History of The Salt Lake City Genealogical Library. Open to everyone!
The Salt Lake City Genealogical Library was founded in 1894 to gather genealogical records and assist members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with their family history and genealogical research. It is the largest library of its kind in the world. It is open to the general public at no charge. The Family History Library is visited by an estimated 1,900 or more individual patrons each day. By 1975 there were 17 "branch libraries" around the world.
The library collection has 2.4 million rolls of Family History Library microfilmed genealogical records and more than 742,000 microfiches in the main system. In 2003, the collection increased monthly by an average of 4,100 rolls of film, 700 books, and 16 electronic resources. A majority of the records contain information about persons who lived before 1930.
Approximately 200 cameras are currently microfilming records in more than 45 countries. Records have been filmed in more than 110 countries, territories, and possessions.
The first Family History Center (FHC), then called a branch genealogical library, was organized in the Harold B. Lee Library on Brigham Young University Campus in May, 1964. Plans to organize family history centers in Mesa, Arizona, Logan, Utah, Cardston, Alberta, and Oakland, California, each adjacent to temples in one of those cities, had been announced at the 1963 October General Conference.
The Family History Centers were put under the overall direction of Archibald F. Bennett. By December, 1964, there were 29 FHCs, and by 1968, there were 75. In 1987, these institutions were renamed "Family History Centers."
Digitization and indexing projects
In the late 1990s, a "pilot program" to update familysearch.org and digitize its entire collection was started using volunteers to input or "index" census and other data. This new genealogical index is considered an upgrade. It is a work in progress representing 426 regions around the world. Millions of new names have been input by volunteers and volunteers for the project are being actively solicited at FamilySearchIndexing.org. The searchable database containing the digital images and index will be available through the LDS Church's FamilySearch website.
In short, the searchable database containing the digital images and index's is a vast and FREE source of genealogy information for anyone.
Find a Family History Center and FamilySearch Affiliate Library in your area here: https://www.familysearch.org/fhcenters/locations/
If you found this article useful, please direct your friends to this article: https://familyhistory4all.uk/history-of-the-salt-lake-city-genealogical-library-open-to-everyone/