The End of Family History Library Microfilm Rental and How a Visit to the Richland Family History Center Could Help With Your Research

by Heather Murphy

If you haven't heard, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah will no longer rent microfilm as of September 7th.  The reason why is exciting.  I remember around the year 2000 hearing that the Family History Library was starting to digitize their 2.4 million rolls microfilm, but that it would take decades to accomplish the task.  With advances in technology the process was accelerated and they currently have more than 1.5 million rolls digitized and will finish the project by 2020.  No more paying for films, waiting for six weeks to get them, only to be disappointed when the person you have anticipated finding is no where to be found!

You can access these records a couple of ways.  You can search the Family History Library Catalog

for your desired location and in "Search these family history centers:" choose "Online."

You can also search Historical Records by location.  As you scroll through the available collections, the first section includes collections which have been indexed and the second section includes collections for which there are not yet indexes.  Any item with a camera icon has images available.

Because of contractual restrictions, there are some microfilm that will not be made available digitally. Some other collections are only available to be viewed from a Family History Center.  This was the case for some Indiana land records I wanted to look at this week so I made my first trip to the Family History Center in Richland.

This FHC, located in its own building, is the home for the resource collection of the Tri-City Genealogical Society.  Our collection includes over 2,900 books, 450 periodicals, 200 CDs, and thousands of microfilm and microfiche.  I highly recommend taking time to check the Family History Library Catalog and TCGS's own catalogs for what is available.  You may be surprised at what you can find for research throughout the United States and some international localities.  Here are a few highlights that stood out to me during my visit.

Maps are extremely helpful in genealogical research and there are a great collection here.  Each state has a large map on a board that shows all the counties, roads, towns, waterways, etc.

This Illustrated Historical Atlas of Indiana includes maps of each county with townships and section numbers, making it easy for me to map out the location of an ancestor's land with the description I obtain from land records.  I spend a lot of time researching in Indiana and this was a helpful find for me.

The reference desk holds a large number of standard genealogical reference books.

This is a portion of the book stacks at the library.  Notice all the yellow bindings?  Those are all periodicals for various states and localities.  You can access the periodical catalog here.  In a later posting I will talk about PERSI (Periodical Source Index), which can help you find your ancestors in these publications without needing to look at every page.

Family History Centers also have access to subscription sites such as ancestry.com, myheritage.com, findmypast.com, newspaperarchive.com, fold3.com, and several others.  Click here for the list of available sites (last updated July 2016).

So, if you haven't used a Family History Center recently, you might want to visit one to see what you can find that will help you with your research.  Share in the comments below any resources you have been glad to find at the Family History Center in Richland.


Richland FHC (1314 Goethals, a brick building behind the LDS Church on Jadwin Ave.)
Phone: 509-946-6637

Monday:      9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday:      9:00 am - 9:00 pm
Wednesday: 9:00 am - 9:00 pm
Thursday:    9:00 am - 9:00 pm
Friday:         9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday:     9:00 am - 5:00 pm


There are a few additional Family History Centers in the area, which have computers, printers, scanners, with internet access:

Richland (895 Gage Boulevard, in LDS church)

Tuesday:      10:00 am - 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Wednesday: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Thursday:    10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Saturday:     10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Pasco (2004 North 24th Ave., in LDS church)

Tuesday:      10:00 am - 12:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Wednesday: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Thursday:    6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

It's A Wrap - Archived Document Contest Winners

This last year we have been entertained and amazed with various entries to the Archived Document Contest. The contest began 1 April 2015 and ended 31 March 2016. The goal of the contest was to prove that not all genealogical records are available online while simultaneously celebrating computerized genealogy.

The contest was open to the public. All that was needed to enter the Archived Document Contest was a scanned image of a document that was not found online. Individuals wanting to enter the contest uploaded these scanned images to the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page with an explanation of where the document was found and how it tied into the researcher’s family history.

