During my time in Salt Lake City last week for the APG Professional Management Conference, I was able to spend a day at the Family History Library. This was, at the same time, both very exciting, and very overwhelming!

Before going, I had reviewed these tips for research at the Family History Library, and the volunteers were so helpful that I was able to get to work within minutes. I had come prepared with a list of microfilms that I hoped to look at, and I checked up on the originals of many documents that I’d found indexed elsewhere – usually verifying the information in the index, but, in at least one example, finding an important error. I also spent hours poring through a single microfilm for the name of one of my most elusive ancestors, who, according to the microfilm index, should have been in there twice. Finally, bleary eyed and hungry, I had to admit that I’d come up empty, and decided that that is one microfilm that I will be ordering to view again at my local Family History Center, this time with fresh eyes.

So, with some successes and some frustrations, it was in many ways a typical day of research – but for once, every microfilm I could possibly want was at my fingertips!