Tuesday's Tip: Visiting the Family History Library

Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Last week, I made my first ever trip to Salt Lake City, with one of my goals being a couple of good research days at the Family History Library.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my general preparations and goals: focusing on only a few family lines and only looking for indexed records or records for which I already knew where and when certain ancestors were born.  With only two days, I did not have time to sit down with a gazetteer and try to search the microfilms for every village in which Great-Grandpa Kowalski may have been born.

Originally, I was going to use an online form to contact the library beforehand and let them know what films I would like to search.  I messaged them a few times through Facebook, and they assured me that, because none of the films in which I were interested were solely kept in the Vault, I should have no problems finding them when I arrived.  

Well, with my (bad) luck, wouldn't you know it, but the first film I search for was not in its proper place in the microfilm drawers.  One of the volunteers kindly helped me search the overflow drawers and even looked around at other patrons to see if they were using it, but we couldn't find it.  He ordered it from the Vault and it was thankfully there the next morning!  Phew!

---

In the past, I've also had notoriously bad luck with getting the hang of different types of microfilm machines, so I was a little worried about that on the first day.  Turns out that I had nothing to worry about; the machines were well-maintained, easy-to-use, and instructions were printed on each one. Not to mention the fact that there were many library volunteers eager to assist anyone who needed it.

This is the machine at used for 2 1/4 days.  I sat at the same one each day; it was next to a wall outlet, so I was able to charge my phone when it ran low on battery. 

"My" microfilm reader

Before I arrived at the library, I knew that if I wanted to save any images digitally, I would need to transfer the microfilm reel to one of the special scanner computers that had USB drives.  I fully intended to do this, and even bought myself a new USB drive.  However, I quickly realized that, with the number of records I wanted to save, and considering that the scanner computers had time limits of only 30 minutes, this process would severely cut into my available research time.  So, instead I experimented with taking photos of the records directly off the microfilm reader with my iPad 4 and iPhone 5.  After carefully reviewing a few images - zooming in, looking at clarity and details - I determined that these photo images were more than adequate digital records of what I was looking at on the microfilm reader.  Of course, the photos were saved in JPEG format, but I could easily convert them to TIFF format when I save them to my permanent hard drive and cloud.

Each time I located a record of interest - one that I photographed - I wrote down the name(s), date, location and film number in a steno notebook.  I was very careful to maintain my notes in the exact order of the photos I took, so that when I do go to organize the record photos into their proper "family" folders, I will know exactly what record I am looking at and who it 'belongs' to.

One of many pages of notes

Thanks to my planning, I was able to find at least some records for all but one of the families I had prepared to research.  For those of you who follow the families I research, these are the ones on which I focused my research this time:

- The family of my great-grandfather, Michael Bodziony in southern Poland
- The family of my great-grandfather, Sophia Krupa in southern Poland
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Ferdinand Waterkotte in Ostbevern, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestors, Gottfried and Maria Eva Wimmers in Garzweiler, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Johann Michael Drees in Cloppenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Maria Catharine Wellerding in Steinfeld, Oldenburg, Germany

It was a great first trip to THE library, and I'm looking forward to going back someday.  I spent all of my time on the International Floor.  It was so great to look around and see people researching so many different countries of the world, and hearing other patrons and volunteers speak in languages other than English.  Even though I didn't really talk with the other patrons, I did feel as if there was a camaraderie between us, and I realized that there really are quite a few of us who are more than a little obsessed with learning about our ancestors.  :-)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder