Family History Library Lookup Service

IF YOUR DOCUMENT IMAGE IS ONLINE

Whenever you find a reference to an index entry for a document from FamilySearch.org, you really owe it to yourself to find and pull the original document.  That is because an index page is NOT a SOURCE. Also, the source document may have much more information than the index that is critical for continuing your research. To have credible data, you must have the actual source page, [i.e., the actual census image, vs. the census index page]. Many source images are already online at www.familysearch.org [i.e., the 1940 census]

FamilySearch has published online six hundred million images from 1,225 archives so far, including nearly 3 billion searchable names. The number of records is increasing by about 1.1 million records per day with over 300 camera crews in 48 different countries filing records.  So you can see that FamilySearch.org is an invaluable resource for your genealogical activities.

IF YOUR DOCUMENT IMAGE IS NOT ONLINE

Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

If you have an index but no image is associated with it, it might be located at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.  The FHL is the largest repository in the world of microfilm, microfiche, books, and other resources (such as maps) for family history research. Since 1938 FamilySearch has captured 3.1 billion records, most stored on 2.5 million rolls of microfilm from 202 different countries.  Twenty-three percent of the images in the Granite Mountain vault have been digitized to date, with the remaining to be microfilmed in 3 to 4 years.  [Note that “Granite Mountain” is a mass of solid rock one mile up Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Range of Utah, not too far from Salt Lake City. Despite its name, however, Granite Mountain is primarily composed of quartz.]  To learn more about the FHL, go to: https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library

USING CARD CATALOG TO FIND SOURCES NOT ONLINE

FamilySearch Catalog

Your guide to the records in the FHL is the FamilySearch Catalog. This catalog describes the records in each collection of the FHL. It tells you which record collections contain the records for your ancestors, including births, marriages, and deaths; census records; church registers; and many other records.

To access the FamilySearch catalog, go to: https://familysearch.org/catalog-search.

NOW, TO THE ACTUAL “LOOKUP” PROCESS.  

When you have located the book, microfiche, or microfilm in the catalog that you need and the SOURCE is NOT online for you to print, you have three look up options:

a) Physically go to the FHL yourself and view or look up the record.  This option requires you to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, which may not be feasible.

b) Order the item to be sent to your nearest Family History Center.  For locations and instructions on how to do this, go to: https://www.familysearch.org/films/.  This option sometimes takes several weeks before the film is received and can only be used for microfilm and microfiche, not books.

c) Have someone go to the FHL for you to physically retrieve, view, and capture and/or copy the contents of the desired record.  This option is referred to as a “FHL Lookup Request” and is available for books, microfilm, and microfiche.  The research firm Rootsonomy provides this service free of charge.  For those who do not live in the Salt Lake area, this is the fastest/easiest way to obtain information from the actual record.  Requests are processed usually within 5   days and the results are sent to you via e-mail.

SUMMARY

The research firm Rootsonomy provides free lookups of books, magazines, fiche, or film at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It's a simple 2-step process:

1. Locate the desired collection in the FamilySearch Catalog: familysearch.org/#form=catalog OR familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlc/

2. Send the request by going to: http://rootsonomyblog.blogspot.com/p/research-or-lookups.html or http://goo.gl/MlzYC.  Simply complete all the fields as best you can, then click the Publish button.

The lookup specialists at Rootsonomy will search the book, film, or fiche for the requested document and digitally download and e-mail it to you within a couple days.

FHL Records 

NOTE: If you are a Facebook user and would like to be kept up to date with the most recent FHL updates, please “like” the Rootsonomy page at: http://www.facebook.com/RootsonomyGenealogy