Digitization: Those pesky icons & more
The Legal Genealogist was as dismayed as anyone when FamilySearch announced back in June that microfilm ordering would be ended this fall… and there were some gaps in the new system for access to microfilmed records.
Never fear.
Many of those gaps in the system have been filled, and more are being filled on a regular basis.
Here’s the story:
FamilySearch told us all back in June that it would be switching from providing access to its huge collection of records on microfilm to providing access digitally.1
In some ways, that was good news: it’s been more and more trouble to keep microfilm readers working and even to find raw microfilm to make new copies of microfilmed records. But there were other ways where it was bad news since the entire collection of microfilm won’t be fully digitized until 2020, and there were some questions about accessing the records in the meantime.
One open question when the announcement was made was about accessing records that can’t be put on the FamilySearch website because of contractual issues. While they could be accessed at Family History Centers (FHCs), it wasn’t clear whether they could be accessed at affiliate libraries such as the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Clayton Library in Houston and a vast array of other similar facilities.
The big advantage to affiliates, of course, is their longer hours and greater accessibility.
At the time the announcement was made, affiliate access hadn’t been resolved. It has been since then as the result of successful tests of a security system and it’s now clear that virtually all of the contractually-limited digitized records will be accessible at both FHCs and affiliates.2
Another issue at the time of the announcement was films that are labeled Granite Mountain Vault films. In the past, you could order those films only if you were at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and they’d be delivered a day or two later for you to use at the library. The original announcement said that would be ended, and that would have meant a gap in accessing those vault film records until they were digitized — which might not be until 2020.
That’s been resolved. Patrons at the Family History Library can still order the vault films, and once they’re delivered to the library, they’ll remain there and be added to the digitization queue.
Those were the big issues — and they’ve been fixed.
Then there was the minor annoyance of the icons at the FamilySearch website that became a major annoyance to anyone trying to access these newly-digitized films at home.
Now I get it: FamilySearch is a free non-subscription website provided as a public service and it seems a bit petty to complain about the way it works (definitely “first world problems” here). But the forty-‘leventh time you click on a camera icon that suggests a record set is available online only to get the message that it’s only available at FHCs and affiliates, the words that can come out of your mouth are really not pretty.
So I’m pleased to report that’s been fixed too.
As you can see from the image above, the FamilySearch website now has different icons for record sets that are digitized and available to view at home on your computer and record sets that have been digitized but can only be viewed at FHCs and affiliates.
Definitely moving forward at FamilySearch… and I for one am most grateful.
SOURCES
Note: a tip of the hat to Ann Donnelly for pointing out the new icon!
- See “FamilySearch Digital Records Access Replacing Microfilm,” FamilySearch, posted 26 June 2017 (http://media.familysearch.org/ : accessed 28 June 2017). ↩
- See “UPDATE: FamilySearch Digital Records Access Replacing Microfilm,” FamilySearch, posted 30 Aug 2017 (http://media.familysearch.org/ : accessed 25 Sep 2017). ↩
Well knowing which I have to access at a FHC is a good thing. Getting there and not being able to access them there because I could only open them at the family history center was frustrating. In the end, the Director had to log in on a computer so I could access some of those records about 3-4 months ago. I hope they were able to fix that issue too.
Sharon, a Church member or the center Director formerly had to log me in, as well, to view restricted records. At my center, that is no longer the case. In fact, I can view the records on my own computer, if I am on the center wi-fi.
Ann, I am puzzled by this. I tried to access the records at the Family History Center with my own laptop but could not as I was told I could only access records on the Centre’s own computers, not just by accessing their wifi!
That’s something that needs to be reported to FamilySearch — there’s a switch that may need to be flipped for that FHC’s wifi.
Thanks Judy. I wrote my post before going to the Center today. When I tried again I WAS able to access the records!
Excellent! Good to know they’re diligently working on this!
I’m still confused about access to the records indicated by the “locked camera” icon. My experience so far is that a large number of German records with that icon are even more restricted: i.e., only accessible with an LDS account. I just returned from a week researching at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The same LDS restriction was in effect on them there. Are local FHC staff permitted to provide access to such records to patrons visiting Family History Centers?
I think you’d have to ask FamilySearch about those and likely there’s no one right answer.
