Over my years of family research, I have come to respect and admire the genealogical work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), which they offer up to the world quite freely, if not entirely free. Both the church and its members have done more, to my mind, to advance the field than any other organization. They were researching and stockpiling records long before genealogy became popular; they also continue to try to stay ahead of the curve in using changing technologies. I wanted to explain a LITTLE about what the LDS Church makes available both in Salt Lake City and locally in Bangor or one of the other ten Family History Centers (FHCs) in Maine. Whatever you find at a local FHC you will find, multiplied by about a million, at the facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, they host some of the best and/or largest conferences in the world. There are always volunteers available looking to help both the novice and the experienced family history researcher.
The Bangor FHC is located on the corner of Grandview Avenue and Essex Street (the back way to the Bangor Mall) and is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 to 2, and many Saturdays and evenings. There you can access binders of Maine cemetery listings, family histories and other non-published genealogy records. They have a small genealogy library of New England histories and vital records, and out of print books. They have a few microfilm/fiche readers (bring a digital camera to take screen shots as there is no printer) and several filing cabinets full of thousands of microfilm and microfiche for anyone to use while there. In addition, anyone may pay for microform loans from Salt Lake to the Bangor facility. For example, my sister and I have borrowed some for two weeks, and paid extra for the Italian and some Hartford, Connecticut films to stay in Bangor indefinitely. Now that I have done a DNA test and been in touch with new Italian cousins, I am eager to get back in to review the films of vital records from Monteforte, Italy for the late 1700’s to research those connections.
What a treasure the Mormons have provided for us, and I have not even begun to touch on what you can access from home, or through the internet portal available at each FHC. At home, go to www.familysearch.org and register a password and your email address to use the site for free. Browse the extensive catalogue of books, records and microfilms by person, family or place names or any of a variety of search terms. There are tutorials and guides to assist you with foreign research, learning how to do family history research, and even ways to put your tree online and create memoirs.
At Family History Centers like the one in Bangor, volunteers can guide you through what you can access through the online Portal; truly a gateway to the world of family history; zoom in on ancient maps with detail not possible from your home computer. Anyone truly interested in researching their family history must check out the endless offerings of the LDS Family Search system.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader emails are welcome at ninabrawn@ gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
