Trailhead Now Open at Richland Family History Center

In Richard Allen’s presentation that he gave April 8 and titled “A Treasure Trove of Family History Information” he provided a wonderful analogy. He explained that genealogists’ Treasure Troves are articles and documents that provide them with information about their ancestors. In true pirate fashion Richard explained that in order to locate a treasure a treasure-map is necessary. Genealogists can use the Family History Library Catalog at https://familysearch.org/catalog-search as their treasure map. This treasure map will actually guide researchers to treasures located at the Richland Family History Center. There are over 10,000 treasures located at the Richland Family History Center and they will soon all be listed in the catalog.

Richard also explained that changes would be coming soon to the Richland Family History Center. One of the changes that he announced is that a Conversation Area would be made available to help facilitate conversations between researchers and library assistants. Within a week of Richard’s announcement the Conversation Area was completed.

Sandra Meacham Floberg shared, “Although I knew about the passports required for traveling through ‘Indian Territory’ in the South and Southeast in the early 1800s, I had no idea RFHC had a book documenting those passports!” Now these Indian Territory passports and many more treasures can be located at the Richland Family History Center. If you need assistance, start at the trailhead which is also known as the Conversation Area.

Other changes coming to the Richland Family History Center include a computer lab, complete with a teaching station and twelve hands-on computers for classroom attendees. Watch for announcements about this computer lab activity and additional upgrades coming to your local Family History Center. 

April 8, 2015 TCGS Meeting with Richard Allen

Last Wednesday evening Richard Allen, Director of the Richland Family History Center (FHC) and TriCity Genealogical Society (TCGS) member gave an excellent presentation to the membership at the monthly meeting at the Clover Island Inn, Kennewick.  Richard’s presentation was called “New items at the Richland FHC and how to use some of the older sources”.  Richard started his talk by giving some of the history of the FHC and its association with TCGS.  Richard then went on to describe some upcoming changes to the infrastructure of the FHC to make it more appealing to patrons. 

Richard described the holdings at the FHC and that a project is ongoing to re-catalog the books and get the catalog on line.  Richard showed the members present that you could go to FamilySearch and using their catalog search engine locate the holdings for the Richland FHC.

Richard then gave a presentation showing that not all information is online by walking through some research that he had done where much of the information came from the FHC holdings.  Some this information has never been digitized and put on the internet.

This section fitted in nicely with the Archived Document Contest that TCGS is running through the beginning of next year.   (Go to the TCGS website for more information on this contest)

One other item that came up during Richard’s presentation was that the Richland FHC has some books that even the Family History Library in Salt Lake City does not have in their collections. 

So just don’t do your research online check out the Family History Centers, Family History Library, local libraries, etc as you look for the dead.

John F Covey

TCGS President

Richland FHC Director, Richard Allen, Doesn’t Disappoint!

As always, we are offered treats when our FHC director, Richard Allen, gives a presentation whether it is for TCGS as it was Wednesday or at the Richland Family History Center.

This month, he again returned to his favorite website, FamilySearch.org, that just seems to be get bigger and better all the time, especially if you listen to Richard. He always finds the gems and presents us with new and interesting ways to research using FS.org.

Below is a list of the topics he covered followed by a link to a list of all 27 videos on familysearch.org demo’ing the many facets of that ever-growing website. Richard used several of the videos in his presentation but those were just a taste of what FS.org has to offer. Check them out!

Kudos to Richard for always giving us such tantalizing and useful peeks at what is available to all of us free-of-charge and just a few clicks away on the internet.

FamilySearch.org - A Treasure Trove of Family History Information
FamilySearch.org provides FREE online access to:
• BILLIONS of indexed original records.
• BILLIONS of original record images.
• Family Trees from the Ancestral File and the Pedigree Resource File.
• A Catalog of all materials (including microfilm, microfiche, and publications) found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Thousands of scanned and downloadable books (Family Histories, County and Local Histories, etc.) from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and other major genealogy libraries.
• The Research Wiki with thousands of family history articles and links to other sources of family history information.
• Hundreds of free online Research Courses covering a variety of topics and geographic areas.
• FamilySearch Forums where you can obtain answers to your specific research questions.
• FamilySearch Blogs with information about new and upcoming resources and capabilities.
• Getting Started Videos to help you begin your family history.
• Technology Tips such as how to use your Smartphone for genealogical research, or how to tag people in digital photographs.

https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/results.html?q=product+demo&resultListItem=0

Technorati Tags: Richard Allen,TCGS,FamilySearch.org,FS.org

Make TCGS a Part of YOUR New Year’s Resolutions

Wednesday evening, Richard Allen, the director of the Richland Family History Center will speak on “FamilySearch”.

In the webinar, “10 Ways to Jump Start Your Genealogy” by Thomas MacEntee, just aired this evening, it was suggested you join a genealogy society and “Get Out!” to freshen your perspective and re-energize your research.

Starting your New Year with Richard Allen introducing us to all that is new with FamilySearch certainly could help us “jump start our genealogy.”

Make a resolution today to attend all that TCGS has to offer. You may be surprised at all you will have gained by December.

7pm Parkview Estates 7820 W Sixth Avenue in Kennewick

See ya there!

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