Each month entries were bundled together and sent to a panel of judges. The judges reviewed each entry and selected one entry as that month’s winning entry. Prizes typically encouraged computerized genealogy and included digitized subscriptions to magazines like Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy. Other prizes were subscriptions to online databases like Mocavo, Newspapers.com, and Fold3.

True celebration, however, came in the excitement of what was discovered by the documents that were found in offline repositories. As we read the entries we cheered for many tender facts that would not have been discovered by simple queries entered into large databases.

There were a total of 33 entries submitted. The majority of these documents came from family archives, but not necessarily the archives of the home. Many important documents came from collaboration efforts and were provided by relatives who were excited to share their treasures. Here is the breakdown of where documents were found that were submitted to the contest.

·        Family Archives - 13

·        Family History Library and Family History Centers – 9

·        Government records (city, county, and state) – 4

·        National and State Archives – 4

·        Local non-government agencies (funeral homes, museums) – 3

It is important to note the variety of repositories that held information shared in this contest. The Archived Document Contest showed us that when researching family history all of these repositories should be explored.  

All winning entries were automatically entered into a separate contest to determine the winner and runner-up for the full year. The first place prize was a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. A runner- up prize was a one year subscription to Find My Past.

The judging panel had a very difficult job in selecting the two winning entries from a collection of twelve entries that were already deemed superior. They did select Margie Stein Beldin’s entry submitted in April 2015 and Loren Schmid’s entry submitted in February 2016.

Margie Stein Beldin -
Archived Document Contest Winner

You can read Margie’s entry by going to http://tinyurl.com/MSBIreland or you can read the TCGS blog article about her entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2015/05/archived-document-contest-april-winner.html. She shared with us her struggle of reading old handwriting found on a preprinted form. In her search she collaborated with other researchers, asked assistance from an expert genealogist, kept her research current by reading various publications, and emailed the National Archives. She never gave up and she was rewarded with her 2^nd great grandfather’s Declaration of Intent. She is also awarded a one year subscription to Ancestry.com. The judges felt that Margie had used many traditional research methods in order to fulfill her quest.

Loren Schmid -
Archived Document
Contest Runner-Up

Loren Schmid, on the other hand, won the runner-up prize for using more modern techniques. In his February 2016 entry he shared how DNA research opened up many doors. You can read his entry by going to blog article about her entry at http://tinyurl.com/zwo6l4k. There is a TCGS blog article about Loren’s entry at http://tcgs1961.blogspot.com/2016/03/susan-davis-faulkner-to-purchase.html. Loren shared with us the success that can be found by using DNA to find researchers to collaborate with. He also gave us wonderful examples of how collaboration can be enjoyed and reciprocated.   

Thank you to everyone that participated in this contest. Those that submitted entries helped us to learn from their success stories. A huge Thank You goes to our panel of judges. Their input was essential to the success of this contest. The Judges were Bill Floberg (Chairman), Mary Kay Walker, and Walt Wood.

Janis Littlefield Crosses the Pond in Salt Lake City

As the Archived Document Contest came to an end entries submitted in March provided us a lot to appreciate. For an entire year we enjoyed stories of fellow researchers’ successes by finding information to enhance their research in locations that were not on the Internet. It was a little surprising that new sources could be exposed in this last month.

Mary Kircher Roddy submitted a Last Will and Testament that was over 200 years old and was filed in Lunenburg County, Virginia. Mary didn’t find this document online, but she didn’t have to travel to Virginia to obtain a copy of it either. She located it on a microfilm at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City.

Linda Stephens shared a story of heirloom napkin rings that had been turned into Sterling Silver bracelets. The pre-1890 napkin rings had been engraved with the names of family members, and this information led to additional curiosity. The curiosity led to a telephone call to a cemetery, who provided scanned images of 8 documents of family information.

