Family History Library

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, was founded in 1894 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to assist people with their family history and genealogical research.

Anyone – not just church members – can visit their nearest Family History Centre, order microfilm from the FHL's massive collection for a minimal fee, and view it in the FHC reading room at no charge.

Click here to find a Family History Centre near you.

While family history is an important part of the LDS faith, their church members refrain from proselytizing to non-LDS researchers.

International Genealogical Index

The International Genealogical Index is an online database of genealogical records, compiled from numerous sources, and maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The IGI contains two types of records: entries gathered from reliable sources (such as parish registers and transcriptions), and entries contributed by LDS church members.

Unfortunately, the contributed entries often contain duplications and errors, and do not cite original sources; however, they can provide clues about where to search.

Some good advice on searching the IGI can be found at Helen Schatvet Ullmann's web site:

http://www.livgenmi.com/fhcigi.htm

The LDS has organized the records in the IGI into 'batches', which relate to how and when the information was extracted from source material. Knowing the batch number of the information you want makes searching the IGI much easier.

Hugh Wallis web site eliminates the need to know batch numbers in many cases:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis