Family Search

Finding Love in your Family Search!

Family Search is the website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is the "Go To" place to begin your online search for your ancestors. It can be found at familysearch.org

Often when we click on any website and see a search box we want to just start there. This is putting the cart before the horse on Family Search. One of the most helpful things we have found is to resist that at first and really look at and learn what is available on the site. Doing this first will save you lots of time and angst later.

There are many websites that offer search capabilities to assist us in our search for our family's vital records and other information. Some are commercial and a few are non-profit. We should try to learn about as many as we can. As an example, Ancestry has over 8 billion records and 33,000 record collections, about 4 times as many as Family Search has at this time.

But the consensus seems to be that Family Search is the first stop and what you find there can be more accurate as there are at least three people checking the indexed information before it goes into the data bases. We recently learned that Ancestry often outsources a lot of their digitizing to India which can present some language barrier problems. Also Family Search is free whereas Ancestry.com is $300+ per year.

You can go to any LDS Family History center and use Ancestry.com and several other sites for free. The Centers' locations and hours of operation can be found on the toolbar on the home page under Family Search Centers. There are more than 4500 of them around the world for your use free of charge. Anyone and everyone is welcome to use them and there is always someone there to help you with your individual questions.

The homepage of family search is a treasure trove of very helpful information to learn about before you start searching. Just this week they have added some very important features. This website is changing and being updated with new records and information daily. A year ago there were three various versions of Family Search serving different purposes. It is a good thing to learn what is going on right now, as we know it has already begun to transition into one singular site called Family Search.

Family search was originally launched on March 24, 1999. That was just six days after we became grandparents for the first time and we were just about to board a plane to Scotland to meet Piper. No wonder we were oblivious to the launching. That is not that long ago really and it is amazing what they have done since then. It had evolved into three versions being used simultaneously by last year. The three versions have caused a lot of confusion among church members regarding ordinances and genealogists alike, who have just been trying to get their records straight. The site administrators say that by the end of this year they will all be merged into one site. We all need to be patient as the program goes forward~we are the pioneers of the digital age. Understanding how it is now and where it is going will increase your foundational knowledge, especially as a church member when trying to help others in this exciting work.

Note that when you look at the home page of familysearch.org that just about everything on the page is a link. It takes time to familiarize yourself with these links. So do take your time and find the hidden treasures that are there. BYU and the teams of developers that work on Family Search are making and implementing innovations every single day. Users are adding to the Genealogy WIKI and forum discussions and new videos are being recorded all the time to make your genealogy experience more rich and rewarding. The help section is often updated as well.

They really have made and continue to make a valiant effort to assist everyone from the novice to the professional genealogist. We would urge you to use this resource in the beginning and return often. And speaking of returning often, if you click on the icon of the little tree on the top of the page that says FAMILY SEARCH under it, it will return you to the home page if you have wandered of into an interesting tab. :-)




Note in the upper right hand portion of the page it says Help and right next to that there is a place to Sign In which is not visible on this screen shot of the page. They are asking us to sign in now every time we use this site to insure that we have access to everything on the site. The information that was once housed in new.familysearch.org which contained temple ordinance information has gone public (minus the ordinance work unless you have access through a member name and password) making it easier and less cumbersome for everyone to use now. All the information from new.familysearch has now been moved into Family Search under the Trees tab at the top of the page.

Aside from the actual online records collection there are also billions of records in the offline collection. The online collection currently has over 2 billion records many of which have actual images and documents attached. The offline collections are archived microfilms that can be ordered from Salt Lake City. You can then research them free of charge, except for shipping costs. Find information regarding these on the Catalog tab under the Discover Your Family History above.

The most important tab you will find at the top of the page is the Learn Tab. This has a remarkable amount of information and videos to help you at every turn.

Click Getting started and access at least 25
Five Minute Genealogy Videos. They should be watched sequentially.
These are amazing! These videos are on Youtube
as well but the best access is right here.
These are great for everyone but I think the youth might buy in here.

The areas are expanded and searchable via the links that say, Go to the Wiki, View the courses and Browse the forums. Just click on the arrow and go.



This area of the home page has many links to various records designated by places. Under United States, search alphabetically in this collection and look under US Census records for the census collections. Many have the actual record attached, as well as, the digitized information.

The bottom of the page is also full of links including a place to call, chat or email for help 24/7. Not bad! And it is free of course along with everything else pertaining to this amazing site.

Enjoy this great learning tool and search engine. It will serve you well if you learn how to use it.