What type of records are held online, by the LDS family search?
The FamilySearch.org website offers free access to digital images of genealogical records (i.e. birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, census registers, etc.). Whenever images are not yet available, still a reference to the records is provided. Besides this, other valuable genealogical information is either directly offered on line or thanks to partnerships, links are offered to easily access to things such as -in the case of emigrants or immigrants- passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, records of passports issued, or lists of prisoners deported. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ name, ages, occupations, destinations, and sometimes place of origin or birthplace.
LDS family search also offers lineage-linked genealogies that are family trees released to LDS family search for publication on line that can be helpful at the time of filling in the blanks in your own family tree.
Last but not least, LDS family search offers information on the genealogy of specific lineages that correspond to certain communities and historical periods. Some of these collections have been released by professional genealogists that have researched on such specific communities while others have been created by LDS church members.
In the last two cases, and as this information has been generated by other users and not all has been already checked by LDS family search, new users are encouraged to validate the information.
What is LDS family search?
Family Search -historically known asGenealogical Society of Utah (or “GSU”) – is a non-profit organization that since 1894 has consecrated itself to family history becoming the biggest genealogical organization in the world. Family Search is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church or, informally, the Mormon Church) and has besides employees, the help of hundreds of volunteers that perform different activities, indexing among others. Anybody interested in genealogy no matter what religious belief has, can be a volunteer, and even join the group of volunteers on line.
A goal of LDS Family Search is to provide “one complete, accurate record for each person who has lived on the earth, linked to other records by correct relationships (parents, spouses, and children)”.
LDS Family Search activities can be divided in two basic areas:
- Active collection, preservation and indexation of genealogical and historical records. LDS family search preserves copies of microfilm, microfiche, and digital records from over 110 countries, territories, and possessions, spanning hundreds of years and including over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 742,000 microfiche; 310,000 books, serials, and other formats; and 4,500 periodicals. All these records are safely stored in the Granite Mountain Records Vault—a long-term storage facility designed for preservation. So far microfilm has been the standard, but digital is emerging.
- sharing this information to whoever requires it, on a free basis at FamilySearch.com
Besides this, LDS family search provides genealogical free lessons, some of them on line, in the format of webinars. The topics range from basic research to training on specific record types and are designed for both beginners and experienced researchers. Personal assistance can also be requested at more than 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries, including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS family search also offers research help through the Family History Research Wiki, Forums and digitized books.
LDS family search encourages persons and organizations to share information and provides help in the collection, preservation and sharing of data. LDS family search helps data holders in many ways:
- For those data holders who already have a substantial collection of microfilm, LDS genealogy can help digitalize those images and even provide storage.
- LDS genealogy can also help data holders to get their records online. They can host indexes and records on FamilySearch.org, or they can provide tools and expertise that enable record keepers to create their own hosted access.
Why does the LDS keep genealogy records?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is considered by its followers to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. Headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide.
The theology of the LDS Church consists of a combination of biblical doctrines with modern revelations and other commentary by LDS leaders, particularly Joseph Smith.
According to LDS Church theology, people from the same family can be “sealed” to one another so that their bond continues into the eternities thus allowing all immediate and extended family relations to endure past death. The most significant LDS ordinances may be performed via proxy in behalf of those who have died, such as “baptism for the dead”. The great interest of the LDS in genealogy has to do with this belief, as provided a person can be “sealed” to his/her ancestors, pedigree information becomes a must.
What is FamilySearch Indexing?
- Once an image is digitized, key data needs to be transcribed in order to produce a searchable index that people s around the world can access.
- Family Search Indexing started in 2006, and at present LDS is in the process of digitizing its entire microfilm collection and making those images available online.
- The searchable indexes are created by volunteers using FamilySearch Indexing, a special software that can be downloaded on line. LSD genealogy department has an active search for volunteers to help indexing. They neither require any particular ability nor a disposal of a fixed amount of time, and as previously mentioned, volunteers do not need to belong to the Mormon Church. Family Search online indexing application can be easily downloaded by volunteers and on line tutorials are provided, so that volunteers can quickly and easily start indexing. LSD genealogy department gives volunteers the possibility of choosing among many projects the one that seems more appealing to them.
- To ensure greater accuracy, each batch of records is indexed by two separate indexers and any discrepancies are sent to an expert arbitrator.
- FamilySearch is currently working with genealogical societies all around the world to index local projects.
- In April 2013, FamilySearch Indexing completed their goal to offer 1 billion indexed records online.
- In February 2014 LDS family search announced partnerships with com, findmypast and MyHeritage, which includes sharing massive amounts of their databases with those companies. They also have a sound relationship with BillionGraves, so that the photographed and indexed images of graves remain searchable on LDS family search.
- On Wednesday, June 15, 2016, the indexing program was updated to make a few changes to improve the indexing experience.
To take note:
- LDS Family Search is evolving faster than ever. Changes implemented this year are big and volunteers are being key to speed up the process of putting more records at public disposal on line. There are testimonies on line of people that just very recently have found records they have been searching for over 10 years, just because a big amount of information has been released on line lately.
- Provided you have looked a record at LDS Family Search and you haven´t found it, try again, maybe you find it now. And if you don´t, don´t get discouraged, as you might be able to see it on line on the coming months.
- If you do not want to wait until then, you can always visit the LDS family history center close to your place. Such centers are like branches of the Library on Family History of Salt Lake City. There you would be able to get access to genealogical data still not indexed or digitalized and therefore, not yet available on line.
- Keep in mind that -as mentioned in our previous blogs- Genealogy DNA tests are becoming very affordable and can help you break through brick walls whenever gaps cannot be solved through a study of historical documents.
Picture 1: this I the way you can get a microfilm displayed. Quality is decent; however newspapers as in this case, are sometimes difficult to read. This photo was taken by me at the National Library of Uruguay in Montevideo, on Monday 20th. 2016, where I went looking for the obituary of my great-grandmother.
Picture 2: I was able to see the microfilm using a device very similar to the one shown here. This picture belongs to a LDS family history center and was taken from: https://familysearch.org/wiki/es/Utilizar_un_centro_de_historia_familiar_cercano. I found it while I was checking the location of the Family Center closer to my place.
By, Carmen Vazquez Sibils
