FamilySearch Online Book Collection FAQs

Family History Books is a collection of more than 40,000 digitized genealogy and family history publications from the archives of some of the most important family history libraries in the world. The collection includes family histories, county and local histories, genealogy magazines and how-to books, gazetteers, and medieval histories and pedigrees.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q Where can I find the Family History Books collection? A There are two ways to access Family History Books from FamilySearch.org:

Through the Books Tab.


 * Go to https://familysearch.org/. Click on the Books tab.
 * Type in your search criteria in the search box.

These are the benefits of using the Books tab to access Family History Books; only books available online show up in the search and the search can be filtered by using the left hand menu.

The potential problems with using the Books tab to access Family History Books are that the search within books does not differentiate between books that are currently online and those that are scheduled to be made available online. Books that are not yet online generate an error message and cannot be opened.

Through the FamilySearch Catalog.


 * Click on the Catalog tab of the https://familysearch.org website.
 * Click Titles from the menu. If you do not know the title of the book, youc can also search by      Keyword.
 * Enter search criteria in the title of keyword box.
 * When the Search Results display, click on the title you want.
 * The Book details page opens.
 * Click on the link to go to the digital book.

There are benefits of using the Catalog to access Family History Books. The Catalog will state whether the book is currently available online, or if it is "In Process" and will be online in the near future. Books that are in process can take up to two months to become available online.

There are potential problems with using the Catalog to access Family History Books. A Catalog search will show all of the Family History Library's holdings that fit the search criteria, including books, films and microfiche that are not avalable online. Items that are available online will show "online" in the Search Results page.

Q Why don't all book holdings appear in the Family History Catalog? A Only a small number of the book holdings have been digitized.

Q How do I navigate or search within a book? A Once a book has been selected, it will open in a new tab. Books display in PDF format. Books can be read/navigated through the following icons and menus.


 * Print Icon . Print as many or as few pages as desired. In some cases copyrighted material will have the Print icon hidden so it can not be clicked.
 * Save . Save the entire book to your computer. In some cases copyrighted material will have the Save icon hidden so it can not be clicked.
 * Up and Down arrows . Used to move forward and backward in the book page by page.
 * Page bo x . Type in the number of the page you want to go to and hit Enter on your keyboard.
 * + and - signs . Allows the page size to be altered to make it more readable, the icons next to them also represent sizing tools.
 * Find box. Allows the entire book to be searched for particular words or phrases.
 * Bookmarks . Found on the left side menu bar. Allows quick movement between sections or chapters. Not all books have bookmarks.

Q  Why can I only view some books online? A The status of the book determines whether or not, it can be viewed online. The status of a book can either be Public, In Progress, or Copyrighted. Some books have NO rights to view and can only be viewed at the Family History Library.


 * A Public doucument can be viewed from any computer. A status of Public or Copyright is shown when the Copy Link buton is pressed after the book is opened.
 * In Progress means that the document is temporarily out of circulation while it is being scanned. If a book is "off the shelf" for digitization, the word "In Progress" will appear in the FamilySearch Catalog next to the name of the book.
 * Copyrighted books can only be viewd at the Family History Library, Family Search Centers or at Affiliate Libraries and are limited to 3 copies which can be viewd simultaneously. Reading copies are only open for 24 hours at a time.

Q What does "you don't have sufficient rights to view the requested object" mean? A Books with this message are copyright protected and can only be viewed by one user at a time from the Family History Library, a local FamilySearch Center (also known as Family History Center), or through one of our partner libraries which are:


 * 1) Allen County Public Library - Fort Wayne, Indiana
 * 2) Brigham Young University-Provo Harold B. Lee Library - Provo, Utah
 * 3) Brigham Young University-Idaho David O. McKay Library - Rexburg, Idaho
 * 4) Brigham Young University-Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library - Laie, Hawaii
 * 5) Church History Library - Salt Lake City, Utah
 * 6) Houston Public Library - Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research - Houston, Texas
 * 7) Mid-Continent Public Library - Midwest Genealogy Center - Independence, Missouri
 * 8) Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 * 9) Onondaga County Public Library (Syracuse, New York) - Syracuse, New York
 * 10) University of Florida George Smathers Library - Gainesville, Florida (Coming soon)

These books are not available from anywhere else.

If this message is encountered while in a FamilySearch Center, Family History Library, or a partner library, please try back in 60 minutes to see if the book is available for viewing. The book will be made available for viewing after the other reader has finished with the book. Some readers forget to close the book when they are done for the day, so the system automatically closes the book after 24 hours.  

Q I keep getting a message that someone else is using the book. Can I reserve a time to read it? A The online books may not be reserved in advance.

Q What do I do if I get a "timed out" message? A If a digital books sits open in the browser unused for too long, the window will time out and you will be prompted to Reload the file or Close it. If you aren't done looking at the book, click Reload, otherwise click Close to close the book.

Q The book gets stuck streaming, why won't it load? A Some books are very large and may take a long time to stream to your computer. A progress bar displays while the file downloads. If your internet connection speed is slow and the book is very large, it could take hours for the book to finish downloading. Very large books (1 Gig +) downloading on a dial up connection may time out before the book can downloaded.

Q I saved a link to a book, why can't I open it now? A  The URL (web address) for this system is designed to be used once. If you save a book as a Favorite an error message will display. To save a working link to the book:


 * Click on the words Copy Link above the right side of the image.
 * A new widow opens which shows a highlighted usable link.
 * Copy this link to save for later. You can also email this link to another person.

Q  I used to be able to view this book, but now it is not there - why? A Sometimes the author removes his/her permission to pulicize the book. Somtimes it contains information about living persons and they have asked that it be withdrawn. There may be other reasons, but the summary is that FamilySearch no longer has the rights to display the book onlne.

Q Why is the image fuzzy? A Because of the way that PDFs and Firefox interact, occasionally images will not sharpen up enough to read when using the Mozilla Firefox browser. If you are using Firefox as your browser and a book appears out of focus, you may need to view the book using either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. If changing browsers doesn't solve the problem please contact FamilySearch Research Assistance at support@familysearch.org. Please include the following information:


 * Name of Book
 * The Browser you are using (i.e. Chrome, IE 9)
 * Your computers' operating system (i.e. Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.7)
 * Reference document #: 114808.