Success With Microfilm At The Family History Libraries

These past two weeks I have been training a father and his son as full time missionaries.

It's been rich, for me, and I think for them.

Their heritage goes back to England and not much is on computer where we are working, mid 1700's.

Not as easy a solution, but often a good one, is viewing microfilm records at the LDS Family History Library. Here in Salt Lake City, the advantage is that much of the microfilmed records are stored right on site. Those rolls that must be called from the Granite Vault can be retrieved the same day with an early enough in the day request.

We started yesterday afternoon. It didn't matter that this wasn't an area of my expertise as there were plenty of missionary volunteers there to help. We were advised to get 3 different rolls of microfiche. We knew a couple of counties their ancestors lived in and started going through Parish records that had been microfilmed.

JACKPOT!

Yesterday we found a relative, her marriage, the birth of her 3 children, then the death of her husband, and finally her re-marriage 7 months later.

I left them alone this morning to complete the first roll while I did research for them on the computer nearby. As of noon today they had found about 12 new names and events to add to their family tree.

At the same time I researched online, using names in their FamilyTree of ancestors who appeared to have no spouses.

Using Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and findAGrave.com I have about 10 new entries for them.

One interesting discovery I am going to share with them this afternoon is one of their ancestors owned a boarding house in England. I found her in an English census as a widow owning a boarding house. Her 33 year old daughter, also a widow, lived with her with a child. In another census I found the widowed daughter with 4 children.  Three died according to one census which interesting had a column for number of children and another column for children living.

I am discovering that working on other peoples lines, helping them get excited about genealogy is fun, even though they aren't your relatives.\
Even if you don't live near Salt Lake City you are very likely to live near a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Library. They are open to the public. Not all are open every day so you should look up when they are open. Those libraries can help you learn how to order film that can be viewed there. There is a cost that covers just some of the expenses to copy and deliver the film. The cost to the church is about $15.00 at this time, your cost will be less than that.