Augusta Genealogical Society
I find it overwhelming trying to search for information on Family Search. Can you give me some pointers on how to find things in their databases?
A: For those who are not familiar with it, Family Search is a free genealogical website. Trying to find information from databases with over a billion records can be daunting. Their website indicates it is the largest genealogy organization in the world.
To obtain this massive amount of information, Family Search has worked with archives, libraries and churches in more than 100 countries for more than 120 years to facilitate economical access to records that help people find their ancestors.
The catalog of genealogical materials, including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche and publications, is available online. But how can you wade through all this information to find what you need? There is a number of ways to search the databases.
The easiest way to learn ways to research using Family Search is by attending the Augusta Genealogical Society’s presentation of “Navigating Tips For Family Search” on Sunday, June 24, from 2 to 3 p.m. at The Adamson Library, 1109 Broad St. The program is free and open to the public.
The speaker will be Beverly Boniewicz, who will have a Power Point presentation about navigating Family Search. The presentation will explore options to search new and updated features that have been added or will be added to the website.
Boniewicz has worked in the local Family History Center as a consultant for 15 years. Presently she is a consultant for familysearch.com. She also does private genealogy research for others. A native Augustan, she now lives in Edgefield County.
Those attending the program will be given tips such as:
when your ancestor has a common or unique name, you can add family members to your search to try to locate other relatives. You can add names of parents or you can use those spaces to add the children’s names or other relatives. You can add up to four family members in a search. This will tell the site to find records of the other person and/or with your ancestor. This means you can have up to four family members searched in one try.
when searching records, use the batch number. A batch number is given to each batch of records when they were originally microfilmed. It indicates a single source type, such as records from a church. Once you have a batch number for a relative’s record, you can search with that number to find other relatives who may appear in records from the same batch.
Many more tips and ideas will be presented at the program.
For further information, contact Augusta Genealogical Society at 706-722-4073.
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