Thursday, June 7, 2007

Heard at the FHC today

I went to the local Family History Center today and transferred more microfilm images of the Bresee family data to my flash drive for uploading to my computer hard drive.

I also "tested" the patron computers at the FHC to see if they had added the content from the "partners" yet. I found that they had not, with the exception of Heritage Quest Online, which worked just fine. They have created a "Links to Premium Services" on the Favorites list, with links to the web sites.

So I asked one of the volunteers what the status was of the access to the "partner" sites.

He said that the San Diego FHC would be able to access the premium sites. He thought they were a week away from having access to the contents on Footnote, World Vital Records, Godfrey Memorial Library, and Kindred Konnections. He counseled patience!

He also said that when the additional data on FamilySearch Inc. becomes available that it would be offered to only LDS members initially. The stated reason was to assess bandwidth required before non-members can use it. He said that there were many records (the word "billion" was mentioned) that were in the LDS system but not online yet anywhere. It sounds to me like they will use the LDS members as "beta-testers" of the new system.

All of the above is hearsay, of course, but it sounded probable to me. If anyone has better information, please let me know! I'll be going down next week again - I still have more Bresee images to capture and will check for access to the "partner" premium sites.

3 comments:

Ben Walker said...

"transferred more microfilm images of the Bresee family data to my flash drive for uploading to my computer hard drive."

Randy can you (or have you?) write what hardware/software is involved in doing this?

Ben Walker

Unknown said...

Ben,

If the images came from an online connection available through the FSC, then it was a simple matter of Internet transfer and copy to the thumb drive. If it was from a microfilm reader,then I AM INTERESTED, too.

Happy Dae
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

Hugh W said...

archives world wide are moving from film readers to image servers
eg in Denmark their National Archives
have scanned and put on line all church book film to 1892
and some to 1925 (later to 1950)
and census images to 1916

http://www.arkivalieronline.dk/default.aspx
not indexed but a virtual search room


Keep an eye on http://labs.familysearch.org/

see also
https://new.familysearch.org/en/action/unsec/welcome

"If I'm not a member of the Church, can I register?

This release of the new FamilySearch is a limited release for Church members only." -
and restricted to a limited number of Temples at this stage.


I think indexers should be allowed in though.