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By NathanJones |

I was told this morning by a Mormon Elder that the digitizing of the films in the Salt Lake City Repository is proceeding well. A process begun two years ago.

He told me that the first digitized films will be online shortly, and that they will be closing many Family History Centers, consolidating them since everything will be online soon. The remaining consolidated FHC's will be mostly for people without Internet access.

I was informed that the second Beta testing of the new software to view the films is nearing a successful conclusion.

I was told volunteers are needed who read Spanish to help index the digitized films. If you volunteer you can work from your home.

He said it took twenty years to index the 1880 census, so the indexing of the huge LDS film collection will take longer than the actual digital filiming.

I could not pin him down on how soon is soon, but I would not be surprised to see original documents online later this year.

This will of course, be an incredible leap forward for our purposes, and genealogy in general.

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oldcar53

18 years 7 months ago

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Nathan,

Thanks for that information, now where do we go or who do we contact to volunteer for the Spanish speakers and readers of documents for the digitizing project.

Thanks,
Alicia Carrillo,
San Jose, Ca

NathanJones wrote:

I was told this morning by a Mormon Elder that the digitizing of the films in the Salt Lake City Repository is proceeding well. A process begun two years ago.

He told me that the first digitized films will be online shortly, and that they will be closing many Family History Centers, consolidating them since everything will be online soon. The remaining consolidated FHC's will be mostly for people without Internet access.

I was informed that the second Beta testing of the new software to view the films is nearing a successful conclusion.

I was told volunteers are needed who read Spanish to help index the digitized films. If you volunteer you can work from your home.

He said it took twenty years to index the 1880 census, so the indexing of the huge LDS film collection will take longer than the actual digital filiming.

I could not pin him down on how soon is soon, but I would not be surprised to see original documents online later this year.

This will of course, be an incredible leap forward for our purposes, and genealogy in general.

Profile picture for user arturoramos

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arturoramos

18 years 7 months ago

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That is great news. I too have been told that they plan on closing down a lot of the family history centers soon. My local FHC recently got a whole new set of state of the art computers and wired for high speed internet access... presumably so that the films online will be accessible to patrons.

I did not realize that they would be rolling out the digital films so quickly. I imagine that the polyester films (and corresponding ordering process from the FHCs) will still be needed for a few years until they finish the filming process.

Does anybody know if they will be using the same indexing format as currently exists for films (IGI or VRI)? If so, which one? If not, what improvements or changes will be made to the indices?

The LDS has a status just below a Family History Center that has no Internet access but retains its collection of films.

They were considering downgrading the Hacienda Heights FHC in the San Gabriel Valley in suburban Los Angeles where I go about half a year ago. But reconsidered and left it a FHC for the time being.

They might consolidate films at other regional respositories at some point. I'm sure there's plenty of changes coming that we can't anticipate yet.

It was the LDS that began genetic testing as well, but unfortunately they sold off that entire field.

It would have been doubly potent to match online genetic and genealogical records.
The prospects stagger the mind!

Who would be better at getting a sample of Moctezuma's DNA than the Mormons?

When I was a social worker in the mid 1970s I remember requesting birth records from Utah, and getting back a rather unpleasant response. "We don't issue birth certificates on illegits!"

The only state that had that policy that I knew of. They've come a long way since then.

Mexico has always been one of the LDS's strongest interests. So I would guess they would have the films we need online rather rapidly.

Arturo,

They are closing my local FHC here in Port Orchard, WA at the end of the month. All the films I had on permanent hold will be sent back to Salt Lake. There are three other FHC's on this island, but they are only a third as large as the one here. I am afraid that they will close them all and keep only the ones in Tacoma and Seattle open. I would have to cross bridges over water or take ferries to get there. I haven't heard the final decision yet. Boo hoo. I felt like they told me there would be no more Christmas.

Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA ---

Emilie Garcia wrote:

They are closing my local FHC here in Port Orchard, WA at the end of the month.

Emily and others, does that mean that if they have not announced the closing of your LOCAL FHC, that it will not be closing soon? I have films at the Fremont FHC that I have not viewed yet and some of the first films I had ordered last year ,that I need to review again because I know I missed family names that I did not know were family at the time.

