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From:
Subject: Using the SLC library --
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 22:19:00 MST

Here is a small essay on using the main LDS library in Salt
Lake City, which I wrote a couple of years ago. I would
assume that much of it is still valid and possibly of
interest to Roots-L subscribers. This was originally
posted to one of the commercial Data nets...

If you have questions, I'd be happy to try to answer if
you send 'em via E-Mail.
--BW

-Bob Wier at Flagstaff, Arizona Northern Arizona University
...arizona!naucse!rrw | BITNET: | *usual disclaimers*

************************************* Description:
Comtemplating a trip to use the Mormon Genealogical
Library in Salt Lake City? I've made a couple of trips
and learned a few things. A purely subjective view of
the facility, where to stay, and how to proceed.

Keywords: Salt Lake, Mormon, Library, Research, Novice, Beginner
-------------------------------------

Impressions of Novice Researcher at the Genealogical Library, Salt
Lake City

Upon the death of my father in May of 1985, as the eldest child and
only son, it fell to me to see to the division of the estate among
myself and my sisters (a somewhat chauvinistic view these days,
perhaps, but that was the way my dad set it up). Several months into
the administration of the estate, it occurred to me that we were heirs
to some real estate which my dad had inherited from his father. It
eventually turned out that there were 11 heirs to this property,
distributed around various parts of the country. This situation
occurred generally because no one family member could afford to buy
the others out (or they did not wish to sell, since it was possible
oil land, when that meant something). Thus in order to set up the
paperwork for my sisters and myself to gain legal title to our part of
the estate, I had to prove to the County Clerks and Title companies
involved who owned what percentages and where they came from.

Due to the necessity of my understanding all the myriad family
relationships, I became interested in the earlier history of the
family name. Living in Southwestern Colorado, I am within a
reasonable driving distance from the Mormon Genealogical library at
Salt Lake City (about 8 hours). Although my youngest sister was a
Mormon, I am not, and so I approached the use of the facility with
some trepidati on. For anyone who is considering doing the same, I
can offer the following observations, for whatever they are worth. As
I have been there several times, I am starting to know my way around,
but anyone intimately familiar with the area, please excuse any
inaccuracies and feel free to correct me.

If you are driving in, the Library is located what is known as the
Temple Square/Salt Palace district, essentially on the north side of
the downtown area. If driving on Interstate 15, exits are few and far
between, so the best strategy is perhaps to exit at the North 6th
exit, and then go east towards the Capital dome (up on the hill, which
was actually a beach of Lake Bonneville several thousand years ago,
but that is a different story). Temple Square is located to the South
of the Capital. The library is on the west side of Temple Square (on
West Temple St., between N. Temple St. and S. Temple St., naturally),
in a block which also contains the art and history museum of the
Church, and Brigham Young's cabin. It is on the South end of the
block, a very large building, about 4 stories high (with several
basements) which is white (as is the museum). Parking is tight. I'd
suggest if you don't know anyone in the area to stay with, there are
several motels within walking distance.

A word about Salt Lake City city blocks: they are gigantic! If you
see a place advertised as being "within 3 blocks" of someplace, you'd
best bring your hiking shoes, because there will be quite a walk. In
fact, there are sometimes pedestrian stop lights in the middle of the
blocks so people don't have to walk to the next corner in order to
cross. Also Salt Lake City doesn't seem to believe in protected left
turn signals for traffic, so you take your chances. There is also
more pedestrian traffic in downtown Salt Lake than I've seen in any
other city in the Mountain West. I have stayed in both Travelodges
which are within walking distance (I've never seen two so close
together). The TravelLodge-Salt Lake City Downtown is **not** within
walking distance ("5 blocks from Temple Square"). The Travelodge -
Salt Lake City - at Temple Square is an older unit, with few
amenities, but is inexpensive and pleasant if you will be spending all
day in the library, and you don't have kids with you who want a
swimming pool. Single rooms are available from $30. 1-801-533-8200.
The other Travelodge - Salt Lake City, Salt Palace is more of a
regular upscale motel, which appears newer on the outside, but the
room I was in wasn't appreciably nicer than the other Travelodge, as
it had chipped tiles in the shower (no tubs either place in the room I
was in) and a very noisy heating system. Rates are singles from $41,
although Super Saver rates start at $38. 1-801-532-1000. They also
attempted to charge me for a local telephone call which I didn't make,
and seemed very offended when I told them they had a problem with
their telephone computer. There are family style breakfast - lunch -
dinner sit-down restaurants within walking distance. There are no
MacDonald's type fast food places that I have located closeby. There
is also a "City Center Motel" which might be cheaper located next to
the Travelodge at Temple Square, but looks somewhat seedy in
comparison. The Travelodge rate information was taken from the
Travelodge directory effective September 8th, 1986 and seemed accurate
from my experiences. I'm not sure how the rates would be likely to
change seasonally. It was very, very, cold while I was there in the
past couple of months; I understand it gets very, very, hot in the
summer.

The Library itself looks every bit of the millions it must have cost.
Being an academic, I have spent many hours in libraries, and this is
one of the nicest. As you enter the front door, I'd recommend you
veer off to the left and inquire about the short (10-15 minute)
audio-video slide show which will serve to orient you to the
facilities in the Library. Basically they recommend you first check
the catalog of family research already completed which is on file (
you may get lucky and find someone else has done most of the digging
for you ), and if nothing is found there, check the index of
researcher's interests to see if anyone is currently working on
something similar. If nothing is found there, then you are on your
own. The U.S. section is on the second floor. Other places in the
world are scattered about the other 5 floors. Naturally, all the
materials are non - checkout. You can figure on probably spending
about half a day on your first visit getting oriented. The holdings
are segmented into reference materials, mostly indexes, and the actual
detailed holdings. There is some printed material, but the majority
is on 35mm microfilm. The Church has teams out microfilming most of
the records held in each county clerk's office all over the U.S., as
well as what you'd expect as far as US Census and so forth are
concerned. Most records predate 1910 or so, although there are some
later materials. Generally, there are vital statistics (birth, death,
marriage), probate records, deed records, and court proceedings for
each county. There are also occasionally Church Records, Bible
Records, DAR & SAR materials. The library has some local history
holdings, but does not have things such as newspaper files. The major
indices are divided into a surname index and a locality index . I
seem to spen d most my time with the locality index, since I have a
good idea where my family was (in a general way).

The indexs are on microfiche, with many copies available, so you just
select the one you want, put it in the machine, and off you go. The
index will give you the microfilm roll number which contains the
records you want. You then go retrieve the roll (the library is
essentially totally open stack), put it in the 35mm reader and start
looking. There are probably at least 100 readers in the U.S. section.
Although there are signs stating usage time limits in busy periods, I
never found it to be that busy (of course, this was in the dead of
winter). It is pretty amazing, though, since the place never gets
really empty of users. The general age there (except for the staff)
seem to be in the 50's or older. Being 40 myself, I felt a little
conspicious. There are also a few very much younger (teens or early
20's) persons, whom I suspect are doing work directly for the church.

The most amazing thing are the thousands and thousands of rolls of
microfilm available. There are supposedly records on something like
68 million deceased persons there, and I can believe it. One of the
most interesting things from a computerist point of view is that in
the U.S. section, they have what appears to be an AT style machine
with the Locality index. At first, I thought this must just be a
terminal connected to a mainframe, but no, on closer inspection it was
revealed to be a stand alone unit with the locality index on CD-ROM,
the first time I have run across this new technology. In the
accompanying instructions, they go to great lengths to point out that
this is an evaluation unit, and that people should not purchase a
similar unit in anticipation of the CD-ROM being published for
personal use. It works, although the software for accessing the
information is kind of kludgy in my opinion. Slow, requiring exact
matches on spelling, and inflexible on output options. You really
need hardcopy along the lines of "print me all the microfilm roll
numbers pertaining to Botetourt Co., Va.", but this isn't possible.
The index takes just over one/half of one CS-ROM. Amazing, and very
interesting, despite the software limitations.

