Issue 15.11
Do you overlook books, genealogy magazines, periodicals, and gazetteers when you do family history research? In this world of online records, it is easy to forget about these useful sources unless you have easy access to the library where they are stored.
FamilySearch.org now provides access to the Brigham Young Family History Archive, a large collection of scanned genealogical books. The collection includes: Family Histories; County and local histories; How-to books on genealogy; Periodicals, including some international periodicals; Medieval books, including histories and pedigrees; Gazetteers; and Specialized collections.
You can get to this collection in two ways:
At www.familysearch.org you click the Library Catalog on the search screen. It will open another screen that says “Looking for the BYU Historical Books collection? One of the many collections found in the Library Catalog is a collection of scanned books made available by the Brigham Young University Family History Archive.”
You click on the blue Brigham Young University Family History Archive and it will take you to the search area. The books come from the collections of the FamilySearch Family History Library, the Allen County Public Library, the Houston Public Library – Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, the Mid-Continent Public Library – Midwest Genealogy Center, the BYU Harold B. Lee Library, the BYU Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library.
If the BYU Family History Archive does not contain what you need, don’t give up. Try these strategies:
· Search the Google Books collection at books.google.com.
· Another library or archive might have the item that you want. Search the catalogs of thousands of libraries worldwide on WorldCat at www.worldcat.org. Even if your local library does not have a copy of the item that you want, your library might be able to order it through an interlibrary loan program.
· You might be able to purchase the item through a bookseller or online auction. Use the title, author, and publication information from the catalog to make sure that you get the correct item.
For additional information, Shanna Jones can be reached at (435)628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.