The Mormon genealogy site, Family Search.org is making
significant progress digitizing all of its books, fiche, and microfilm.
Searchers can go to the Family Search
Labs program to search for records
online. They have completed several of the U.S. censuses and just
finished the 19th century Canadian censuses. They are working with
Ancestry.com on this project and are trying to provide more accurate
indices than presently exist.
The reason for this change is that library facilities worldwide are
unable to get parts for microfilm machines any longer and only one
company in the U.S. is making microfilm. Mr. Burton alluded to
the fact that some of the Family History Centers, such as our closest
one in Broomall (Valley Forge Branch, see below) may shut down.
Volunteers
are
still being sought for this worthy venture. You may volunteer for as
little as 1/2 hour, the average time to copy a record. You can sign
up to help out here.
(Two people are assigned to each record to insure accuracy.)
Mr. Burton also discussed some of the differences
between the Ancestral File, the IGI and the Pedigree Resource Files.
The church is working very hard merging the IGI and other files
to insure proper documentation and rid the site of conflicting
information.
Another new page is the Genealogy WIKI which will hold general
genealogy knowledge. There are now lessons
online about how
to use the LDS library.
You can see all their educational
pages here. This includes the wonderful RESEARCH GUIDES which no
longer come in printed form.
To keep up to date on the progress of this project and others, just go
to the main page
of the LDS Church and click on "What's New."
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You can still
order microfilms and fiche from Broomall, as well as browse their
excellent library.
Valley Forge Pennsylvania
721 Paxton Hollow Rd
Broomall, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States
Phone: 610-356-8507
Hours: T-Th 9:30am-1:30pm, Th 7pm-9pm; Sat 9:30am-2:30pm
Closed: Major Federal Holidays; Thanksgiving, Christmas-New Year Week