If you find something (almost certainly you will) in the detailed
records, copies are cheaply available - do it yourself. Plain paper
copies are 5 cents, and hard copy from microfilm is a dime. Quite a
bargain, really, although the copiers obviously live a hard life, and
the microfilm hard copy is not of a quality you could easily reproduce
in print. Hours are generally from 9 AM to 10 PM, varying around a
couple of hours, except closed on Sunday. If you need assistance, it
is generally better to select one of the older librarians. Various
classes are offered which can be attended, on research methods and so
forth.

Just as a novice researcher, a couple of observations. The US Census
is almost useless before 1850 or so; only good to see if a male
ancestor was in a particular place at a particular time. On the
earlier census there is no need to look at the actual census, many
indexes (by state) are available. Marriage statistics were kept
pretty early, but birth and death records seem to be a recent
innovation. Land transaction records are very helpful, as they can
pinpoint the arrival of a person in an area (bought) and the departure
(sold). Probate (and if you are really lucky, Will) records can lead
to children & siblings which were previously unknown. Even so, it
gets really tough to go back before 1800 or so.

One of the nice things you can do easily at Salt Lake is to follow a
trail through several different areas. For example, I had an uncle
about 1805 who mentioned in his will about his father's estate in
Pennsylvania, something unknown to me. I was able to go to the index,
pull out the land and probate transactions for the suspected county,
and located his father with minimum strain, in about an hour. Another
example: I knew that I had a great great grandfather in Mississippi
in 1850, but repeated attempts at the census index failed to yield his
name (I have a problem since there are about 28 variations on the WIER
spelling). Thus, I went to the microfilm of the *original* census
records for his county, and scanned down them until I ran across a
variant spelling with the correct first name, and children's names,
which took me 15 minutes or so. By noting the names of neighbors in
the census, I have also found that apparently my family moved west
with a number of others and they all settled in the same areas, since
the names are similar in two different localities on successive census
(again, mostly possible only on 1850 and later).

I also "caught" my great-great grandfather and one of my uncles away
at medical school in Alabama in 1850, which pinned down exactly when
he was attending college and which university to write to for more
information.

As I seem to spend 10 hours per day or so in the library while I am
there, I have found I can only take it for 2 or 3 days at a time
without getting the blind staggers from using the microfilm readers.
The next time I am back, in warmer weather, there are a number of
National Parks and Historic Sites (such as the Golden Spike Natl
Monument, where the transcon railroad was finished, north of the lake
in 1869 - am I the only one who noticed that it was 100 years and 6
weeks from the time the railroad was finished to when man walked on
the moon? ) which I plan on visiting, as a break from doing the
research.

Oh,yes. There is no charge for the use of the library. No one ever
asked me if I was a Mormon (I guess they welcome anyone furthering
research). If you write, or have access to a family history they do
not have in their holdings, you can lend it to them to be microfilmed.
They will give you a free copy of the microfilm as well. They warned
me it might be as long as a couple of months, but they returned the
history I lent them in about 3 weeks, and the microfilm copy arrive a
couple of weeks after that. One thing to bear in mind is that if you
produce a history, this is probably the one place where it will be
guaranteed to be around for a couple of hundred years. I feel some
what obligated to give them a copy of whatever I produce in return for
using the library free. Now if I can just find out where Joseph Wier
came from, who popped up in Botetourt Co., Va. about 1800...

Other things. You sould probably figure on spending at LEAST two
whole days in the library on your first visit. Also, ask everyone in
your family (especially older members) what is known about the family
history. WRITE IT DOWN! (in case you get run over by a truck). You
also really need a plan on what it is that you want to find out, and a
projected plan of research. It is possible to accumulate information so
rapidly that it overwhelms you and you lose track of what you are
doing.

If you are in the area in the nature of a vacation and you have kids,
they will be bored speechless in the library (in fact, I can't
remember exactly, but those under 12 may not be admitted). Its best
to have some other member in the family plan other activities for
them. Also be aware that 10 hours of intense research is completely
exhausting. All I wanted to do when I got back to the motel in the
evening was to fall in bed! And boy did my feet hurt!

- Bob Wier
Flagstaff Az, and Ouray, Colo

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