-19th in a Series-
Exit 8, Fairmount Avenue, San Diego — San Diego Family History Center
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — It may seem strange that a series focusing on “Jewish stories” along the Interstate 8 would direct you to a facility operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but if it’s genealogical research that you are interested in, there is no place better for tracing your family’s roots, regardless of your religion.
I have used this facility at 4195 Camino del Rio South on many occasions for historical research and have always found the people there to be courteous and helpful. And if you are concerned that someone at the library may engage in proselytizing, I can say that has never been my experience the many times I have been there.
For members of the Mormon Church, family research is not only fun, it is what we Jews would call a mitzvah. Mormons believe that once a person has died, his or her soul continues to have a will, and that soul may be willing to accept posthumous conversion to the Mormon faith. So for Mormons, finding out who one’s ancestors were is a step toward potentially uniting the generations of one’s family.
You don’t have to be Mormon to utilize the research facility, nor do you have to turn any of the information you access over to the LDS Church. Very simply, as a gesture of good will towards people of other religions (or even no religion), the Latter-day Saints make their voluminous microfilm records available.
If you haven’t done family research, guides will teach you how to begin, and direct you to the appropriate microfilm records. If you don’t know how to operate a microfilm reader, they will show you. If you become discouraged in your search, they will help you. The guides here and at Family Search Centers across the country really go out of their way to be accommodating, with no fee or donation asked.
So what can you find at a Family Search Center? One of the basics is Federal Census records, which are compiled every 10 years. If you know where a member of your family lived in 1940, 1930, 1920, or any decade before, you may be able to find without too much difficulty the information about that relative and other family members living at the same address.
You also can access birth and death records, marriage records, passenger manifests for immigrants, and naturalization papers. Because on such records as these, people are asked to provide information about themselves and their families, it sometimes is possible for one record to lead to another, to another, and so forth, further and further back through the generations.
In addition to these kinds of genealogical records, the Family Search Center also maintains a well-stocked library about different places around the world, including the cities or shtetls from which your ancestors may have emigrated.
(Directions: Eastbound traffic should remain on the right side of the Mission Gorge/Fairmount exit ramp so that you can make a right turn. Almost immediately turn right again on the frontage road, Camino del Rio South. The San Diego Center for Family History is part of the Church of Latter Day Saints complex on the left at 4195 Camino del Rio South.}
Next: Mission San Diego
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. You may comment to him at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
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