The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Adding data to LDS library can be gift to family
This column was published Dec. 24, 2000
Give yourself and your family an enduring Christmas gift this holiday season by sharing some of your genealogy on the World Wide Web.
There are a variety of ways to do that, but none is easier than to place your information in the Family History Library operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It's free. You don't have to be a Mormon or even like the religion. All you need is some genealogical information and a desire to share. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has more than 2.2 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records, 742,000 microfiche, 300,000 books and 4,500 periodicals. It also includes the Ancestral File database, which contains approximately 35.6 million lineage-linked names and the International Genealogical Index database, which contains approximately 600 million individual names.
Last year, the collection added 49,200 rolls of microfilm and 8,400 books. The library has more than 240 cameras currently microfilming records in nearly 44 countries.
Millions of amateur genealogists, just like you and me, are daily adding data by sending their information to the library in Salt Lake, either on floppy disks or over the Internet.
Why would they do a thing like that?
Probably the first reason is to make the information readily available to other researchers. The desire may be entirely altruistic, but probably most genealogists hope that posting their data will lead to contacts with other genealogists who have information they don't have. Data you send will be made available to others on compact disc or on the Internet.
Another value in sending your information to the Family History Library is to preserve it in case your copies are stolen or destroyed.
Finally, a copy will be made of your files and it will be permanently preserved in the famous Granite Mountain Vault, located in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City.
This vault was cut deep into the mountain for storage of genealogical data in special atmosphere-controlled facilities.
If you think you might like to have the library make your genealogical information available to its patrons, set your browser to lds.org. This is the church's main page. Arriving there, look in the left column for the words "Family History." They are a hyperlink to the genealogical treasure trove.
When the page loads after you click on "Family History," you will be presented with three choices - "Search for Ancestors," "Share Information" and "Family History Library Catalog."
Click on the "Share" tab near the top of the page. That will take you to a page with options on three ways to share. It's about as painless as it can get.
You can sign up for an e-mail list of genealogists who are researching the same lines you are, you can send files to Salt Lake City for inclusion on the Family History Center's Web site, or you can provide the FHC with a link to a Web site that you have created elsewhere for your genealogy.
Click the "Share My Genealogy" tab near the top of the page. It will take you to a page to start the process. I'll let you read the instructions and background information online.
If you decide to place your information in the library, you will need to create a GEDCOM file in your computer. Almost every genealogy software program will let you create a GEDCOM file. (GEDCOM is an acronym taken from "GEnealogical Data COMmunications.") It is a standardized method of exchanging genealogical data.
Your software program will explain how to create a GEDCOM file. It's so simple even I can do it.
With your GEDCOM file prepared and sitting on your computer's hard drive, get back on the Internet and connect to the Family History Library pages.
Get back to the "Share My Genealogy" page and follow the instructions. They will allow you to transfer your GEDCOM file from your computer, to the Family History Center in Salt Lake, in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.