I am greatly appreciative of FamilySearch providing records for free to the general public and my concerns don’t lessen that appreciation. However, the idea that digitization of their millions of rolls of microfilm would make access easier for home users (yes, it is easier at an center or an affiliate library – you don’t have to pay for microfilm and wait for it to arrive) only partially seems to be happening. Or at least all the records that I would like to access seem to be the ones limited to centers or affiliates – no home access.
My experience is that many records initially restricted are being moved to unrestricted (and thus online) as permissions are acquired. But the number of permissions required vastly outnumbers the people available to work on getting permissions, so this is a long-term project.
Me, too, Kevin. Murphy’s Law? But I’ll take what I can get and the bonus, it’s free from my chair.
It’s almost like there’s no advantage to working a few blocks away from the FHL 🙂
This is good to clarify though as I sometimes stopped in for research and was deep in the catalog before I found that everything I wanted was online, so why am I here instead of going home to dinner?!?
I’d still want to live/work near the FHL no matter what!!! 🙂
Judy,
I always see microfilm referenced – not microfische. Will that be available at all? There were newspaper clippings from Brunswick, Ga and other records that are only on fische and I am not seeing them referenced. I have some on permanent loan in Ohio – I no longer live there so does not do much good. I also have multiple rolls of film there from Alsace if anyone near Perrysburg, Oh needs them.
At least one set of Mississippi probate records microfilm is available at Ancestry (for subscribers, of course), while the FamilySearch site has the locked icon indicating availability only at FHCs or affiliates. So that’s worth checking, if you’re an Ancestry subscriber. But I also wonder if a contractual agreement with Ancestry precludes open access by FamilySearch?
That’s possible, and it’s equally possible that FamilySearch simply hasn’t gotten signed permissions yet. They’re working on it, but they have more records than lawyers… and even as a genealogist with a law degree I think that’s a good thing! 🙂
There are records appearing with a key which are available at home —
they just require a sign-in to FamilySearch. Seems like maybe the key just indicates some level of restriction, but not necessarily what level?
I was just informed by Robert Raymond of FamilySearch that, right now, the key icon means you can’t see them from the computer you’re using with the level of permissions you have at this moment. Sometimes, that does only mean you’re not logged in to FamilySearch. They hope to modify that in the future to be clearer, but yeah… sometimes you just need to sign in to your own free account.
The films online for courthouse records in Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, Utah, and California are now FHC viewable only. I used the Texas courthouse records during the summer from home. Why has this changed? No one at LDS will answer any questions. The Texas State Library made certain in the agreement to film the records that they would be available. Complaints are being directed to Austin about the LDS restriction of those records. One has to conclude the LDS will not be a stable research archive until the issues involved are fixed. I don’t think they understood the size of the project.
Doug Bell, if you mean probate records, I just checked the Texas probate records. They only require that I be signed in with my free (not LDS Church member) FamilySearch log-in.
Nope. Viewable only at Family History Centers. Just checked Robertson county probate and deeds. Those were viewable at home last June.
Doug
Just verified Robertson County can be viewed from home. Again, I am not an LDS Church member – just signed in with my free FamilySearch account.
Ann, I had the same experience as Doug, even when I was logged in (via a non-LDS account).
Perhaps we are not looking at the same databases. Doug said courthouse, and I asked if he meant probate, since that is the term that Familysearch.org uses.
I went directly to Texas probate records – and then to Robertson County, since that was a county Doug mentioned specifically.
Texas Probate = https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2016287 using the Location feature. Under that designation, there are Minutes and a Probate Index, with this pop-up
Images Available
To view these images you must do one of the following:
Sign in to FamilySearch.org
Access the site at a family history center.
Access the site at a FamilySearch affiliate library.
When I sign-in with my Familysearch username, I can see those records.
Thanks, Ann. This is a bit odd. It seems that the ability to access those records depends on how you pull them up. If I click on the link you provided, I can indeed log in and see those images. However, if I go to the Catalog, search on Robertson Co., TX, and choose probate records from the resulting list, the options I get when I try to access, say, the Index to Probate Minutes 1838-1926, are access only through FHCs or affiliate libraries. There is no opportunity to log in (and I still get only these two options if I’m already logged in.) This is true whether I choose a specific film listed under Film Notes or instead click on the link entitled “Notes: Texas probate records are online, click here” and navigate to the images I want.
I’m not able to access Robertson Co., TX deeds or probate records from home, even when logged in.