Janis Littlefield won the contest for March with her submittal of a Wurttemberg Emigration document. In the late 1800s individuals that wanted to emigrate (or leave) Germany, often did so through Wurttemberg. In order to be given permission to emigrate they were required to file an application. Many did sneak out of the country, but later found it necessary to send documents back to Germany to complete immigration requirements into another country. Documents collected included family history information often complete with copies of records. This collection contains over 60,000 names and fills 8 volumes. Janis found her family in this collection while researching at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. She was able to identify three generations in one record. She declares it the best document for “crossing the pond”.

Janis wins an annual subscription to Fold3 for her winning entry. Fold3 is one of genealogist’s beloved websites. It focuses on military history and claims to have more than 482 million original documents available to browse and download.

The Archived Document Contest is officially closed. In the next month the judges have some important work to do. The twelve winning entries from each of the year’s monthly contests will be reviewed to determine two winners. The judges will be reviewing everything from 20^th century vital records to Civil War era letters. They will examine documents that tied researchers to various generations of ancestry. They will once again be exposed to records written not only in English, but also in French and German. The two final prizes are a subscription to Ancestry.com and findmypast.com. Winners will be announced in May 2016 and announcements will be made in this blog and on the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page.

Connecting in 2016

The definition of the word “join” is simply to bring together or to connect. When we join the TriCity Genealogical Society we have many opportunities to bring together our interests in genealogy with others that have the same interest. By connecting with others of this same interest we have an opportunity to learn which helps us manage and strengthen our own personal research and interest. Being a member of the TriCity Genealogical Society is a dance that allows us to swirl in movement as we interact, learn, and teach. Our membership helps provide opportunities for this dance to occur.

We could list all of the details of each aspect of membership. If we did this we could start with the TCGS Bulletin which is an online publication written by and for genealogists. Many of the articles published in the Bulletin share struggles and successes of TCGS members. Reading these articles allows us to not only learn from their experiences but also get to know these members in a more personal light. We can casually build a contact list of who to ask questions covering various topics.

If we built a list of benefits to being a member of TCGS we could discuss the educational opportunities that are available to us monthly. Adding this to the list would possibly be a distraction as we reflect over the various Regular Meeting speakers or Hands-On Classes that have been offered in just the past year.

If we decided to build a list of benefits to joining TCGS we could consider the projects that would allow each of us to contribute to the genealogical community as a whole. We could list projects dealing with our local family history centers or even specify the indexing project for the largest family history library in the world.

In building a list of benefits that being a member of the TriCity Genealogical Society gave us we could count the social media aspects of Facebook and the TriCity Genealogical Society Blog. We would once again need to guard against distraction however because the articles and pictures of membership activity could be an interruption.

Instead of building such a list we should consider the basic principle of economics that explains that we, as consumers, vote with our dollars. If we believe in the benefit of a product and we want to see that product grow and expand and flourish we vote by spending our money in its favor. If we believe that the TriCity Genealogical Society is a group of people that contribute to the world of genealogy and that we can learn by joining with that group then we should invest in its future by paying our annual dues. We should all join the future of TCGS and pay our 2016 dues and join together as we build a list of what we want 2016 to offer.

"Traveling Through Time" Hard to Sit Through

About 65 individuals had a difficult time sitting through the Traveling Through Time seminar with speaker William Dollarhide. Within minutes of his opening remarks there was a desire to leave the room and research.

The first session of the all-day seminar was titled “Dollarhide’s Five Rules – Essentials for

Successful Genealogical Research.” Rule number 1 was “Treat the brothers and sisters of your ancestors as equals.” With this rule Dollarhide encouraged everyone to obtain those important census records, vital records, and various historical documents on all collateral lines. He provided a great case study of locating his own Dollarhide Family Bible by following this rule. Most genealogists, he explained, focus so closely on their ancestral line that they overlook the very important clues that are available by examining records left behind by aunts, uncles, and cousins of every generation. With this he also told everyone that they had an awful lot of work to do. It was a difficult way to begin the day as we knew that we were only beginning to understand how little we had done.

