FamilySearch Completes Massive Microfilm Digitization

FamilySearch, a genealogy company that is provided as a service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has completed the digitization of a massive microfilm collection. This effort makes billions of historical genealogy records freely available online.

According to Family Search, it is a milestone 83 years in the making. FamilySearch International announced the completion of a massive project to digitize its collection of millions of roles of microfilm containing billions of family history records from around the world. The archive containing information on more than 11.5 billion individuals is now freely available to the public at FamilySearch.org.

Over 200 countries and principalities and more than 100 languages are represented in the digitized documents. Completion of the project makes it much easier for individuals to make more personal and family discoveries.

To explore FamilySearch’s free collections of indexed records and images, go to FamilySearch.org and search both “Records” and “Images”. The Images feature enables users to peruse digitized images from the microfilm collection and more. A free FamilySearch account will be required to access the service.

FamilySearch has been collecting, preserving, and providing access to genealogically significant historical records for more than 100 years. Those records include birth, death, marriage, census, military service, immigration, and other types of documents.

For many decades, duplicates of the original rolls could be ordered and viewed at one of FamilySearch’s more than 5,000 family history centers worldwide. The process of duplicating and distributing microfilm copies, and the laborious research that followed, seems excruciating by today’s instant online research standards. At the time, it was innovative and the easiest, most economical way available to help patrons worldwide find family information without having to travel to an archive holding the original works.

FamilySearch ended its microfilm distribution to family history centers in September 2017 when it began to transition to an all-digital, free, online access approach. The microfilm collection will continue to be preserved, but the information the rolls contain can now be easily viewed and searched online.

Related Articles on FamilyTree.com:

FamilySearch is Discontinuing Microfilm Distribution

FamilySearch – End of Sending Microfilm

FamilySearch Stops Microfilm Circulation – What You Need to Know