on a State Link (on the left) will take you to the State's website. Clicking on
the tabs above will take you to additional information and links. You can also use the
drop down menu in the upper left hand corner which will also take you to the State's
website of your choice
All of the volunteers who make up The USGenWeb Project are very proud of this
endeavor and hope that you will find their hard work both beneficial and rewarding.
Thank you for visiting!”*
21.)
Genuki (UK & Ireland) http://www.genuki.org.uk
“GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular
relevance to the UK and Ireland. It is a non-commercial service, maintained by a
charitable trust and a group of volunteers.
All material on this site is © GENUKI and individual contributors. For permission to
re-use material please contact the GENUKI trustees.”*
22.)
Find A Grave - http://www.findagrave.com
“Find A Grave is a commercial website that allows the public to access and add to an
online database of cemetery records.”*
23.)
Google Search - http://www.google.com
24.)
Mocavo Search - http://www.mocavo.com
a. “Search millions of genealogy related pages for that brick wall in your family tree. b. Upload and share your family tree and historic documents with the community. c. Collaborate in the Community Forums on family history topics to help with
research.”* Page 8 of 8 25.)
Utah Digital Newspapers - http://digitalnewspapers.org
The Utah Digital Newspaper (UDN) program has been operating at the University of
Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library since 2002. UDN is recognized as one of the leaders
in newspaper digitation in the United States, especially within the Public sector. Our
collection hold over 1,000,000 pages of historic Utah newspapers and it grows monthly.
Its newspapers can be browsed by issue or searched by keywords, articles, titles
weddings, deaths, and births.’*
26.)
BYU Idaho Special Collections - http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections
27.)
Cyndi’s List - http://cyndislist.com
Last Words
I started doing family history after attending the 2011 New England Family History
Conference. As of Thursday, April 2, 2015 I have 64,540 names in my family tree. Of which
the bulk of them were acquired from my research which was done at the Franklin,
Massachusetts, Family History Center.
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