How To Prepare for a FamilySearch session at the MGS Resource Centre

In this article, you will learn:

• Why I love using Family Search over other sites for my genealogy
• Basic ‘How To Get Started’ instructions if you have never used FamilySearch or used it many decades ago (things have changed a lot over the years)
• Where FamilySearch Shines explains their microfilming of genealogy records from archives around the planet
• How to use their Catalog to search for non-indexed records – this is the main reason people visit a FamilySearch Affiliate Library
• Recording Your Records Search gives you tips for keeping records of microfilm searches and what information you should be saving and why

WHY I LOVE FAMILYSEARCH

I have been a member of FamilySearch for many decades—almost since it started.  I have witnessed how it has evolved over the years.  I joined them when I was still working and didn’t have much time to spend on genealogy.  Paying for Ancestry or MyHeritage when I knew I had little time to research was not worth it to me at that time—and FamilySearch was (and still is) free.  Now that I am retired, I am a member of both Ancestry and MyHeritage, but back when I was starting out, it was FamilySearch for me.  It is still my favorite genealogy website because I have found more family records here than anywhere else—and I’ve been dabbling at genealogy since I was a teenager (I’m now retired).

My family hails from Europe and they migrated every generation which makes researching very interesting.  I look for death records in the hope that it will say where they were born (and often does).  It’s very exciting, even if I can’t read the language!  Names of places tend to be names of places as long as they aren’t in cyrillic.  Finding the birth place helps me identify where to search for the birth record.  Marriage records sometimes gives the place a birth.  These days, my research is in the early 1800’s to mid 1700’s.  These European records, for the most part, do not have individual records indexed and many will never be indexed in my lifetime.  That is where FamilySearch really shines—those old global records are indexed in their Catalogue and available for you to search at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library (like MGS), a FamilySearch Centre or at their center in Salt Lake City.  And it’s not just European records–their catalogue spans records in many languages from around the globe.

START AT THE BEGINNING

You can start your FamilySearch session from the comfort of your home.  Go the the FamilySearch website and either CREATE ACCOUNT (top right corner) or SIGN IN.  Family Search is free, and they never ask for money or donations.

If this is your first time on this website, it is best if you start here:  https://www.familysearch.org/gettingstarted/
You can:

• Build Your Family Tree
• Find Your Ancestors in Records
• Make Discoveries through a variety of ways.

The website will guide you along and show you everything there is to know.  You don’t have to make a Family Tree—you can just search the records.  Or you can put in your Family Tree, and FamilySearch will suggest records that may be your ancestors so you can add them to your tree.  FamilySearch is all about SOURCES.

FamilySearch is a huge website with many records available in a variety of ways. If you enjoy watching someone show you, FamilySearch has free online workshops monthly, and YouTube has thousands of videos on how to use FamilySearch.  The YouTube link will take you to their playlists so you can look at how-to videos on a variety of topics from Getting Started to specific ethnic research videos to DNA.

WHERE FAMILYSEARCH SHINES

FamilySearch has been sending teams of archivists to microfilm records from archives around the world for many, many decades.  Some archives have given them permission to put the microfilm records online to the public.  Most archives have restricted access to their archival records which means you can only access them from a FamilySearch Centre or a FamilySearch Affiliate Library or in person at the main archive in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Different archives have different agreements with FamilySearch.  These records have been put into the Catalog section of the website and are indexed by Place, Surnames, Titles, Author, Subjects, and Keywords.

In the image below, you can see the dropdown list under SEARCH.  Searching Records, Images, Family Tree, and Genealogies are simple and straightforward.  Searching Books can give you surprising results.  I started typing in my usual family surnames into the search box and I found a 100+ page descendant chart that someone in a branch of my family submitted to FamilySearch!  It included many living people with their birthdates and more—obviously submitted in a kinder, gentler time in history.  If you have been thinking of making a family history book, type in family history into the search box and be amazed at the many different ways this has been done.  You are bound to get ideas for your project—but I digress.  Then there is the catalog search—and this is the index for records available at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library or a FamilySearch Centre.

I am not going to explain how to search a catalog since FamilySearch has already done so in a handy one page synopsis called Using the FamilySearch Catalog.  But I will show you an example of a search that I am doing.

My family migrated from Poland to Russia in the early 1800’s, to a place called Volhynia, Russian Empire.  So in the PLACE box I type in Volhynia, and FamilySearch gives me Russian Empire, Volyn as an option.  I know that Volyn is a spelling variation of Volhynia, so I click on the Search button.  You can see the results listed below.

 

From this list, the first place of interest for me is the church records (3rd item on the above list).  So I click on the little arrow next to that list, and I get a list of the five (5) church records available under my search terms (see below).  Now I will click on each of those records to get a more detailed description of the records to see if it is something I think I should search.

 

From the above list, I am interested in the third item Księgi metrykalne, 1827-1863 (which translates to Record books, 1827-1863).  The place and year range of the records look right. I click on it, and it gives me the result shown below.  I view the whole page (lots of scrolling down) and it looks relevant to my search, so I click ADD TO PRINT LIST to save this record.

