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

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.

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

Members Guided thru Google.com

Mikal McKinnon, our TCGS Past President, Assistant Family History Center Director and Washington State Genealogical Society President, took our TCGS members through a tour of Google.com. The outline for the class can be found online at:  https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Google_Commands:_How_to_Search_More_Effectively. This was the basis Mike used to help the TCGS members learn the ins and outs of searching with Google.  When I peeked in on the class, they were all glued to their monitors finding interesting things on their families.  The final tip was a place to have google help you search for your genealogy online: http://www.genealogy-search-help.com/.

I believe the final conclusion would be that everyone got something out of Mike’s presentation. I know of one person who was going home to continue her search. I’d bet the others were anxious to get home and continue their searches as well.

Thanks Mike for a great presentation. 

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!

LiveJournal Tags: TCGS,Richard Allen,FamilySearch

Richland FHC Beginning Computer Genealogy Class Begins

Beginning Computer Genealogy  (Using PAF and other computer genealogy programs to record, organize, document, preserve, and print family history information.)  –  7:00 p.m., Thursday, September 22.

This free class will be taught in the basement classroom at the Richland Family History Center.  Please register (so that we can contact you if the class needs to be rescheduled) by calling 946-6637 during library hours (Tuesday-Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Monday, Friday, and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.).