In his second session Dollarhide taught about the American Migration Routes from 1750 to 1800. With easy delivery, as if he was explaining something very simple to an attentive child, he took us on a tour of how one road was built to lead to the need for another, or to connect an already important route. He explained that many of those same routes are still being used today and encouraged us to acquire a 1941 Rand McNally Road Atlas. The Interstate System was not developed until 1956 so many of the most used roads were built on historically proven routes developed over several hundreds of years of travel.

The Civil War created a massive amount of records, many are still available today. Not all of these were federal records either. In Dollarhide’s session titled “Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era” he gave us information on where to look, both online and on microfilm at the Family History Library, for records created during this time.

The day ended with tools to find living people by using online resources. Dollarhide shared the story of his own research in the 1970s. City directories and telephone books were extremely important and he lived mere blocks away from the Pacific Bell Telephone Company. He spent weeks pouring through various telephone books in order to locate other people with the surname of Dollarhide. The Internet has provided many websites that have taken away the need for telephone books, yet the information is still available if a researcher knows where to look. He endorsed ZabaSearch.com as a free website that was worth a visit that would provide at least a 75% success rate. Pages of additional websites were also provided to help fill in the 25% gap of information.

The day was packed full with easy to understand methods and freely provided tools. Instead of rushing to research we stayed, partially because we were stunned with the amount of information that we were being given. The other reason we stayed is that the Reata Springs Baptist Church was a wonderful and comfortable venue. The salad and sandwich buffet, stocked by the church’s teens, made a perfect lunch which was enjoyed at round banquet tables decorated with interesting and beautiful historical artifacts. There were Door Prizes, a Silent Auction, and Show and Tell items that also kept our interest.

When we left we hit the digital highway to look for a variety of documents and information that we may have never really examined before listening to William Dollarhide. We may have even done a few ZabaSearch.com queries to find our long lost friends and tell them about our wonderful day at the Traveling Through Time seminar.

A List of Don'ts Revealed from August Archived Document Contest

For the August Archived Document Contest, John Covey shared much more than an amazing document that he acquired off-line. He showed that it is possible to find clues that may take his research back to the 1500s. By reviewing his entry we can determine some “Don’ts” regarding family history research.

John Covey has arranged the annual fieldtrip for members of the TriCity Genealogical Society to research in Salt Lake’s Family History Library for many years. He knows that the vast amount of holdings have information important to his research. Even though John has made this trip several times, he continues to take the trip each year.

In June 2015 John discovered the baptismal record of his 8^th great grandfather which was created in 1664. John did not arrive at the Family History Library expecting to locate this record, but rather found information leading to this record when he visited the basement of the library and researched German records. In this section of records he found a book that not only listed his 8^th great grandfather’s information, but information continuing back for about another hundred years. Being a seasoned genealogist, John admits that the clues were a great find but that they were not documented. This gave him ideas, but in and of itself it was not a solid record.

John shared the 1664 baptismal record and his explanation in this entry to the Archived Document Contest. 

“For my Archived Document Contest entry this week I have posted a copy of my 8th Great Grandfather Johann Martin Hartlieb's baptismal record from 1664 that I got at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City last June. His is the third from the bottom of the page. Until that trip I had not even heard of him until I found a book in the German section of the library which lists the Hartlieb's in that part of Germany from the early 1600's up to the late 1800's. Through this book I have traced some other parts of the maternal line back to the late 1500s but with the book not having sources more work needs to be done on my part. While looking at the document I noticed some symbols in the first column that I did not understand, after some research I found out they were astrological symbols used for the seven planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). I found that astrology was being practiced in churches up until the late 1600's in some areas of Europe.”

Through John’s entry to the August Archived Document Contest we can all learn what not to do.

1.            Don’t be afraid of the basement. Many repositories store important records in basements. This keeps them out of the hustle and bustle of day-to-day activity. Basements can be easily overlooked yet may contain records or clues to additional information that is extremely important to our research advancement.

