THE Family History Library

Comment

Comment by Keren on October 21, 2009 at 3:59am

In a couple of days I will visit the FHL and I'm wondering what I can do to "prepare".
My main goal is to find my Jewish ancestors in Germany, late 19th beginning 20th century.
I am very excited to go there again after 15 years, a lot must have changed I'm sure.

Comment by Unknown Ancestor on August 13, 2009 at 8:14pm

This 'unreliability' idea is one of the many myths about the FHL. I'll be doing a discussion on that.
The majority of the 2.4 million microfilms, as explained in my collections summaries, are of the original documents created by governments and churches and other institutions that left paper trails about our ancestors.

It's almost discouraging to see so many GenyWise questions that could be solved by using the collections at the free FHL or one of its 4,500 free FHCs. Also, the hundreds of millions of indexed digital images (see my Forum on FamilySearch Pilot) are neglected.
Many also don't know it was thousands of FHL volunteers, for example, who created and donated the so-called Ellis Island database, and the first 1880 and 1881 census indexes, etc.

Comment by Mary Hellman on August 13, 2009 at 8:01pm

How reliable are the sources found in the FHL? Actually someone told me one time that the records there are not always reliable. Is this true or is this very reliable?

Comment by Unknown Ancestor on July 28, 2009 at 12:29pm

SInce most genealogists in the U.S. start with the known and work toward origins in other countries, we'll start by describing federal, state, county and local collections for American ancestors. Note, however, that 2/3 of the FHL collections are from other countires.