Plumbing the Depths of the FamilySearch Catalog

This is another in the "Plumbing the Depths" series of posts. This post is about the FamilySearch.org Catalog, the window to the entire collection of records on the website as well as the contents of the Salt Lake City, Utah Family History Library. The highlighted notice at the top of the Catalog page shown above reflects the closure of the Library and all the local Family History Centers due to the worldwide pandemic. 

I am still amazed to talk to people who profess and interest in their family's genealogy that are not familiar with the free FamilySearch.org website. I am more than aware of the ambivalent attitudes towards the FamilySearch Family Tree, but free records online are a bonanza and especially when there are billions of them. Here are some current statistics about the records on the FamilySearch.org website.

• Digital images published in FamilySearch's Historic Collections online 1.43 Billion
• Digital Images published only in the FamilySearch Catalog online 1.8 Billion
• Number of searchable historic record collections online 2,845 Collections
• Number of searchable records 5.07 Billion
• Number of digital books  489k

Granted, other websites claim more records but the records are behind a paywall. Actually, the records on the FamilySearch.org website are, in many cases, unique since microfilming of the records began in 1938, long before computers and digitization. Some of the records may no longer be available anywhere else in the world. Nearly all of the previously microfilmed records are now available in digital format. 

However, it is always important to remember that the number of records claimed for a website are meaningless if the website doesn't have the records you need or are looking for. That brings me to the FamilySearch.org Catalog. You don't know what is in the catalog until you actually look and looking may involve a fairly high degree of background and experience. 

There huge collection of records on the FamilySearch website is divided into two main categories: those records that are indexed and those records that are only available in the Catalog. If you look at the statistics I cited above, you will quickly see that there are more records in the Catalog that are available only as digital unindexed images than there are indexed images in the Historic Record Collections. This means that if you search for the name of your ancestor, you are absolutely missing all of the other potential records in the Catalog that are yet unindexed. What this means is that anyone who really wants to find their ancestors is going to have to follow traditional genealogical research methodology and search the digitized records page by page and name by name. This is what I mean by plumbing the depths. 

Let me give an example. I have a relative who was born on 27 June 1856 in Yadkin, Rowan, North Carolina, United States. I did searches for this person and relied on automatic record hints using the Historic Record Collections and found 33 sources. However, those records are limited to census, marriage, deaths, and burial records. Now, if I look in the Catalog, I will see a whole world of other record types that are available. Here is a series of screenshots of the different levels of records available from North Carolina. First, all of the records from the state level of North Carolina.

Perhaps this gives you an idea of what you are missing by stoping with name searches. But there is more. There is a link at the top of this long list to "Places within United States, North Carolina." This menu lists all of the North Carolina counties. 

Now, I can choose Yadkin County. Here are the categories of records from Yadkin County in addition to the records available on the state level. 

Here you can see Bible records, Biographies, Business records, Cemeteries, Court Records, and so forth. All of these categories of records should be examined and searched if they correspond to the time period when my relative lived in the county. Wait. There are more records. You can see a link to "Places within United States, North Carolina, Yadkin."

I can then get records from each of the towns listed. Here is one example from Boonville. 

Granted in this location there are not a lot more records but if there was a big city in the county, there would be a lot more records at this level. After reviewing and searching all the records at all these levels, you have now just begun your search. You have the rest of the internet with records that may have links to records about that particular area. You cannot dismiss FamilySearch as a record source until you have searched every single record in North Carolina or wherever you are looking. 

Now to repeat. That is what I mean when I write about plumbing the depths. You have to know that the depths are there and actually do the searches.