By Kay Speaks
Kenneth
Miller, Assistant Director of the Oakland Multi-Regional FHC Library in
Oakland, California, was our L-AGS general meeting guest speaker on Tuesday,
April 12. Mr. Miller is a retired high school teacher and has served as the
Oakland FHC Library's Assistant Director for the past 16 years. He specializes
in the Mid-West research and Personal Ancestral Files.
Sixty-two
members and guests of L-AGS, including FHC volunteers representing several
cities, were present for the presentation. Mr. Miller explained resources
specifically related to guests visiting the Oakland FHC Library.
There is
only one Family History Library (FHL) and that is located in Salt Lake City,
Utah. All other locations are called Family History Centers (FHC), most are
located at meeting houses of the LDS church. There are over 3,400 centers
worldwide. The centers are administered and operated by local church members,
with volunteers working at the centers. The Oakland Multi-Regional Family
History Center Library is fully staffed by knowledgeable volunteers. To locate
a specific FHC go to: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp?PAGE=library_fhc_find.asp. A search for Oakland resulted in the
following:
Oakland
California
4766 Lincoln Avenue
Oakland, Alameda County, California, United States
Phone: 510-531-3905
Hours: T-Th 10am-9pm; F, Sat 10am-4pm.
Attention: Library Location: in the lower level of the Oakland LDS Visitors
Center on Temple Hill.
Groups may
make arrangements for special research hours in Oakland by calling Director
John Jex and Assistant Director Kenneth Miller at (510) 531-3905.
Family
History Library (Salt Lake City):
Website: www.familysearch.org
Site Map: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp
The Study
Group committee is working on plans to spend one Study Group evening at the
Oakland Family History Center Library. There will be a special orientation at
the beginning, and then members and guest will be able to use the library for
personal research. The date and special time will be announced. The normal
library hours are 10 AM- 9 PM on Thursday, so you will be able go early and
stay late if you wish. Members will have to provide their own transportation. I
talked to several members attending the meeting and a trip to Oakland was
enthusiastically endorsed.
o
Sony
has determined CDs have a life of 10 years because of the glue used in the
processing. Archival CDs are available, but remember technology changes and CD
readers may not be available in 10 years.
o
Salt
Lake will be introducing a new website shortly. Mr. Miller couldn't say more
other than to state, "you won't need to order film in future" – how far
into the future wasn't mentioned. However, he did say in 6-10 years they won't
be shipping any rolls of film. Was that a twinkle in his eye as he spoke?
Perhaps soon we will be able to access the first efforts of this program. Salt
Lake is starting with the most requested types of records for this digitizing
project.
o
Computers
in Oakland running XP Operating Systems weren't able to access census records
from Ancestry.com. The software vendor has provided a software patch and this
problem will be fixed within a week. The software has worked at the library for
all other Windows operating systems.
o
Be
certain to use the "My Favorites" bookmarks on the library's workstations to
access the local volunteers' favorite research websites. (See below for
specific directions).
o
Jewish
genealogy has an excellent new web site – Yad Vashem – The
Holocaust Martyrs & Heroes Remembrance Authority <http://www.yadvashem.org/>.
It includes some wonderful maps. Even if you don't research genealogy you
should visit this site.
o
There
is one enhanced computer at the library. If you can't read a copy of a
document, copy it to a flash drive, CD or floppy diskette and use this computer
to read the document. Ralph Corral, library volunteer, uses this workstation's
enhanced features to read poor quality records from early American and Spanish
records. If Ralph is available, you might ask him for help. He has taught
himself to read difficult and bad documents from many years of practice.
o
All
surname books in the library are donated. Volunteers have spent much time
cataloging all surnames in the books. Sometimes the names have to be mentioned
twice to be cataloged. This has been over a two year project for their
volunteers.
o
There
is a new book about New York entry records. As you know the 1890 census records
were burned. The City of New York had the city police conduct their own census.
The index to the census will show location where someone lived, which will give
your enumeration district. I didn't hear the name of the book, but you can ask
about it at the library for more details.
o
Microfiche
ordered from their library will stay there permanently. If you see a missing
microfiche in a series, let the staff know and they will reorder it.
o
Card
catalogs have been digitized and replaced by a new software package called Athena. (See below for tips using this
software.) Mr. Miller suggested the subject line search not be used. This
software has just been introduced at the Oakland FHC.
o
The
search catalog in Oakland is the same as that in Salt Lake. Look at the Salt
Lake website for the catalog number, and then look to see if Oakland has the
same document in their catalog of local holdings.
o
Books
don't ship to FHCs because of copyright issues. If approval has been granted to
copy a document or book, then Salt Lake will copy and digitize it.
o
The
Family History Library and the FHCs are not part of the public library system
and, therefore, do not participate in interlibrary loans.
o
Military
Records – are located in special archives within NARA. NARA is only
beginning to release these records to Salt Lake. The most complete resource for
military records is still NARA.
o
There
is no charge to use the Oakland FHC library. There are many knowledgeable and
trained volunteers to help with your research questions. Saturday parking in
the mornings is very difficult. Mr. Miller suggested arriving on Saturdays
after 1:30 PM.
o
If a
pedigree file is wrong, you may submit a GEDCOM file with sources and have it
attached under your name to the original Personal Ancestral File. Then
researchers using that file can decide which information they want to use. It
is known the Personal Ancestral Files have had many problems from over the
years. Some of the files have removed without authorization which causes
problems for other researchers. But there is still some good information to be
found in the records.
o
You
can tell the year the PAF document was submitted – the first two numbers
of the batch number is the year submitted.
o
Restrictions
of LDS church adding files to their holdings: Holocaust victims, and if a
family puts in their files that they are restricted from being included in the
LDS holdings. (Note – you should contact the church to get specific
directions on this procedure.)
o
If you
go to Salt Lake and have questions, look for someone with a gold badge as they
are the permanent staff. Those with black badges are usually 2-year volunteers.
