Heerlen Netherlands Military FamilySearch Center

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Whether you are just beginning to trace your roots or need additional resources to complete your search, the Heerlen Family History Center offers access to the extensive resources available through FamilySearch International. The center is open to the public and admission is free of charge. Everyone is welcome! We can arrange for group visits by confirmed reservation ONLY.

Center Contacts and Hours
Location &amp; Map: https://showmystreet.com/map-streetview/#uam03_3k2p4_44.0_1g42

Address: Burgemeester de Hesselleplein 26a, 6411 CH, Heerlen

Language: Dutch, English and German.


 * 1) Drive through the gate depicted with the link above. This will be kept open during the open hours of the Family History Center. After 50 meters on the left hand side you will find the church building show above in which the Family History Center is located. There are 15 free parking spots available in front of the building.
 * 2) Bus Stop Theater Heerlen, 450 meter, 5 minutes walk.

Phone: 00 31 (0)45-571 78 63

E-mail: nl_heerlen@ldsmail.net


 * Open Hours:


 * Monday:      10:00-14:30 h.


 * Wednesday: 19:00-21:00 h.


 * Thursday:    13:00-16:00 h.

Holiday Schedule:

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, birth / marriage / death dates, and Birth /Marriage / Death City and State. Choose a research goal: for example - 2 generations back. This will help our volunteers to best teach you where to look.

♥Please call to calendar and confirm group visits in advance.♥

Upcoming Events
=Center for Family History in Heerlen Holds Open House= Date: Saturday 7 September 2019

Time: 12.00 - 15.00 hours

Location: Center for Family History, Mayor de Hesselleplein 26a, 6411 CH Heerlen

                          Church building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The motto of this OPEN HOUSE is: LOOK UP YOUR NAME WITH US AND CLIMB IN YOUR FAMILY TREE.

FamilySearch.org presents; Unique unsurpassed family history research method by computer - Simpler and above all much faster - Lots of expert help present with the introduction of a new system of research - Free Registration Course Family Tree Research .

Reason

The increasing interest in family history and everything that has to do with looking up deceased relatives is the reason for holding a Genealogical Open Day at the Center for Family History in Heerlen.

Everyone is welcome on Saturday 7 September 2019 from 12:00 to 15:00. The address is Burgemeester de Hesselleplein 26a in the center of Heerlen.

History in a nutshell

In 1938, the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), now FamilySearch, began microfilming archives. Since then, it has done so in more than 200 countries. This is a widely used way of storing data from old archives.

FamilySearch's global archive capture projects currently produce more than 80 million images per year. FamilySearch has copies of virtually all acts of birth, marriage and death as well as baptisms, marriages and burials in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany that have been released for publication.

In the last 9-10 years, the GSU has almost completely digitized its more than 2.5 million microfilm rolls, which can be searched via its Internet website www.FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch.org recently published its 2.5 billionth digital image of historical records. This brings the total of searchable annals and images to more than 5.8 billion.

Family History Centers

FamilySearch has more than 5,100 family history centers in 140 countries around the world. The centers are branches of the Family History Library, often located in church buildings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their goal is to help people with their genealogy and to provide help and access to genealogical material and software provided by FamilySearch.

What is there to do on that Open Day?

Throughout the day, one can access the Internet free of charge using one of the 15 computers available to search through the reports of your own ancestors. Not only under the guidance of expert help, but at the same time a very special algorithm is used to help the researcher identify their ancestors with surgical precision. This is called "Record Hints" and it is an unsurpassed new system that still needs a lot of introduction and people can get straight to work with it. The expert management present assists them in this, which means that the visitors who make use of it can immediately be successful.

Free pedigree research course

On this open day you can also register for a free pedigree research course for beginners including learning how to handle this new unsurpassed system. Instead of just one family history course with little personal attention, one is not only instructed one-on-one, but also with the help of the student's own ancestry as training material. So you immediately start working with your own ancestry. Upon completion of the course, the student will not only be able to carry out fully independent research into his or her ancestors, but will also be able to do so now, much faster and much easier than was previously possible with the internationally largest and most digitized microfilm images collection online.

We would like to reach as many people as possible in order to introduce this new system to them, after which, after attending a free course in family history research, they are ready to learn how to apply the new system in their own lives. This requires some preparation but it is easy to learn because it is so well prepared. We would like to serve all people who want to try to satisfy their burning desire to know who their ancestors are, completely free of charge. These are now much easier and much faster to look up with the new system, INTERNATIONAL! There are no longer any borders with the new system.

How to save yourself a lot of time.

If you would like to have enough time to be accompanied, please take the time to prepare yourself. Then your research will be much quicker at the Open Day on the spot. The best thing to do is to create your personal account on www.FamilySearch.org and then create yourself, your parents and your grandparents.

If you are younger than 30, take the time to inquire about some of your great-grandparents and fill them in at www.FamilySearch.org.

This will save you a lot of time while visiting the Center during the open day as it will help you find your ancestors much quicker. This is highly recommended in order to benefit as much as possible on that day from the expert help that is present there and which you would very much like to help further.

Should it still not be possible to create your account? Here is a tutorial showing you how to do this;

Family Search: Creating an Account and Adding Yourself by David Willis 12 minutes.

Don't forget to bring your freshly created Username and Password to log in on the Open Day together with the guidance.

If you are unable to create an account, no problem. The available expert help will be happy to do this for you, so that you don't have to miss anything on that day.

If you are interested in family tree research and you know who your grandparents are, then the Center for Family History, with its many free services, may be able to help you further.

For further information about the Open Day, please call and e-mail Jos van Gemert, tel. 00 31 45-57178 63 josvangemert@telfort.nl, Leader Temple and Family History Consultants of the Center for Family History in Heerlen.

Collections

 * (List additional collections you have such as the types of books and microfilm you have on indefinite loan; though you will not want to list every single item you have. Just give visitors to this page a general idea of your resources.)

=
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
 * ♥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.

Hardware and Equipment

 * 2 Computers with premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * 4 Microfilm readers.
 * 1 Beamer.
 * 1 Large flat screen for istructional purpose.
 * 1 All-in-One printer / scanner / copier / e-mail device.
 * Internet access by Wi-Fi and cable.

Center Services
Memory sticks/jump drives can be used to download information from the computers.

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.



Staff Research Specialties
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• We have 4 Temple and Family History Consultants to assist you. These volunteers donate their time and some specialize in the following areas:


 * •Dutch Research
 * •Belgian Research
 * •German Research
 * •FamilySearch FamilyTree

•Third Party Programs

Resources in the Local Area
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Links
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FamilySearch Research Wiki: What It Can Do For You!: A comprehensive video presentation explaining the Wiki, navigating it, and some especially useful pages. Case studies demonstrate using the Wiki for genealogical research. Editing and adding articles to the Wiki are covered.

Volunteer at the Center
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We welcome volunteers from the community to serve in the Family History Center. It's a great way to help others and to learn by doing. You need not be an expert. Ability to use a computer and willingness to become familiar with the FamilySearch website and resources are key. Contact the FHC directors at the telephone or e-mail listed above for more information.