Can I order a Microfiche
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I believe the facility of being able to order microfiche disappeared at the same time as microfilm was no longer available to order.
There have been several queries raised about any timetable for digitizing fiche - it was originally stated this process would follow digitizing of all films - but FamilySearch has never provided any clear response.
Just to add (after reading the comments of @N Tychonievich) even when an item has been digitized - whether originally in microfilm or microfiche format - it does not mean it will be available for unrestricted viewing on the FamilySearch website. Record custodians often impose restrictions (upon FamilySearch and other organisations) regarding the publication of their material on the web.
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@JanTropp You may be able to order a copy of a specific document through the free Record Lookup Service. FamilySearch Library Record Lookup Service Form
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Thank you.
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Yes, here is an example. As far as I can remember, most I encountered were IGI-related (computer print-outs, as in the example below). They had 7-digit references, usually (always?) beginning with 6.
As the Extraction program based IGI records should all have been incorporated into the main database, this type of microfiche would probably be of limited use (no images, of course), so digitising would not really be a priority.
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@MaureenE123 I got an answer about microfiche digitization. Yes, it is happening even as we speak. FamilySearch has contracted with an outside company to do the digitization and hope to have it completed in about another year. They are not taking requests to have specific fiche digitized. And they are not going to publish them until all are digitized.
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@N Tychonievich Thank you for advising, and for having continued to follow up on this matter.
I hope when the digitisation process is finalised, the material in the microfiches will be accessible.
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@JanTropp The ability to order microfilm and microfiche into FamilySearch centers and affiliate libraries ended a few years ago. FamilySearch has never sold microfilms or microfiche. So, when the item is not available online, your options are a bit limited. If you can travel to Salt Lake City, UT, you can view the item in the FamilySearch Library. You might look for a FamilySearch Wiki article about the place or record type you are interested in to see if there are other websites that have the information you need. You can search the catalog to see what other records about the place or event we have. Since your question was very general, we can only give a very general response. If you care to share what film or fiche you are interested in, we might be able to suggest more detailed alternatives.
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@N Tychonievich I would be interested to know if any microfiche have been digitised to date, and if so, whether they are viewable online.
If the digitisation of microfiche has in fact not started, is this likely to happen soon?
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I have submitted a "remote access request." They replied with a several weeks response.
Jan Tropp
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@JanTropp That's a generic automated reply. I usually have a response in under a week.
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@MaureenE123 We were told that microfiche would be digitized after the completion of the microfilms, but I've seen no evidence that it is happening. I have asked for an update--so far, no response.
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Thank you @N Tychonievich . I hope you get a response.
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The response I have received was because of the restrictions, it is only able to be viewed at the main FamilySearch library. Well I'm in MN and cannot get there. I was under the impression that someone there could do some simple research for me. If I tried that 20 minute consult, would they do some simple lookups? There used to be a form that we could send to Salt Lake library to request an answer to a limited question for items unavailable to centers. How is that done nowadays???
Jan Tropp
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@JanTropp Can you share the specifics of the record you requested? Someone who is local may be able to retrieve it for you. I've had good success with that option in recent months.
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The item I need looking at is... The Bounds of Maryland ...1321035 item 4. Looking for infomation about Samuel Robert Bounds, LD7H-1MR Born 1848, “Samuel Robert Bounds was raised by his mother Elizabeth Skinner and her 2nd husband George Treen in Utica, Oneida Co., NY and appears on several census records with them. He married as his second wife, Anna Norton Gibbons at the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA on January 17, 1878. Any help is appreciated.
Jan Tropp
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@JanTropp, according to WorldCat.org, my library has a copy.
I'll be going to the library within the next week and get check what it has on your Samuel. It's a non-circulating book, in the genealogy collection, but I can take photos of various pages, if that will work for you.
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This forum does NOT like links from WorldCat for some reason. Separating the URL - just put the periods back in. https://www worldcat org/title/10514901
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I'll try Worldcat again. If you find anything on that film that would be wonderful!
Jan Tropp
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To be clear - it's in book format at my library, not film. https://acpl.lib.in.us/wise-apps/catalog/6000/detail/wise/176274?offset=0&qs=The%20Bounds%20of%20Maryland&search_in=titel&state=search
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Have you received any information about whether the digitisation of FamilySearch microfiche has commenced?
