Catalogs
Hello, I wonder if all the catalog records are searchable in Family Search? If not, is there a tutorial on how to search through the catalogs? I hit walls already in Family Search or am probably not doing the proper search. Do I need to download the catalogs to access the records in it? My computer is old and might slow down with too many downloads. Your help is much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Answers
-
There are 2 catalogs on FamilySearch but, from the wording of your question, I think you may mean something other than "catalog."
The catalogs on FamilySearch list most of the record sets available. This is the old/original catalog that has not been updated in over 3 years.
Then there is a newer catalog which just came online recently:
If you are looking for records in a specific place and time, you may be researching in church registers or civil registers for births/baptisms, marriages, or deaths.
Many records are not searchable by name because they have not been indexed. As we get deeper in our research, we often have to work with unindexed records by browsing the images.
It's not possible to download complete registers. I have sometimes downloaded several years of unindexed pages to go over them carefully, especially if they are registers that I can only view at an Affiliate Library or FamilySearch Center. That can be a slow process since each image must be downloaded individually.
If I have misunderstood your question, please tell me a little more about what you want to find, and I may be able to give you a more specific answer.
Hope this helps.
2 -
You can also read about how to search the catalog in this Knowledge Article:
0
