May I donate books to my local Family History Center/FamilySearch location?
My mom passed away a decade ago. She was an avid researcher, a retired elementary school teacher who loved genealogy. She did most of her research by hand, poring over hours of microfiche/film, library card catalogs, etc. I helped her begin indexing and then data entry on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
She also had a library of family history books; my sister shipped them to me after Mom died. I feel they would better serve researchers than sitting here, still in the box, in my home office. Also, they would cost my entire pension to ship to Salt Lake; that is why I am inquiring whether or not I can take them somewhere locally.
Thank you!
Answers
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I am not connected with FamilySearch.
FamilySearch page about book donations
https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/donations
If you feel the books would be suitable for donation, (you could check the library catalog https://libcat.familysearch.org/en to see if the books are already held) you could email the Library at the email address given in the previous link, about the possibility of taking the books to a local FamilySearch Center, who may be then able to ship them on to Salt Lake City, or else retain them.
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I am not connected with Family Search but I also love books. I would start by making a list of book titles with author names, publication dates and ISBNs, then make that list available to other genealogical societies as well. And there might be individuals like me who might be willing to pay postage/shipping. You can also call the Salt Lake Family Search site on Temple Square at (801) 240-6996 - they open at 9am Mountain Time Monday thru Saturday. Best wishes, Mary
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@MaryAnne Curry Shults You don’t mention what type of materials you have in your mom’ s collection other than books, and not all genealogical records are of the same value. Certainly any original photographs or copies of her hand written research are the most important things to preserve. Books written to document a particular family’s history are also valuable. Older “how to” genealogy books are most likely to be outdated and not of value. I think it would be wonderful if you took a little time to sort through the wonderful work that she did and decide what the most valuable portions are. I also wonder if her reasearch and pictures have been added to FamilySearch? The FamilySearch center near you should have consultants who could help you be sure that your mom’s research has been added to the tree. Bless your mom, (and you!) for taking the time to preserve these important records!
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