FHL Films

[therealrollins]

I do my research on Ancestry and find that many sources quote a FHL film number. So, I wasted about an hour of my time signing up to Family History, then found out that the film reference number cannot be viewed! Does anyone know where FH get the film images from?

the film reference are from family history mormons library of microfilms that they hold

you can view some of the films online - warwckshire for example, there are coventry parish registers online and Manchester have films online showing the poor law records - but not everything has been digitised as the mormon library is extremely extensive and it will take years to digitise everything - plus not everything was photographed back in the 1930/1950s when the morn moms went to the churches. Not all the vicars would let them film and the filming hasn't been approached since

go to catalogue and search for the place4 and have s look - ts not always apparent you can view the material and its not indexed, so you need to search through page by page.

it took me a while to realise the creed registers for the workhouse were the admission registers and done in alphabetical order ( which was helpful)

I expect the parish registers are all on one long film and will be a mixture of baptism, burial and marriages through each parish

sorry to answer your question

Does anyone know where FH get the film images from?

they photographed in the churches in the 1930s and then put the images onto microfiche films and hold them in their libraries in Utah, but copies can be found in the family history centres or ordered to a center.

Alternatively you can view the microfilms of parish registers at archives for each county. o for example Warwickshire will hold the microfilm registers for Warwickshire parish registers and will have purchased them from the mormons, and also hold the original parish registers - which subsequent years after 1900 the mormons don't seems to have filmed

Thank you for the responses. I figured I'd have to go to the original source, Parish records at the county records offices in Worcester and Aylesbury anyway.

depends which parish registers you are searching in Worcestershire

there are a few bishops transcripts online at family search https://www.genguide.co.uk/source/bishop-transcripts-bts-parish/#:~:text=Bishop%20Transcripts%20are%20similar%20in,they%20should%20always%20be%20consulted. an explanation of what BT are, not sure if you are familiar with these records

www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=1927839&query=%2Bplace%3A%22England%2C%20Worcestershire%22%20%2Bavailability%3AOnline&subjectsOpen=334503-50

"So, I wasted about an hour of my time signing up to Family History, then found out that the film reference number cannot be viewed! Does anyone know where FH get the film images from?"

As @MikeRafone said, these are the Mormons. They have been collecting family tree stuff for a very long time.

I guess that you went to

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog

and clicked on the Film/Fiche/Image Group Number?

This is where you enter the FHL number.

What you do next depends on what it says.

You may be lucky and some of the images are available online. Although, in that case they are also likely to be available online through Ancestry and other sources as well.

To give a specific example, I was looking for number 425436 / 856929

When I looked for these numbers I got a number of different things come up:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&query=%2Bauthor_id%3A272941

Some of them, in particular the Bishop's transcripts, were available online (for free from FamilySearch but also on Ancestry). But the actual parish registers were not.

What it says that you have to do then to view the images is to go to a FamilySearch Centre or an affiliated library.

You can search for these here. I live not too far from Cambridge so this map is centred on Cambridge. Just change the place.

https://locations.familysearch.org/en/search?qp=Cambridge%2C+Cambridgeshire%2C+England%2C+United+Kingdom&lat=52.203482&lng=0.123582&r=25

If you get in touch with the nearest centre or library you can an make an appointment to view any particular images you want.

Copies of undigitised microfilms can no longer be ordered in a centre, sadly; that service was abolished a year or two ago.

Well that’s a bummer, I know family in Australia that used this service