LDS family history centers

[dermotdjt]

So I'm planning a new project for next year - try to organise the online records for the Tackaberry's of Pillaton, Cornwall into family groups and see how far forward and backwards in time I can get. Also hoping to try and workout when the name moved to Ireland

A lot of these records are either on the Cornwall OPC site (excellent resource for anyone with connections to Cornwall) or on the FamilySearch site. There is a LDS Family History Center in Plymouth I could visit to look at their records but I was wondering what addtional details would be available from the records at the center that is not already published online. Are the online records just an abstract of the availbale info at the centre.

Woul welcome your thoughts on if the centers are worth visiting and what addtional info you have gleened from them.

And does anyone have any family info relating to Pillaton, cornwall from about 1550 - 1750 they care to share.

Thanks

Dermot

[JBee]

I think it depends on the parish as to what additional info is given, until you look you don't know. I would certainly order the film into the FHC and take your time going through it. Hopefully it's written clearly - I do often have problems reading parish records.

Check with the local FHC some have quite restrictive opening hours. You may need to book a reader.

[AntonyM]

Apart from the issue of the on-line entries being wrongly transcribed, they also have many films which contain far more than just parish registers and which can often be vital in proving family relationships..... Poor law records, parish chest material, wills etc. Looking at the images of parish registers can also sometimes reveal notes and additions that are not part of the transcriptions at all.

Check through the catalogue carefully for anything relating to the place/locality you are interested in and always look at surrounding parishes and nearby places as well.

If you are going to travel to do your research then you should really be going to the Cornwall Records offices in Redruth and Truro who should have even more material ( although I haven't used either myself).

[Olde Crone Holden]

I used to be a regular (weekly) user of my local FH centre and without it I could not have done one tenth of the research I have done. Nothing beats looking at the original records, not even an image online, because when you get the film of a parish register and read right through it there is often other invaluable information in it which never appears on line.

For example, in one parish register is a list of "every man" in the parish who swore the oath of allegiance in 1600 and whatever-it-was. A list at the back f the register of everyone who had been confirmed, along with their location, occupation and date of their baptism. Various notes throughout about the weather, the state of the harvest, deaths of important people and rather sadly, a long obituary in Latin for a vicar who had not been carrying out his duties very well for 10 or more years - dementia? And the note that the incoming vicar had tried to infill missing details the previous vicar had not recorded. Lots of scurrilous marginal notes (a great whore) and remarks (a very tall man).

That's just parish registers! I found several unpublished local history books and tracts and although I was not able to borrow them, I did manage to track down a copy because I knew what I was looking for. As Antony says, don't confine your research to online stuff - the LDS have the largest family history library in the world.

I live in Cornwall and whilst I agree with Antony that the Cornwall records office and the Redruth Study centre are valuable pools of research, the hours of opening have been rather reduced and it is necessary to book a session well in advance, certainly at CRO. The Redruth centre is a drop-in. CRO is due to relocate to a new venue in Redruth in the near future and I think it will amalgamate with the Redruth centre. CRO does not have a lot in the way of "open" records, most have to be ordered up, so some forward planning is advisable.

OC

[dermotdjt]

Thanks for that. Will definitly have to plan visits to the center and the CRO later in the year Annoyingly I am currently workin in the Isle of Man so the visist will have till wait till this contract is finished.

Thanks again

Dermot

[James18]

I e-mailed my local FH centre a few months ago but never got a reply. There is a Mormon church near me, but I've always been slightly wary of them tbh.

[JBee]

My local FHC is manned by volunteers - some days it's the best person you could think of who is extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Another day it was just people opening up.

[Olde Crone Holden]

James

Not sure why you are wary!

The people who volunteer in the FH centres are not all members of the Mormon faith. Those who are though, are NOT allowed to discuss their faith with you in any way, other than to answer a direct question about it which you might put to them. This is a condition which they imposed on themselves in order to be allowed access to the many records of all different faiths - that, and the promise to allow those records to be available to ANYONE who wants to see them, be they of the faith or none at all. As I say, I went to my local FH centre for years and the Mormon faith was never mentioned once. They stick to their promise and you will be depriving yourself of an extremely valuable resource if you stay away!

Most of the provincial centres are manned by volunteers as JBee says and their opening times etc depend on how many volunteers they can get. You do have to go into the centre really, to find out what is what - some only open by appointment now.

OC

[gloryer]

I did use my local LDS centre when I first started family history. It was manned by volunteers who were trying to be helpful. They never pushed their religion onto me but often ordered films for me and notified me when they arrived. Moving forward from then I have visited my new found aunt and her daughters in salt lake city, all of them very staunch mormons. they didnt push their religion but the love that flowed was something I have never felt and will never forget. They could probably have converted me if they had tried!!

[keldon]

I was lucky enough to visit Salt Lake City and had a tour of their complex and a visit to the family history centre. At no time did they 'push' their religion. They were happy to answer any questions and were obviously pleased that interest was being shown, but at no time was there any suggestion of an attempt to thrust their brand of Christianity in our faces

[gloryer]

'jealous', I really wanted to go there but didnt have time but did see the mormon tabernacle choir. When I walked in they were singing climb every mountain. Thought I had died and gone to heaven it was so beautiful

[Sylvia C]

We also went there in the late 1980s, and visited the family history centre.

It was, of course, before the computer age, and so we had to consult their card files!

Neither of the two names we checked were in those files.

By the time that I began to look online in 2003, many of my Cadd family were on there ............ put in, I believe, by someone in Australia, who never responded to my attempt at contact, and whose address as shown on familysearch didn't even exist

At about that same time, 2003/2004, I tried to contact my Local LDS centre to see about getting microfiches ......... only to be told "they didn't do that".

We actually went back to Salt Lake City around 2002, OH was attending a conference, and I had a lot of free time, but I didn't go into to the family history centre.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Sylvia

I used my local FHC between 1997 and 2009 on a regular (weekly) basis and looked at hundreds of microfiche in that time, although I preferred film when it was available. Microfiche is an invention of the devil, lol.

OC

[Sylvia C]

OC .......

I spent hours pouring over microfiches in campus libraries as part of my work!

For some reason, the Vancouver LDS centre would not obtain the microfiches or films for people to consult. It may have due to lack of "staffing" ............. they were only open very limited hours back then, and I haven't tried them since, partly because it would very awkward for me to get there from here. It isn't in a terribly accessible area without a car.

[Sue1]

I tried my local Mormon Office/Church for records (Kings Lynn) - I went x2 - they were always closed. There was a phone number on the notice board outside and I tried that a couple of times and there was never an answer.
It is listed on FSOrg somewhere as my "local" so unless something has changed, they no longer appear to function.
There is an enormous Mormon Tabernacle near where I used to live, in East Grinstead - wish I had been doing research thenn!
In Exhibition Road in S. Kensington, there is another large tabernacle - I may be wrong but I think they keep a lot of paperwork there - it may now have moved its records and I understand they are in the National Archives at the moment.
Sue
I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and an even better New Year!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Sue

I know that many of the centres have reduced their hours or have closed, mostly due to lack of volunteers and also because of the cost of running the centres which are funded by donations from the LDS church and from individuals who use them - no charge but they never refuse a donation no matter how small.

My local one is now open to the public by appointment only, sometimes the appointment is weeks in advance.

OC

[Sue1]

Thanks OC - will have to try and find another one. Sue