BYU-FHL Digital Book Collection

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and the Family History Library are collaborating to scan family and local histories and make them available online for free. As of June 2007, there are more than 5,000 works in this digitized collection. Go to the Family History Archives site to find the collection.

Searching for Family Histories and Genealogies
When you search the Family History Library Catalog, and find a family or local history book of interest, open the record and read the notes. If you see a red highlighted message, “To view a digital version of this book click here”, the work has been digitized by BYU. Follow the link to see the digital copy.

Although you can search for family histories and genealogies in the Family History Library Catalog, you may have to browse through many screens to learn whether the works you find are digitized. For this reason, consider searching BYU'sFamily History Archives


 * 1) Type your ancestor's last name in the Surname field.
 * 2) Click Search.
 * 3) Click a title or thumbnail image to view a digital copy of a book.

Tip: If your ancestor's surname is common, such as Smith, type the surname into the Title field instead of the Surname field.

Searching for Local Histories (Town, County, and State Histories)
You can search for local histories using the Family History Library Catalog.


 * 1) Go to www.familysearch.org
 * 2) Click Place Search.
 * 3) Type a locality.
 * 4) Click Search.
 * 5) On the Place Search Results screen, click the locality that most closely matches the one you want.
 * 6) Click the topic History.
 * 7) Click a title to read the notes and see if there is a link.