By: Mars Bourke 

Have you ever found yourself wondering about your family tree, about those in your family you never heard of? Have you ever wanted to know more about your family’s genealogy? If so, then the Dauphin County Library is here to help with its Getting to Know FamilySearch Event.  

The Library as of late 2023 has teamed up with FamilySearch, the world’s largest free genealogy website. This partnership is thanks to The Library’s own Lynette Palmer who worked very hard to enhance the genealogy resources that The Library provides to its patrons.  

“When The Library ended its subscription to MyHeritage at the end of 2020, I highlighted FamilySearch as a resource to check out… I was looking for more ways to enhance the genealogy resources we could share with members,” states Palmer. “When I discovered that it was free to become an affiliate library, I knew that becoming one would be a great benefit to our members. “All DCLS locations have access to this database of over 400 million digitized images and information and can be searched freely by patrons at any of The Library’s 8 locations. 

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization has dedicated its time to providing people access to a web database that contains family history resources free of charge. Whether you are part of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not, all have free access to their services.  

While most of the database can be accessed from one’s home, some information can only be accessed via a FamilySearch Center or an affiliated library, which as stated above, all 8 locations The Library has are affiliated with. 

To help showcase what FamilySearch has to offer, The Library will be holding an event on October 12th to help explain and guide patrons through FamilySearch’s databases. During this event hands-on activities will take place to allow patrons to explore FamilySearch’s indexed and unindexed collections, their Wiki, and their vast image collection. This event will also give patrons a chance to explore their own family history if they wish to do so.  

While there are no requirements to attend, staff do suggest that those wishing to participate create a FamilySearch account beforehand to help streamline their experience. Laptops will also be available to those who need them. Staff also encourage participants to bring a flash drive if they wish to save any of their family records to view at home. 

If you are interested in attending The Library’s Getting to Know FamilySearch Event, please visit https://dcls.libcal.com/event/12897885 to register. This event is open to persons 18+ and runs from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.