2.            Don’t disregard any set of records, but be cautious if the information is not sourced. John found a great deal of family history information in a book yet the information was not documented. John treated this unsourced book differently than he did the baptismal record that he found. He knew that the unsourced book provided clues which could be used to continue his research but he didn’t automatically adopt the information as fact. He used it as a launching pad to find the documented information that would make his research more accurate.

3.            Don’t overlook anything that you find in a record. Once John found the 1664 baptismal record of his 8^th great grandfather, he allowed his curiosity freedom. The baptismal record contained symbols that John did not understand. He discovered that astrology was practiced in churches up until the late 1600’s in some areas of Europe.

4.            Don’t assume that you need a detailed list of records created by hours of examining online catalogs in order to have a successful research trip. It is important to be prepared for research trips to any repository, but don’t let your list give you tunnel vision. New discoveries may very well lead to record sets that you had not previously considered.

5.            Don’t confine yourself to online research. The story that John shared gives us great examples of the type of records that are available beyond what the Internet has to offer.

John’s entry to the August Archived Document Contest won him an annual subscription to “Internet Genealogy.” “Internet Genealogy” is a genealogical magazine for people researching family trees, family history, their heritage and genealogy roots using the resources of the Internet. John is no foreigner to brick and mortar repositories but only because he knows how well these repositories fill out the research he is able to do online.

The winner of the September Archived Document Contest will win an annual subscription to Mocavo, which is a FindMyPast company. Mocavo has a highly sophisticated search engine bringing together vast amounts of indexes into one location. To enter the September contest simply share a digitized image of a record that you acquired in any method other than downloading from the Internet on the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TriCityGenealogicalSociety. Explain how you acquired the record and how it ties into your family history research.

Winner of May's Archived Document Contest Announced

There were only a few submissions in May 2015 for the Archived Document Contest but these few entries provided wonderful lessons. Documents from the 1700s and the 1900s were located on microfilms available through the Family History Library. The documents on these microfilms containing important genealogical information were viewed in Salt Lake City and also at the Richland Family History Center. This proved to us that travel is not necessary when looking for un-digitized documents. Microfilms from the Family History Library can be brought to our neighborhood Family History Centers.

Ray Baalman is this month’s winner of the Archived Document Contest. He submitted two documents from 1700s France. More importantly he shared with us a very valuable lesson. “The important principle illustrated here is NEVER overlook the importance of witnesses at baptisms and marriages. They are often relatives and can give important clues about where to look next.” Ray illustrated this lesson by explaining that he found his seventh great grandmother recorded as the godmother of his fifth great grandmother on that grandmother’s marriage record.

Ray wins an annual subscription to Newspapers.com. With this subscription he will have access to over 3600 newspapers from the 1700s to the 2000s. There are currently 103,266,276 pages available for viewing through the every-word searchable databases. For more information about Newspapers.com go to www.newspapers.com or read their very entertaining blog titled Fishwrap at blog.newspapers.com

Below is Ray Baalman's submission including copies of the documents and a translation from French to English. 

Here is an entry for May's Archived Record Contest from Ray Baalman.

I am submitting two eighteenth-century documents I discovered on microfilms from the Family History Library and read at the Richland Family History Center. I am submitting both because they are related, and they point out an important principle of genealogical research. I am also appending a transcription and translation of the records since they are in French and a bit hard to read.

For many centuries, most of my French ancestors lived in or very nearby the town of Saint Avold in the east of France, not far from the German border. One of the more prominent members of the family, Christophe Margot, was a successful tanner, who lived and practiced his trade in the town of Saint Avold. I found his baptismal record in the parish register and nothing more until his first child was baptized when Christophe was 29 years old. I could not find Christophe’s marriage record.

After locating the baptismal records of all three of his children and studying them closely, I discovered that his second child (my fifth great-grandmother), who was baptized in 1721, had godparents who came from a different town (sarlouys on the record, now spelled Saarlouis) some 20 miles north of Saint Avold. I ordered the film for marriage records in Saarlouis (which was in France then, but is now in Germany) and found that the marriage had taken place there in 1717. The marriage record also proved that the godmother of my fifth great-grandmother was her grandmother, my seventh great.

