Post Two: What I Learned Today

I had the opportunity to substitute today at our local Family History Center. Are you using your center?

To locate a Family History Center

At the bottom of the page on FamilySearch.org it states Family History Centers, get free, personal help with your family history, click on Find a center.

So why use a Family History Center? Why take the time to leave the comfort of your home and drive to a Family History Center?

Here is my list of why’s

The Family History Center Portal

Just what is the Portal you might ask? The portal allows all patrons the use of many Premium Family History Websites.

2. 19th Century British Library Newspaper Digital Archive

This collection contains collections from the British Library which spans 300 years of newspapers published in the 17th and 18th century as well as 19th Century Newspapers. Contains over 3 million pages and 40 million articles.

3. Alexander Street Press which is The American Civil War: Research database, letters and diaries, images, photographs, posters and Ephemera Social and Cultural History, Women and Social Movements in the United States

The American Civil War Research Database is the online resource for researching the individuals, regiments, and battles of the American Civil War. The database contains indexed, searchable information on over 4 million soldiers and thousands of battles, with over 17,000 photographs. This database continues to grow!

4. American Ancestors

By New England Historic Genealogical Society this site contains digitized collections includes letters, diaries, photographs, newspapers, business records, organizational records, and other materials historians and genealogists.

5. Ancestry.com

Search census, vitals, military, immigration and, and, and, and, and…..

6. FindMyPast.com

Search more than two billion family history records U.S.A, Ireland, Australia, Britain!

7. Fold3.com has over 227 collections! Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I and II, Korean War, and so much more! Dawes Roll, City Directories, Newspapers! Records from Canada, British records as well.

8. MyHeritage.com

More than 5 billion historical records from all over the world. Hundreds of millions of Nordic records. 80 Million historical photographs. 200 million additional records added on average every month. So much more!

9. Access Newspaper Archive

One of the world’s best resource for historical and genealogical information. Browse papers by location, date or keyword! One newspaper page added every second! That’s over 80,000 images a day or 2.5 million pages per month!

10. Paper Trail

A guide to Overland Pioneer Name and Documents, old journals, diaries. The 19th Century migration on the overland trails to the far West is illuminated by the writings of thousands of pioneers who took this long and dangerous journey! Pioneers went to Oregon, California, Utah and Montana for land or for gold and wrote of their experiences in diaries, letters, remembrances and newspaper articles.

11. ProQuest Obituary Listings

Atlanta Constitution 1868-1922, Boston Globe 1872-1922, Chicago Defender 1921-1975, Chicago Tribune 1852-1984, Los Angeles 1881-1984, New York Times, 1851-1994, Washington Post 1877-1950.

12. Puzzilla.org

Finding our cousins!

13. World Vital Records

815 Million US Public Records. United States, UK and Ireland, Canada, Australia, World! 21,672 Collections! Lots of old books too!

14. ArkivDigital Online

This site is a private provider of Swedish Church Records and other Historical Records online.

All pay for sites! For free use to all patrons that come into the Center!

Are you using this great source, your Family History Center?

15. Did you know from the FamilySearch.org page when you hover your mouse over the word search a drop down menu appears, Records, Genealogies, Catalog, Books and Wiki?

Many times when we are on the FamilySearch Records, it will take us to an affiliate site like Find My Past, or Ancestry.com. If you are in a center using this great site, those records and images are available to see!

From the Search tab you can look at the “Book” section. Many of the books are available to view at home, but many are not. If you are in the Family History Center, you will be able to view many more books that can’t be viewed from home!

There are still many film and microfiche that are not available to view online, order your film in and use the center film readers to view your films!
Many times the Family History Center’s house collections of books, film, fiche and other great records from their local area.
Many centers have training and classes!
Help, yes many are trained to help you learn, get past a brick wall, teach you of other sources and methods for successful genealogy experiences!

Yep, what I learned today is we need to be using this great tool for family history! Our Family History Centers!

Check yours out today!