Boo hoo. I felt like they told me there would be no more Christmas. Emily I join you in mourning for the loss of these centers and here comes the but...........But maybe it will be better on-line. My wish is that the records be recorded verbatim, word for word , warts and all so that nothing will be lost.

Alicia Carrillo,
San Jose, Ca

They explained the digitizing process to me in detail. They are stretching out an entire film and taking a digital picture of that. So if part of the film slips, they have to start over.

It would be impossible to go back to the original documents and film them directly as they are still in their original repositories around the world. Many have been destroyed since their filming by one natural disaster, or another.

So what we will be seeing is a picture of the film for documents already on file. And probably direct digital photos of new documents coming into LDS possession.

What is odd is that they increased the price of the old films so sharply, almost doubled the borrowing charge just as they are about to make the films obsolete.

erniealderete@charter.net wrote:

>They explained the digitizing process to me in detail. They are stretching out an entire film and taking a digital picture of that. So if part of the film slips, they have to start over.
>
>It would be impossible to go back to the original documents and film them directly as they are still in their original repositories around the world. Many have been destroyed since their filming by one natural disaster, or another.
>
>So what we will be seeing is a picture of the film for documents already on file. And probably direct digital photos of new documents coming into LDS possession.
>
>What is odd is that they increased the price of the old films so sharply, almost doubled the borrowing charge just as they are about to make the films obsolete.
>
I was talking to another volunteer at my FHC and we speculated that the
LDS library is trying to "Slow down" the rental of the films so they can
put their manpower and effort into the digitizing project. I don't know,
just a guess. But whereas before I was freely ordering films now I
really think about it before I order. the increased definitely slowed me
down. I'm hoping that if it takes 6 years to do the whole library that
it will be in the first 3 years when they do the Colotlan and
Tlaltenango and Zacatecas and the and the and the films

joseph

Alicia,

I believe that the decision to close FHCs will depend on each stake's needs to reassign the use of their spaces. In the case here in town, the ever-growing numbers of new members in the congregations in Tacoma on the other side of the Narrows Bridge caused the need to create another stake and house it in the current building on this side in this county, and creating a need for space for more meeting rooms, etc. I think that the digitizing project made it easier to make the decision to downgrade the need for an FHC here. The teardown will start on May 1, and remodeling plans have been made and equipment, etc has been ordered, etc. Those of us who have many films on permanent loan are working feverishly on our films every day that we can get a volunteer member in. We have been going in every day except Sundays. We drag in early every morning and take breaks only for lunch. With only six more days to go, we can see we won't finish our films before they are sent back to Sal
t Lake.
It has been a tedious enough thing to have gone in three days a week for six years, but more so now that the push is on. Oh, well, it was nice while it lasted.

Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA ---

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makas_nc

18 years 7 months ago

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thanks. Here is a related link that I think is a search engine for the
material they already have finished. Not much there for Mexico yet, but
I did notice they have a survey. Maybe if we all did the survey and said
"Do Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes First, please" that we might
be able to get some attention to our wishes.

http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/ (search engine---try putting in Mexico under
"search all")

http://express.perseus.com/perseus/surveys/1734848031/6a0e74ac.htm (survey)

I hope they don't close my FHC as I have about many films on permanent
hold and the nostalgia of rolling a film will be something I'll always
remember. Especially thinking back to those times my heart was doing
backflips when I found my grandparents and great grandparents and my ggg
grandmother, Eduarda Torres Marquez' death certificate.

joseph

NathanJones wrote:

>I was told this morning by a Mormon Elder that the digitizing of the films in the Salt Lake City Repository is proceeding well. A process begun two years ago.
>
>He told me that the first digitized films will be online shortly, and that they will be closing many Family History Centers, consolidating them since everything will be online soon. The remaining consolidated FHC's will be mostly for people without Internet access.
>
>I was informed that the second Beta testing of the new software to view the films is nearing a successful conclusion.
>
>I was told volunteers are needed who read Spanish to help index the digitized films. If you volunteer you can work from your home.
>
>He said it took twenty years to index the 1880 census, so the indexing of the huge LDS film collection will take longer than the actual digital filiming.
>
>I could not pin him down on how soon is soon, but I would not be surprised to see original documents online later this year.
>
>This will of course, be an incredible leap forward for our purposes, and genealogy in general.

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