Lodi California FamilySearch Center

The Lodi California Family History Center is located in San Joaquin County, California, north of Stockton.

Center Contacts and Hours
Location and Map:


 * 731 North Ham Lane, Lodi, CA 95240-2313 United States
 * Enter from the church parking lot on Daisy Avenue. Please ring the doorbell if the door is locked.
 * (Google Maps)

Phone: 1 (209) 369-4148

E-mail: [mailto:CA_Lodi@ldsmail.net CA_Lodi@ldsmail.net]

Open Hours:


 * Monday: 10am - 5pm
 * Tuesday: 10am - 5pm; and 7-9pm
 * Wednesday: 10am - 1:30pm; and 7-9 pm
 * Thursday: 10am - 5pm; and 7-9pm
 * Saturday: 9am-12noon

Holiday Closures:


 * Closed for federal holidays
 * General Conference weekends
 * Thanksgiving weekend
 * Christmas break
 * Open by appointment during holidays. Contact your Ward Family History Consultant or the FHC Director Kathryn Marshall (L3) to make an appointment.

Scheduled Classes
"Comings and Goings in the Golden West: Resources for Tracing California's Settlers and Sojourners" at 12 noon on Saturday, April 19 for the Merced County Genealogical Society. Call for details.

"Family History Expo" on Saturday, May 10 from 9 am - 2 pm in the Ham Lane Building. Free. Live classes, demonstrations, one-on-one assistance, and sixteen of the most popular RootsTech 2014 sessions, re-broadcast for this event. RootsTech 2014, hosted by FamilySearch, is the largest family history conference in North America, bringing people who just love their families together with genealogy experts, related software, and top commercial web site developers. From beginners to experts, join us for classes on the top commercial web sites, mobile apps and technology, DNA and genealogy, scanning, and more. '''Register at www.lds.org/familyhistoryfair. Input Lodi California in the Search field. E-mail confirmation with further details will be sent. Bring your own lunch. Questions – Contact us at lodicafamilyhistoryexpo@gmail.com.'''

RootsTech sessions to be shown include:

Top Web Sites Getting the Most Out of Ancestry by Christa Cowen Old World, New Records: findmypast.com as the Key Resource for Tracing British Ancestry by Elaine Collins Finding family and ancestors outside the USA with new technologies by Daniel Horowitz FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next Ron Tanner

Getting Started Basic Online Resources for the Beginning Genealogist by Lisa Alzo Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman Finding Our Cousins with Puzzilla, presented in Youth Devotional by Neil L. Andersen

Technology and Family History Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke Using Tools and Organization for Creating a Valuable Family History Blog by James Tanner How to Use YouTube for Family History: Setting Up Your Own YouTube Channel byLisa Louise Cooke Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo

Of Special Interest 5 recursos esenciales para la genealogía hispana (5 Essential Resources for Hispanic Genealogy -- presented in Spanish) by Sonia Meza Metadata for Digital Images by Diane Miller Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader Advanced Techniques for Use of Autosomal DNA Tests to Break Through Genealogical Brick Walls by Tim Janzen

Live classes will include: Scanning Photos and Documents -- Making Life Easier with Optical Character Recognition Demo of restoring old photos and one-on-one assistance by Earl McOmber Tour of the FHC Portal – Free Access to Top Subscription Web Sites by Kathy Marshall

Live demonstrations with one-on-assistance Registering on FamilySearch.org as a new user, Tour of FamilySearch.org web site, Indexing and The Obituary Project, Search, Temple, Sources, Uploading Photos and Stories, Puzzilla &amp; Descendancy Research, DNA, Brick-Wall-Breaking Help Desk.

Bring a photio of your ancestor. We'll scan it, save it to your flash drive, and show you how to upload it for free long-term storage. Preserve your priceless memories for future generations.

Collections

 * Family History Library Catalog: This center receives any of the films and fiche available through the Family History Library Catalog.
 * For Lodi's large German from Russia population, the Lodi center has a number of resources relevant to that community, such as the 81 microfilm set of the Saint Petersburg Lutheran Consistory parish records. Dictionaries, gazetteers, and other books relevant to a variety of locations are also available.
 * Over 200 microfilms with Finnish church and vital records
 * An index of births, deaths, marriages extracted from the Lodi News-Sentinel from 1881-2005, and from the Valley Review, a defunct newspaper.

Databases and Software for use at the Lodi FHC

 * FHC Portal provides free public access to premium family history software and websites. Utilize valuable subscription web sites such as Ancestry.com, Fold3, HeritageQuest, FindMyPast, Historic Map Works, and others to research your family lines.
 * The Lodi FHC also subscribes to Genealogy Bank, offering digital images of newspapers, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society's American Ancestors web site.
 * AniMap displays and prints changing county and state boundaries over time.
 * DeedMapper plots maps from metes and bounds descriptions in land records.
 * Photoshop Elements can enhance readability of old documents and restore family photos.
 * PAF, Legacy, RootsMagic, and Family Insight are available for recording your family tree. Free versions are available online for your use at home. Staff will gladly help you transfer your pedigree files from one program to another.

Free Special Services

 * Archival technology to migrate your data from old storage devices to current modes of data storage: We have archival technology to read, save, and transfer your old files to current storage devices. Is your data still on a floppy drive or zip drive? We can transfer your files from 5-1/4 inch floppies, 3-1/2 inch floppies, zip 100 and zip 250 drives to a flash drive or DVD for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for transfer assistance.
 * Optical character recognition (Nuance OCR): Do you have a typed manuscript, newspaper article on yellowing paper, or family stories your grandparents told in a one-of-a-kind book? Scan the document. Convert the image from a picture of the page to a written transcript in Word or other software of your choice. OCR software can "read" the image and type it out for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for assistance.
 * Voice recognition software (Dragon): Transform audio files into typed transcripts. Play the tape or digital recording, and voice recognition software types it out for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for assistance.

Hardware and Equipment

 * Patrons are invited to use our computers, scanner, printers, and copier at no charge for their genealogical research. Twelve work stations are available.
 * Three microfilm readers, two microfiche readers, and a film/fiche reader printer are available.