Do you ever get into a store, filled with wonderful things, and your mind goes blank? You can't focus on the one thing that brought you there? You get excited by all the POSSIBILITIES!?
Asking for a friend... no, that won't work here.
Yea. Me too.
The Library has been and always shall be that place for me.
The helpful ladies and gentlemen at the desk can usually steer me in the correct direction, namely the resource desk. You can access all kinds of records, from the whole United States if you want to.
I want to- but it intimidates me on a HUGE level. Then I end up in the Historical Romance.... eh... I mean Non Fiction... stacks and that is that.
But I have found another place nearly as wonderful and I am sure many of you have already utilized it in your own quests.
The Mormon Church: or as they refer to it now- Latter Day Saints ( LDS) .
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| My Great Aunt Ruth Brendt in an angel costume. |
Say what you want about the Saints, but their records are amazing. Most larger LDS chapters have a Family History Center, (FHC). It is chock full of amazing records.
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| LDS Church, Salt Lake City |
They can give one on one service to patrons ( you don't have to be a LDS member to use it).
They provide access to genealogical records via the internet- such as Ancestry, Family Search, and other sites that you may have to pay for with a membership fee - at FHC you can access them for free.
They provide classes for researching too, ( depending on the Church location).
There are aver 4700 FHC in the country. To find one near you go to FamilySearch.org and click on Find a Family History Center, enter your country, state or place on the map and it shows you the closest FHC to that address.
I was able to order a rare book, have it sent to the local FHC and read it there. I was able to trace a lot of my McIntire history as well as my Cockrum history through that book. I found the book via the WIKI link site.
For me, because my attention span is sometimes like that of a black Crow in a room full of shiny objects, having a dedicated Library of just genealogy is a godsend. It narrows my focus, and provides me with people to turn to for questions and advice.
Oh the places I have yet to go!
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| Me and my baby sister on our pet burro, Cha Cha 1961 |
Great post - as a librarian, I really appreciate it! And I agree, the FHCs and the main library in FHC (I visited in 2005) are wonderful resources for genealogists, professional and amateur!!
ReplyDeleteLibraries are like treasure chests to me. I never know what wonderful things I will discover there. I'm a retired librarian, so I had 30 wonderful years of being paid to spend my days in a library.
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