The BYU Family History Library (FHL) is located in the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) on the campus of

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

in Provo, Utah. It is one of the Family History Centers devoted to assisting library patrons in

genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

research. It began as a small section of the BYU library in 1962, and later expanded into a branch of the

Family History Library The Family History Library (FHL) is a genealogical research facility in downtown Salt Lake City. The library is open to the public free of charge and is operated by FamilySearch, the genealogical arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

, the genealogical library of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

, in 1964. It was formerly known as the Utah Valley Regional Family History Center. The BYU FHL houses a large collection of physical materials, such as microfilms, photographs, books, and other documents. It also offers access to digital materials, including genealogical databases and digitized newspapers. Scanners, computers, and printers are also available. The BYU FHL assists patrons online through its website, YouTube channel, and hosted webinars. It also offers classes in a variety of areas related to genealogy. Online Materials at the BYU FHL

History

After the establishment of the J. Reuben Clark library in 1961 (later called the Harold B. Lee Library), a few family history research materials were incorporated the following year. A branch of the genealogical library of the LDS Church was then established in the library in 1964. It contained the library of the Utah county Genealogical Historical Society and a catalog of the materials in the main genealogical library in Salt Lake City. The genealogical library branch was located on the 4th floor, with specialized reference personnel. With the help of other library workers, Eve Nielsen recataloged the Genealogical Society of Utah's Utah county records over three years. In 1973, construction on an expansion of the BYU library began, and the Utah Valley Branch Genealogical Library expanded along with it. In the 1990s, the BYU Family History Library (then called the Utah Valley Regional Family History Center) offered to the public classes conducted by research consultants on various computer research tools. These included courses on DOS, IBM

Personal Ancestral File Personal Ancestral File (PAF), as of 2013, is a discontinued free genealogy software provided by FamilySearch, a website operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It allowed users to enter names, dates, citations and source infor ...

, and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

Personal Ancestral File. In 2000, the BYU FHL moved into the new addition of the Harold B. Lee Library. Before

FamilySearch FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is closely connected with the church's Family Histo ...

developed its own

FamilySearch Indexing FamilySearch Indexing is a volunteer project established and run by FamilySearch, a genealogy organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The project aims to create searchable digital indexes of scanned images of historical ...

project, much of the scanning of genealogical materials for the FamilySearch website took place at the FHL. As of 2008, around 50 different classes were offered by the FHL, including instruction on conducting international research.

Present day

Today, the BYU Family History Library is located on level 2 of the Harold B. Lee Library. It is staffed with librarians, student employees, and family history

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

. These volunteer missionaries help visitors to the BYU FHL conduct research using the FHL's online and print resources. They also assist members of the LDS Church in preparing the names of ancestors for vicarious ordinances. Faculty, students, and community patrons can access genealogical databases (such as

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

, Fold3, and

FindMyPast Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy service owned, since 2007, by British company DC Thomson. The website hosts billions of searchable records of census, directory and historical record information. It originated in 1965 when a group of ge ...

), digital scanners, and computers with genealogical software. The BYU FHL's array of scanners digitize materials such as

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...

, photographs, negatives, loose documents, and bound books. Patrons can also print large fan charts at the library. The FHL houses almost 500,000 microfilms, obtained from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Digitized historical newspapers from the US and UK are also available. The BYU Family History Library website links to resources for patrons' research and offers virtual assistance. In order to reach people remotely, the FHL offers webinars on a variety of topics related to genealogy. Upcoming webinars are announced on the BYU FHL's website. The FHL also operates a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel with genealogy tutorials. With the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the library began operating a virtual reference desk. The FHL currently offers indexing classes and classes on Sunday in addition to its webinars.

References

External links

*
BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byu Family History Library

Genealogy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Libraries in Utah University and college academic libraries in the United States Genealogical libraries in the United States Harold B. Lee Library-related articles

History

Present day

See also

References

External links