Chattanooga Tennessee FamilySearch Center

'''Whether you are just beginning to trace your roots or need additional resources to complete your search, the Chattanooga Family History Center offers access to the extensive resources available through FamilySearch International and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The center is open to the public and admission is free of charge. Everyone is welcome!'''

Hours of Operation
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday:  10 am--2 pm;

2nd and 4th Wednesdays:   7--9 pm or by appointment ** this is a change as of 10 Sept 2013

Planned Closures 2013 : We will be closed on the following Federal Holiday Weekends (MLKJr Day, Pres. Day, Mem'l Day, Labor Day). Additional closures: January 1-4, 2013; March 24-April 1 (Easter); 1st Saturday in April (LDSGC); Week of Independence Day (Saturday prior through Saturday after); First Saturday in October (LDSGC); Thanksgiving week (Saturday prior through Saturday after); Christmas/New Year (15 Dec 2013 through 5 Jan 2014). Our Inclement Weather Policy is the same as Hamilton County Schools.

'''Please call during business hours or e-mail us to confirm schedule or request an appointment. '''

Since our hours are limited, we will do our best to accommodate requests for individual or group visits at other times.

If calling during off-hours, please leave/send a message'@ FHCor call one of the FHC Directors as listed below: 

FHC Phone: 423.892.7632                                   E-mail:[mailto:TN_chattanooga@ldsmail.net TN_chattanooga@ldsmail.net]

Deb Liening 423.843.5980

How to Find Us
Our center is housed in a brick church building -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chattanooga Stake Center -- on Ooltewah Ringgold Road. The FHC is inside the rear entrance to the building, first room on the left.'''

Address: 3067 Ooltewah Ringgold Road, Ooltewah, TN

 * Building front from street[[Image:Stk-Ctr-Front.jpg|thumb|right|244x183px|Stk-Ctr-Front.jpg]]
 * Location on Map
 * Ample parking is available

Planning a Visit
Our FHC is staffed by local volunteers who can help get you started with family history research. They can guide you in using FHC resources and equipment. If you're planning a visit to our center to begin your genealogy, write down what you know about the family you wish to research -- names, dates, and places -- and choose a research goal. This will help our volunteers to best assist you. Please call to calendar group visits in advance.

Online film/fiche ordering is currently available in our area! You are now able to search the Family History Library Catalog found at FamilySearch.org AND place your order online from home at:

www.familysearch.org/films

You will receive an e-mail or phone call from us when the film has arrived on loan in our FHC for your use.

Collections

 * Family History Library Catalog: This center has the ability to order any of the films and fiche available through the Family History Library Catalog.
 * Leonardo Andrea Collection -- We have 90 microfilm comprising folders of genealogical work on about 900 families collected by the late Leonardo Andrea, a famous South Carolinian genealogist. We also have other films containing all of his other books and works.
 * McCubbins' Collection -- 76 microfilm of original and typescript holdings on the Rowan County, NC Public Library @ Salisbury. The first three films index the rest of the collection.
 * Guion Miller Records -- This is a rather unique collection for our center -- relating to the enrollment of Eastern Cherokee, 1908 to 1910. This collection contains almost 400 rolls of microfilm. We have most of these films and continue to add to the collection.
 * Patrons' Microfiche Collection -- a collection of fiche ordered by our patrons, assorted titles. Contain family histories, vital records, and other types of information. These are indexed in the blue binders in the bookcase.
 * Indefinite Film Collection -- a collection of films on a variety of subjects, to include vital records, county records, court records, etc. They are indexed by state and then by county in the "state binders" in the bookcase.

Databases and Software
FHC Portal This center has access to the Family History Center Portal page which gives free access in the center only to premium family history websites that generally charge for subscriptions, including:

■Ancestry.com •19th Century British Library Newspaper Digital Archive

•Access Newspaper Archive -- the largest historical newspaper database online, contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1753 to present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy for you to quickly explore historical content. All 50 states plus 10 countries.

•Alexander Street Press - The American Civil War: Research Database Letters and Diaries Images, Photographs, Posters, and Ephemera

•Ancestry.com

•ArkivDigital Online -- Swedish genealogy. Launch from the 'ArkivDigital Online' Start Menu or Desktop icon from a computer where the program has been installed.

•Find My Past -- 1.7 billion international family history records from the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and beyond with records going back to 1200. New collections are added every month,

•Fold3.com (Previously known as Footnote.com) -- Fold3 provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

•Godfrey Memorial Library -- Online access to the Middletown CT historical library's approximately 200,000 books and periodicals in its collection which includes state and local histories, family histories, biographies, church records, funeral records, cemetery records, military records, maps, and more.

