Issue 38.11
Most of the original records that you find in the FamilySearch website www.familysearch.org are available for free, without signing in or registration. However, licensing agreements with the record owners impose requirements on access to some images. Be sure and sign in to get access to those available.
You may see evidence of these requirements after you click on a record in your search results to see the record’s complete index entry. The icons that appear over the picture of a record tell you what types of licensing restrictions may be in effect. New rules went into use on August 25, 2011.
Record collections are available for viewing in the following categories:
•Unrestricted collections with images viewable by everyone.
•Collections with images available only to registered FamilySearch users.
•Collections with images available only to registered FamilySearch users with premium membership.
•Third-party collections with varying restrictions to images, some requiring a fee.
Premium membership is available to everyone and can be obtained by one of the following:
•Indexing records and earning 900 points within a calendar quarter. Points are assigned based on the difficulty of the record and the number of names indexed. Once you qualify, your premium status applies for that calendar quarter and the next quarter.
•Accessing FamilySearch from any family history center located around the world.
•Belonging to a sponsoring organization, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The goal at FamilySearch is to make as much genealogical data available for free as possible. They are adding new record collections almost every day or augmenting records to existing collections. Indexes to these records are being made available for volunteers at https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing
FamilySearch never charges to see the images on FamilySearch.org. Toward their goal, sometimes FamilySearch publishes collections without free access to images and sometimes record custodians limit what FamilySearch can show. For example the United States, Mormon Battalion Pension Applications, 1846-1923 will take you to an index of the records, but the image is not available for that record on FamilySearch. It has a link to www.fold3.com. Fold3 replaced Footnote.com and is a pay site but access is available for free at family history centers.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com (435) 628-4900.