Welcome To The Family History Center Portal

One of the great sites people that most people are unaware of is http://fhc.familysearch.org/ It has links to some of the most important websites for those interested in research. It's classes and workshops are outstanding. There are classes for those interested in specific areas or localities.

Most of the links are those that you can use at home, the premium sites are only usable at LDS Family History Centers. Some of you may have subscriptions to some of these sites, this is a quick way to access them.

Please take a look at the classes and workshops. They are available to you 24-7.

 Notice some of the research courses they have for you: 

One of the more important topics we will cover soon, is the importance of knowing the resources available to you in the areas your ancestors lived or died. Notice the classes that might help you with that. Take note that the FamilySearch Wiki is the number one resource for that. 

The courses section in the Family History Center Portal has new training added on a regular basis. Can you believe the commitment made here? Returning often is a good idea.

This site is usually the main site you see when you open a browser at a LDS local family history center. There is likely a family history center near you.  

One of the features in this site is to find a local Family History Center. For that you would click FamilySearch Help Center as pictured below. Clicking Local Assistance in the Help Center gives you access to a directory of family history libraries, some self help questions and answers, and other assistance options.

This website has similar links to information that you find on the home page of https://familysearch.org/ Both sites are musts. There are many more to select from on the Family History Center Portal.

About https://familysearch.org/ - This site is what it looks like, a search engine. But it is a whole lot more. As a search engine it is recognized as having the most data of any genealogy database out there. It is free. Each week millions of entries new data is loaded into Family Search. Partners are adding data. Billion Graves is a new partner with all of their data now coming up in search results. The 1940 census is there. All of the indexing the church is doing is placed there.

I learned a neat trick yesterday. I know, you already know it. It is a parent search on FamilySearch. Don't fill in the name of the person you are searching for, rather the parents of the person. It just might pull up the name you want, + his or her siblings. 

PS: As in most websites I write about I have added the links to these two sites in the right sidebar. They are under the category of "Primary Research Sites"