ON THE RECORD
Nearly 60,000 microfilms looked after by the LDS Church at The National Archives will be transferred to the Society of Genealogists Library later this year
Current news and data releases
A collection of 57,000 microfilms held by the London FamilySearch Centre at The National Archives has been acquired by the Society of Genealogists (SoG).
The films, featuring mostly UK records, will be permanently transferred from Kew to the SoG Library in Clerkenwell at the end of June.
The agreement was reached after the London FamilySearch Centre was informed by The National Archives that it would have to downsize as part of upcoming redevelopment work. Researchers who require the microfilms will now have to travel to the centre of the capital, other services provided by the London FamilySearch Centre – including more than 30 computer terminals – will remain at The National Archives for the time being.
Visitors to Kew will still be able to receive expert research advice from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and continue browsing digitised records on familysearch.org, including those not available on home computers.
The SoG Library will also become an ‘affiliate’ library of FamilySearch, meaning it too will be able to offer access to the Mormon organisation’s extensive collection of online records, in addition to the microfilms. This will be free to all SoG members, although non-members will have to pay the library’s standard visitor fees (starting at £5 for two hours) to use any services within the building.
Brian McKechnie, Family History Centre logistics specialist at FamilySearch, explained the rationale behind the move to Who Do You Think
You Are? Magazine: “The National Archives is working through a programme to improve and redevelop their research floor and unfortunately the space available for the London FamilySearch Centre will need to be reduced in June 2017. While the centre will remain at Kew, there is no space for the microfilm collection.
“The Society of Genealogists very kindly came to the rescue, providing an accessible site for what is a unique record collection.”
If a researcher cannot find what they are looking for among the records, copies of other microfilms held by the LDS Church in Salt Lake City can be delivered to the SoG Library for a small charge – just like any other Family History Centre across the UK.
However, Mr McKechnie said it was unlikely that visitors would require this service, given the size and scope of the London FamilySearch Centre’s microfilm collection and the number of records gradually being made accessible online at LDS Family History Centres across the world.
Else Churchill, genealogist at the SoG, said that the library was “more than happy” to accommodate the microfilms, in addition to several microfilm readers.
“We’re delighted to help – it’s a great idea and we don’t want to see the films withdrawn overnight under any circumstances,” she said. “No one would want to remove them from the community entirely because they’ve been curated and looked after very well.
“They complement the records we’ve already got here and may well duplicate some too.”
As well as acquiring the London FamilySearch Centre microfilms, the SoG Library has also agreed to provide accommodation for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain ( JGSGB).
From May, the JGSBG will have its own designated space in the building that will be open to the public at a cost of £5 (free for JGSGB members) on the first Friday and third Sunday of every month. Visitors will be able to browse the JGSGB’s library books, receive research advice and attend talks in the SoG lecture theatre.
The SoG very kindly came to the rescue, providing an accessible site for the collection