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 FamilySearch - Use It! Family
Search is probably the most important
web site for genealogists, not
least of all because it provides free genealogy research. The site is
maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in
support of their religious belief to identify and give blessings to
their ancestors. Free Family Tree Search The LDS church is very generous with their genealogical research facilities, of which Family Search is a prime example, making them available to both members and non-members. The Family History Library Building in Salt Lake City contains the world's largest family history library. There are over 3,700 family history centers in more than 88 countries which are branches of the Family History Library. These family history centers are an important physical resource for genealogists around the world and are free to use. Family Search supports a number of collaboration e-mail lists. By joining a list, you can send and receive messages from people with similar research interests. The lists are organized by any topic including surnames and places. In addition to providing actual data such as the 1881 census information, Family Search also provides instructive information on how to do genealogical research. All of their online records can be searched, by going to their Search web page. The types of online records are described below.
1880 United States,
1881 British Isles, or the 1881 Canadian Census Searching all of these censuses at once is a
unique resource. Much of the English speaking world of 1880-1 is
represented by the combined 3 census database. If you don't know the
location of a person in this time frame, searching this database will
likely find them. Pedigree Resource File A computer file that contains names,family relationships, and birth,marriage,and death information for millions of people. The information in this file will appear as it was originally submitted and will not be merged with information submitted by others. Make your family history information available to
others by contributing your own family information to the Pedigree
Resource File. Ancestral File A computer file containing names and other vital
information (such as date and place of birth, marriage, or death) of
millions of individuals who have lived throughout the world. Names are
organized into family groups and pedigrees. To allow for coordination
of research, the file also lists names and addresses of those who
contributed to the file. IGI International
Genealogical Index The backbone of Family Search, this is a computer file of several hundred million names of deceased persons from throughout the world. It also lists some vital information, such as a birth or marriage date and place. Many names in the index come from vital records from the early 1500s to 1885. Others have been submitted by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Twenty miles southeast of Salt Lake City, the granite cliffs surrounding Little Cottonwood Canyon there are concrete-framed tunnel openings. Behind the bank-vault doors the temperature remains constant near 57 °F., and a humidity that hovers between 40% and 50%, is the world's largest collection of family records: more than 650,000 rolls of microfilm carrying more than 500 million pages of genealogical statistics going back as far as the 14th century. Constructed in 1969, this veritable fortress is built to withstand a nuclear blast. That's how seriously the LDS church takes genealogy and the preservation of genealogical records.
Take A Tour
Effective Searching Using Batch Numbers When microfilming records ie baptismal records from the same town, they are all given the same batch number. This piece of little known information can be very helpful when researching a common last name - Smith, Jones, Thomas etc. The batch numbers for the US, Canada and the British Isles have been thoughtfully compiled at the following link, which will allow you to do your search directly from there.
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