I note the Internet Archive has hundreds of collections of microfiche https://archive.org/search?query=%28microfiche%29&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22collection%22. Probably there are more.
Maybe FamilySearch could consult with the Internet Archive about digitisation of the microfiche, or as a last resort even donate its microfiche to the Internet Archive. Perhaps then it may be digitised and available to researchers.
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"Maybe FamilySearch could consult with the Internet Archive about digitisation of the microfiche, or as a last resort even donate its microfiche to the Internet Archive. ..."
Just throwing this out there to (maybe) concentrate minds - did FamilySearch ever produce any microfiche of its own? I ask because I've never seen any microfiche in UK record offices that came from FS, only microfilm. My assumption is that FS cannot legally digitise any microfiche produced by anyone else. Happy to be proved wrong about FS creating microfiche of its own.
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@Paul W - there are indeed a stack of microfiche entries in the Catalog. Following on your example as inspiration, I just searched for them using a Keyword of "fiche". Trying to decide who holds the rights to them is, ahem, a touch complex. I just tried to look for Place "England, Cheshire" and Keyword "fiche" and my gut feeling is that most are authored works from individuals, record offices or societies. There is one (at least) GenSoc Utah (FamilySearch) work - the 1881 census - a bit obsolete, like your IGI example.
So, there are a lot of microfiche in the Catalog but how many of them are FamilySearch productions and therefore easily (from the point of view of legal implications) digitised, I'm not sure. Perhaps not a lot.
And if the remainder are authorised works - how many are in the FS Digital Library already? At least one (no time for heavy statistical sampling here!) - An index to the wills and inventories now preserved in the court of probate at Chester, from A.D. 1545 to 1760 is on 27 fiche but is already in the FS Digital Library.
Hmm. So, if you want a fiche, it would definitely be worth checking in FS option Search / Books to see if it's already there. But what the overall digitisation direction or constraints on that fiche digitisation plan are, I don't know. It would be nice if FS Management told us. (Cf another thread, I think!)
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@MaureenE123 Sorry, still no answer as to whether microfiche will be digitized. I ask every week in a meeting I attend. I'll keep being a squeaky wheel.
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@N Tychonievich . Thanks for advising. Please keep asking at the weekly meeting you attend.
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@MaureenE123 We have updated the KA: Can I request a microfiche to be digitized? with current information provided by the Library. In summary, digitization of fiche is in process, but none will publish until all are digitized.
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Many thanks for your efforts here, particularly in the getting the KA updated. All many of us have wanted is a response from FamilySearch to the simple question of whether there was still an intention to digitize microfiche holdings, as originally promised. Your efforts have put an end to any further speculation on the issue.
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@N Tychonievich Thank you for arranging the KA to be updated, and your efforts in actually finding out this information.
I remain hopeful that the microfiche contents will be mainly available, although the KA states "Not all of the digitized content will be viewable online because of contract restrictions".
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I believe we will just have to trust what FamilySearch has said previously about publishing all the material in its holdings, provided it has authorisation to do so. If there are no restrictions from record custodians, etc., I believe the material will be put online. However, how far this will be taken in certain circumstances is still questionable.
For example, will all those IGI listings be added, when the indexed detail has already been brought across from the IGI / Genealogies database to the Historical Records one? In this example, I have found such material (indexed on surname and including IGI batch numbers) when using the "Images" section.
As you know, over the years, FamilySearch has used a variety of means for keeping hard copies of its material (including the "dreaded" 16mm microfilm format!) and appears to have been inconsistent with how it transferred the IGI data: sometimes using microfiche, but sometimes microfilm.
So, one would hope the same criteria would be applied to publication of its holdings, regardless of the format in which it is held.
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@Paul W The old IGI microfiche and the old Library Catalog microfiche are considered obsolete. Data from the user contributed IGI is now in Genealogies and data from the user indexed IGI is now in various record collections.
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Perhaps I did not make myself clear, as I have found I was using the wrong terminology. The example I was talking about relates to Parish Register printouts. Take the example of film 008611572 - found at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C34C-3SNV-L?view=explore&groupId=TH-909-87573-54771-55&grid=on. As this microfilm has been digitised and is available to view (through "Images"), do you think that microfiched Parish Register printouts would not be treated in the same way, but considered obsolete and so would not be digitised / put online?
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