The important principle illustrated here is NEVER overlook the importance of witnesses at baptisms and marriages. They are often relatives and can give important clues about where to look next.

Archived Document Contest April Winner Announced

The TriCity Genealogical Society’s Archived Document Contest began April 1. There were a total of six entries during the month. Facebook readers stood by with anticipation as entries were made from individuals who had found wonderful family gems off line. Four of the entries posted during the month were received from family members, one from a microfilm at the Family History Library, and another one by making a telephone call to the National Archives Branch in Boston.

Flavor of life unfolded before our eyes as we learned that succulent details of ancestors’ lives were available, but not in huge databases. We got to enjoy pages from a personal journal, a holiday card with an important announcement, and an article written by an 11 year old boy that was published in a national magazine. The information shared in these artifacts helped the researchers enjoy a more personal understanding of their ancestor.

We also got to enjoy the more standardized genealogical finds like naturalization declarations, citizenship applications, and newspaper clippings. The ones shared during the contest though were not digitized. Many times the researcher had to work a little harder to obtain the information they were seeking, but the rewards were well worth the exploration.

If the results from this month’s contest were going to recommend the repository with the best results, family members would win. This should encourage all of us to seek information from our own family member repositories. This contest however is for the best submitted document that was obtained in any fashion other than the Internet.

Our winner for the month of April is Margie Stein Beldin. The final step in Margie’s long adventure in obtaining the Naturalization Declaration of her 2^nd Great Grandfather was a phone call to the National Archives Branch in Boston. Margie wins a one year Premium Membership to Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. You can get more information about this prize by going to www.GenealogyGems.com

Below is what Margie submitted about her amazing search for information and how she was able to obtain results.

” More than 15 years ago, I found the naturalization papers for my Irish gr gr grandfather, Frances McCue. However, it was impossible to decipher the name of the county he came from. I knew little about Irish research except that you had to know at least the county to begin researching in Ireland.

In 2001, I attended my first national conference, NGS-Portland. Wanting to know more about Irish research, I attended several presentations by Irish genealogists. Kyle Betit was one of them. I explained to him my dilemma and he offered to look at the naturalization document to see if he could decipher the place.

Before I turned to Kyle, however, I decided to try again on my own. The naturalization papers did show that Francis had filed his Declaration of Intent 24 June 1851. In 2002, I went to Boston for the first time and met a cousin, Patricia McHugh, who wanted to help me search for our Irish ancestor. She and I drove to Waltham to NARA-Boston to look through the books ourselves. However, we met with disappointment when we found a gap in the documents surrounding the time Francis would have filed his declaration. We left frustrated.

I then turned to Kyle who tried to read the county but could not decipher it. Pat even took a copy of the naturalization paper to Ireland on vacation. People there said the place had to be Lahinch. The problem was, Lahinch is not a county but a town. I didn’t buy that explanation at all.

In 2012, I was reading the Berkshire Genealogist, a publication of the Berkshire Family History Association. Their local librarian wrote about locating naturalization records. This led me to try once again to find the declaration of intent. I sent an email to NARA-Boston with a copy of what I did have and an explanation about not finding the declaration back in 2002.

Within days of my email I received the following email: “The declaration of intent for Francis McHugh has been located. We can provide a copy of the record for a fee of $7.50 per record...” Needless to say, I was on the phone in minutes reading them my credit card number. Within a few days, I received the declaration in the mail and there, in bold, legible handwriting, it said “County Leitrim, Ireland”. It was time to do the genealogy Happy Dance!

It only took 12 years+ and I still do not know the exact birth place of Francis McCue or if any of his family survived the famine besides him, but I’m one step closer. And, lucky for me, County Leitrim is one of the smaller counties.”