One Rhode Island Family

Get the popcorn; it’s movie time as we learn more about drilling down at the FamilySearch.org website.  Rather than write about it, I’m going to show you in three very brief videos.

More and more of those Family History Library microfilms are now available online.  It is really a game changer since, no matter what your location, you can see page images from the early records held in various town halls and state offices. But we need to change our mindset from using the Record Search feature to search names, and learn more about drilling down BY LOCATION to access those unindexed record sets newly appearing online. Not all are online yet, and not all online records are accessible from your home, so there’s a lot to figure out as we access these record sets.  But it’s important , as genealogists, that we access the most original source of records possible, and in many cases, these microfilmed images are the next best thing to being in the town hall ourselves.

1. Basic instructions for drilling down to access records by place and navigating online microfilm images (be sure and click the Play triangle toward the bottom of the screen)
   • FamilySearch.org:  Finding Records For a Place
2. The differences between indexed and unindexed records; using original index pages to find your item (be sure and click the Play triangle toward the bottom of the screen)
   • FamilySearch.org:  Finding Unindexed Records
3. How to tell if the images are viewable online; what to do if they are locked (be sure and click the Play triangle toward the bottom of the screen)

   • Familysearch.org: IF ONLINE ACCESS IS BLOCKED

If the records found show a camera icon with a key, that means they can only be viewed at a Family History Library or, perhaps, an Affiliate library.

Thanks, as usual, to our friends at FamilySearch.org who are making a tremendous effort to help us access these records, for free.

One example

If relevant to you, check out the late 19th century-early 20th century Providence vital records which contain the “returns” of marriages and deaths. “Return of a Death” forms, from the Providence City Archives were filmed years ago.  The films are not indexed fully.  You have to browse from image to image, jumping forward in the record set as you guess where your date might turn up (the order by date is not very dependable, though, additional cards can be thrown in at the end of the month).  It’s very rewarding when you find what you want AND it contains the FIRST version of the details, before all the re-transcriptions happened, creating errors and omitting certain pieces of data. These have been a gold mine for me.  See sample, below.

Sets of interest for Providence include:

• Intentions of marriages, 1881-1894 [Providence, Rhode Island]
• Providence, Rhode Island : births (1876-1890), marriages (1870-1891), and deaths (1880-1892)
• Returns of deaths, 1844-1849, 1851-1855 [Providence, Rhode Island]
• Returns of deaths, 1856-1921, city of Providence
• Returns of marriages, 1879-1892 [Providence, Rhode Island]

The “Return of a death” record for Hannah Andrews Lamphere, my ggg-grandmother, in Providence, Rhode Island.

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