•Heritage Quest Online -- a valuable genealogical resource available at this time only through library subscriptions like the Family History Center. U.S. Federal Census records from 1790 through 1930. (No index for 1830, 1840, 1850, nor 1880 census; for the 1930 census, only five states are indexed: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia.) The online collection includes new indexes created by HeritageQuest. In addition to the ability to search by name, the census records can be searched by place of birth, age, ethnicity, and other variables. More than 25,000 fully searchable family and local history books. There are numerous other "non-history" books available that also have genealogy value, such as town and city directories, government reports made years ago, biographies, lectures, and much more. Selected Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, again fully searchable with high-quality scanned images of the original applications available online. Signatures of and personal identification data about depositors in 29 branch offices of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-74. PERSI (the PERiodical Source Index - a comprehensive subject index covering more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals written in English and French since 1800). Best of all, you can view the original records and book pages as high-quality images and even print individual pages on your local printer.

•Historic Map Works Library Edition -- Historic Map Works™ Library Edition is one of the most extensive digital map collections available, with over 1.5 million high-resolution, full color historic maps.

•Paper Trail -- a guide to overland pioneer names and documents.

•World Vital Records -- Records from United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Greenland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey.

19th Century British Library Newspaper Digital Archives Access Newspaper Archive Alexander Street Press - The Amerian Civil War Find My Past Fold3.com (previously known as Footnote.com) The Genealogist Genline FamilyFinder Godfrey Memorial Library Heritage Quest Online Historic Map Works Library Edition ■Paper Trail World Vital Records

Software Installed at the FHC:

Ancestral Quest -- Offers all of the basic features of other top genealogy programs -- multiple views, source documentation, a wide variety of reports and charts, web page creation, multimedia scrapbook features, merge capabilities and organization tools.

Generation Maps -- A program that will take the info from your family tree program (PAF, GED, Legacy, Ancestral Quest, Rootsmagic, New.FamilySearch.com, etc) and put everyone on a big chart, where you can see them and begin to fit all the families together.

Get My Ancestors -- Download multiple generations your family tree from the FamilySearch family tree. This file will include basic events such as birth, Christening, Death, Burial and Marriage. Find a specific person and download his or her family tree and sync with your current file. Save a file as a Personal Ancestral File (PAF) database. Files created work with Personal Ancestral File 5 and FamilyInsight. Works with both Mac and Windows machines. This is a free utility courtesy of Ohana.

Map My Family Tree -- A Genealogy mapping product that presents your ancestors' lives on a map. Reads your genealogy file and automatically plots all ancestral life events on customizable color maps. Allows you to see where your ancestors were born, married, and died. Track family migrations using the world and country maps. Zoom into any part of the world to see detailed events in that particular location. Choose from 15 different map styles. Print your maps.

Family Insight by Ohana Software PAF or other database "clean-up" tool; Replaces and includes the product called PAF Insight; Family Insight searches New.FamilySearch.org; Synchronizes your PAF data with New Family Search

Hardware and Equipment

 * 4 desktop computers with FamilySearch internet access
 * Printers, Scanner, Copier
 * Several microfiche readers
 * 5 overhead microfilm readers
 * 1 Canon microfilm/fiche scanner with imaging software interface and printer connection
 * We are in the process of obtaining a digital camera and camera clamp to be able to photograph microfilm images.

Services
We encourage visitors to bring own their digital cameras for copying images from microfilm or microfiche Then you have your own digital record and can take the images home to clean them up on your imaging program! If the FHC camera is used, copies may be printed or files may be transferred to a jump drive using the XnView program found on the computer in the main office.

Memory sticks/jump drives can be used to download information from the microfilm scanner.

Patrons may bring their own laptops for note-taking or entering information into personal genealogical programs, with the disclaimer that the owner is responsible for the security of the device. Wireless internet is currently available in the building, though there may be days when availability is limited due to updating, etc.

With the advent of online microfilm ordering, we have done away with other transactions in the FHC for now.

Links
Hamilton County Bicentennial Library

Hamilton County Genealogical Society

Chattanooga Area Historical Association

Tennessee Vital Records Office

Tennessee Electronic Library

Volunteer at the Center
To volunteer, contact the FHC directors at the telephone or e-mail listed above. The Center follows the Hamilton County Schools Inclement Weather closing schedule.