The
following was provided to attendees of the meeting. It is reprinted with
permission of the Oakland FHC, 4/13/2005, Roots Tracer and hard copy for distribution.
1.
Approximately
7,000 books, including basic genealogical, family and county histories.
2.
Locality
books for U.S. and foreign countries – indexes, maps and gazetteers.
3.
Approximately
33,000 rolls of microfilm and over 6,500 sets of microfiche.
4.
Over
225 CD data sets.
5.
Microfilms:
6.
Microfiche,
International Genealogical Index (IGI). Includes 1992 ed. For U.S. & Canada,
British Isles and Scandinavia, containing over 200 million individuals.
ß
Family
History Library Catalog
ß
1880
U.S. Every Name Census Index
ß
1881
Canadian Census Index
ß
1881
Census – England, Scotland, Wales
7.
Family
Search® on 17 computers containing:
ß
Family
History Library Catalog (FHLC)
ß
Ancestral
File
ß
Social
Security Death Index
ß
Korean
& Vietnam Military Death Index
ß
Scottish
Church Records
ß
International
Genealogical Index (IGI)
ß
Ordinance
Index (for Temple Ready preparation)
8.
All
computers are capable of using the CDs and are on line for internet searches
including Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com
9.
Equipment:
ß
4
reader/printers for copying microfilm and microfiche
ß
24
microfilm readers
ß
5
microfiche readers
ß
Plain
paper photocopier
You may be
surprised if you find the old card catalog files missing when you visit the
library. All the cards have been digitized and can be found by searching Athena – their new computer catalog
software.
Tips for
searching Athena.
Antioch Concord
Danville Fremont
Hayward Livermore
Oakland Pleasanton
San Francisco San
Francisco East
San Francisco West San
Leandro
Walnut Creek
These are
what the staff in Oakland considers consistently reliable websites. They can be
found on the computers at the library. To access the following list from their
computers -- from the FamilySearch® home page, select "Favorites" from the
toolbar. The following sites have been bookmarked for your research
convenience. There are more sites available, but these are considered "staff
favorites." Mr. Miller asked researchers to provide the Oakland library any
consistently reliable websites that you have found useful and they will add
them to the bookmarked list. You might want to use Google to find these sites
and bookmark them in your personal favorites list.
o
African
American Genealogical Society
o
Afro-Louisiana
History & Genealogy
o
Cyndi's
List – African American
o
Slavery
Era Insurance
o
AfnGeneas
o
Schomburg
Center
o
National
Archives of Canada
o
Census
of Canada 1901
o
Chinese
Immigrants – Introduction
o
1901
Census of England & Wales
o
English
Civil Registration
o
A2A
– Access to Archives Home Page
o
Gen
UK-Ireland
o
The
National Archives Documentations On Line
o
The
Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London
o
Welcome
to the family researcher web site
o
Map24
– Map and driving directions for USA and Canada
o
USGS
map information
o
Ancestry.com
(missing some 1880 census; go to FHC Vital Records)
o
Cyndi's
List of Genealogy Sites
o
Genealogy-links.org
o
MyGenealogy.com
o
MyTrees.com
o
State
Historical Genealogical Societies
o
US
GenWeb Project
o
World
GenWeb Project
o
Family
History online-searchable databases for family history
o
Genealogy
Search Internet Service at Globe Cemetery
o
Links
to Genealogy Web Sites
o
Jewish
Genealogy
o
RTRF
Foundation
o
Yad
Vashem – The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority
o
BLM
Land Records
o
Library
Links
o
State
Archives Links
o
California
State Library Catalog
o
Friends
of the Library
o
Periodical
Indexes
o
Buffalo
Barracks Army Enlisted
o
Civil
War Soldiers and Sailors System
o
National
WWWII Memorial
o
Nationwide
Gravesite Locator
o
National
Archives Order Form
o
A2A
Access to Archives Home
o
New
England Historic Genealogical Society
o
The
National Archives Documents Online
o
The
Proceeding of the Old Bailey
o
Danish
Census
o
Digitalarkivet
o
Searching
the 1865, 1875 and 1900 Census for Norway
o
The
Genealogical Society of Finland
o
National
Archives Databases
o
Searchable
Databases
o
Vital
Records Information
o
Death
Records Online – Searchable Death Indexes for USA
o
Vital
Search – Worldwide.com State Search Portal
o
Ellis
Island Records
o
Immigrant
Ships Transcribers Guild
o
Immigration,
Census, etc.
o
Trail
of Hopes