ldscntr 3820 980630 LDS Family History Centers +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ LDS FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ A JewishGen InfoFile The Mormons believe that people who are no longer alive can be baptized and that genealogy research uncovers unknown people for this purpose. As a religion dependent on and interested in converts, the Mormon Church is interested in all genealogical records. To gain access to the material gathered by the Mormon's you need not travel to Salt Lake City, you merely need to visit a Family History Center. These centers are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Most are located in meeting houses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Everyone is welcome to use these centers and patrons can search million of records easily and quickly. DEFINITIONS: Family History Library - Main library, Salt Lake City. Family History Center - Local branch library. Volunteers will help you use the resources at each center. These resources generally include the International Genealogical Index, the Family History Library Catalog (tm), Family Registry (tm), Ancestral File (tm) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The centers also have reference source and copies of some records from the Family History Library. For the address of the center nearest you, see Yellow Pages, "Churches-LDS". Before you visit, phone the center to find out when it is open. You can do much of your family history research at a Family History Center by requesting copies of records from the Family History Library. Most records are on microfilm or microfiche and can be loaned to a center for a small fee. Since their staffs are limited, the centers cannot respond to mail inquiries. LDS collections include thousands of reels with Jewish records. For an extensive list of their holdings for Germany, Poland and Hungary, see the `Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy', p.112 . Also see the latest `Avotaynu' index and the JewishGen `FAQ'. [Note: to obtain copies of the index and faq, send e-mail requests to and . The best way to see if Jewish records have been microfilmed for your area of interest is to check the most recent edition of the "Family History Library Catalog" (FHLC), available on microfiche and/or CD-ROM at every Family History Center, and updated every year. The records are arranged by locality and they are classified as "JEWISH RECORDS" wherever possible. Look in the LOCALITY section of the FHLC under the heading: "[Country], [Province], [Town] - JEWISH RECORDS". For example: "POLAND, LUBLIN, CHELM - JEWISH RECORDS". If you don't know the current province, there is a cross-reference by town name on the first few fiche of each country's sequence. You'll find a very extensive collection of 19th century Jewish birth, marriage and death records for Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, and Belarus (microfilming in the former Soviet Union has begun recently.) Also search the "Social Security Death Index" (SSDI). It is an index to millions of records of US Citizens whose families collected death benefits. Families can obtain detailed records after locating an individual in this index. See InfoFile on that topic. Also see InfoFile "lds-slc" for details about the Family History Library, Salt Lake City. ------------ [30Jun98]bik Information compiled from published sources. Provider: Bernard Kouchel +----------------------------------------------------------------------+