Glasgow and West of Scotland FHS centre becomes FamilySearch Affiliate Library

Some great news from the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk):

On 1st November 2022, our Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society research centre and library at 32 Mansfield St, Glasgow, G11 5QP became a FamilySearch Affiliate Library.

FamilySearch is a non-profit organisation and website affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Department. The Family History Department was founded in 1894 as the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). The GSU began microfilming records of genealogical importance in 1938. FamilySearch is free of charge to everyone, regardless of tradition, culture or religious affiliation.

The FamilySearch website offers free access to a huge database of digital images and indexes of genealogical records. Access to these records is subject to copyright and an agreement with the owner or custodian of each record set. In many cases, the images are not available for you to view at home, but may be viewed on-site at a Family History Centre, an Affiliate Library, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

If you visit our premises you may view most of the images, using our PCs or your own device connected to our network via wifi. Once you leave our premises, you will be unable to view the restricted images on-line and so please download your selected images to your device before you leave. If you use our PCs, we can print your images or forward them to you via email.

We don’t have an institutional login to FamilySearch; you must login to FamilySearch using your own credentials. If you don’t have a FamilySearch account, you can easily create one using the Create Account button at the top righthand side of the FamilySearch home screen.  There is no charge or subscription for a FamilySearch account.  You must login to FamilySearch to view the images.

FamilySearch has many records relevant for research in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. For example, they have unindexed and untranscribed images of many Cemetery records. Please refer to the FamilySearch Catalog or their Research Wiki for more details.

(Original story at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/2023/02/12/familysearch-affiliate-library/)

I've heard from Murray Archer, the society's minutes secretary, that the centre became a FamilySearch affiliate in November, but that they did not wish to publicise the fact straightaway in order to allow time for training of volunteer assistants. This is now the second family history society in Scotland to become a FamilySeach affiliate, with Aberdeen and North-East Scotland FHS having that status also. 

The Family History Centre in Julian Avenue closed more than four years ago - if you are a former patron of that centre, a member of the GWSFHS, or simply someone wishing to find out more about membership, visit the society's website at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/about/research-centre/ for further details, including opening hours.

Now that I am a member of the society, I'll need to pop up to take a look! In the meantime, you can read about the Scottish Genealogy Network's visit to the centre in 2015 at http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com/2015/03/sgn-visit-to-glasgow.html.

(With thanks to Murray)

Chris

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