NOTE:  If you look below there is a Catalog Print List link in the top right corner that I can later print or print to PDF on my computer to save the list of what I want to search.  I usually Print to PDF as a backup, and I don’t remove any of these records from my Catalog Print List after printing it.  When I go into a FamilySearch Affiliate Library or FamilySearch Centre, I log into my FamilySearch account and all my links from the Catalog Print List are there for me to use.  When I have searched a set of records, then I remove it from my catalog list.  Sometimes the website is reset and I lose those links, so always print your list as a backup.

When you scroll down below the above section of the page, you get a Subjects/Locality List.  Often there are multiple sets of records within one microfilm roll, and this is a breakdown of what is in a particular microfilm roll by location/subjects.  If you click on any of these links, it will give you all the results within the catalog for that location or subject.  It is a cross reference list generated by Locality Subjects.

Let’s click on the first English name on the above list which is Poland, Wołyń, Włodzimierz, Włodzimierz – Church records.  You then get this cross reference list of other records with this search parameter.  You can a review them and add any relevant items to your list by clicking ADD.

Going back to the previous screen, we will scroll down a little more to see where and how these records are accessible to you.  As you can see, there is a detail list of the microfilms that are part of this record.

The Family History Library on Temple Square in Salt Lake City is now known as the FamilySearch Library. Also, The Family History Centers around the world are now FamilySearch centers. – January, 2023

As you can see from the above list, the KOWEL I WŁODZIMIERZ list comes first.  Some records are located at the Granite Mountain Record Vault, and some are located at the Family History Library.  Because they are FILM, that means they are accessible via the internet.  The right hand column of a key (meaning records are locked) and a camera (meaning it is microfilm photographs) shows that from home none of these records are accessible.  If I were at a FamilySearch Affiliate Library or FamilySearch Centre, the records that are available at that particular location would no longer have a key above the camera icon.  You would be able to click on it and access the microfilm record.  Different records are available at different locations as per the originating archive agreement with FamilySearch.

This particular record says that the language is Polish and Russian, so I would go page by page through the microfilm looking for family names and saving those images that had my family names on it.  The more family names on an entry, the more excited I usually get—especially if I cannot read the language.  There are many Facebook pages dedicated to translating genealogy documents, and they are a good resource if you cannot make out what is written.  If you can make out the letters of the words, Google Translate is very useful.

RECORDING YOUR RECORDS SEARCH

Looking at the above Film/Digital Notes image, you can see how important it is to track which records you have looked at and which records you haven’t.  It usually takes a good hour to scroll through a microfilm looking for family names.  You don’t want to search a microfilm record more than once if you can help it.  MICROFILM MOTTO:  Slow and steady, and track everything.

Using a spreadsheet, I track which records I have searched using the identifiers shown at the top of the Film/Digital Notes image above (cut and paste into my spreadsheet).  I record the date that I viewed the records.  Next to that I add the family names that I saved from that microfilm roll.  I do this in case I want to go back to where a specific family was in the microfilm (which has happened when I found a new family connection).  I always save the link to the microfilm’s first page–so much easier than looking it all up again if you need to go back.  Doing it this way, it gives me a list of where and when I have searched and what I found, if anything.  Make notes of anything you want to remember about that microfilm roll because you will not remember later.

When I find an image that I want to save, I usually record it on a separate worksheet within my spreadsheet.  ALWAYS include the microfilm identifier—at a minimum the Film, and Image Group Number so you can reference it on your other worksheet if you need to.  In addition, you MUST include the link to the image page along with whatever way you want to name and save it within your personal system.  In other words, you want the reference data as well as the link recorded that belongs to a particular image.  So you need to record all three of these things in a way that you can reference it later:

• Microfilm Identifier (film, image group #)
• Image Link
• Image Name you have stored it under within your computer

I keep my searched microfilms on one page and I sort the microfilm numbers numerically so I can always quickly check if I have searched a record before or not.  Sometimes, records get reindexed or are in more than one search result, so it is worth keeping a record to know if you have searched a particular record or not.  I use other worksheet pages to record greater detail of search results.

FamilySearch is pretty straightforward.  It is a genealogy site like most genealogy sites, doing the same genealogy things.  But the catalogue is the thing that draws visitors to a FamilySearch Centre or FamilySearch Affiliate Library.  It is these digital records from Archives around the world that makes genealogy accessible to us from places we will probably never visit.

We recommend that you do your search of the catalog and “ADD” those records you want to search to your print list.  Save it to PDF or print it out so you don’t lose the time you spent searching.  RECORD what you are searching for and what search terms you used.  You don’t want to go back two years later searching for the same thing again because you forgot you already searched for that.  But if you don’t, the record of the microfilms you have searched will keep you from searching them again.

Come prepared with a list of things you want to search when you visit our FamilySearch Affiliate Library.  We will help you as much as we can, but you know your family names, place names, and when they lived in those places much better than we do.  Those three things will help you identify the records that might have your family records in them.

Happy Searching!