An Afternoon at the Family History Library

The APH Executive committee toured the Family History Library in March 2008.

No trip to Salt Lake City is complete without a visit to the world’s largest repository of family history and genealogy. This is your chance to go in style, with help from the best in the field. Amy Oaks Long will lead our excursion to the Family History Library on Friday afternoon. A personal historian since 1989, Amy taught family history at Brigham Young University (BYU) for fourteen years. She is the author of From Shoeboxes to Show Books: Writing Great Personal Histories and a team leader for FamilyLearn. She frequently lectures on beginning genealogy and personal and family history writing.

During Friday’s luncheon at the hotel, Amy will help you “Hit the Ground Running” by explaining how to maximize your time in the library. Listen closely to learn tips, tricks, and get motivated to find a little something about your own family. People travel from all over the world to do research at this renowned facility.
Amy also will introduce other APH members who are experts in genealogy and family history: Mary Slawson, author of Getting It Right: The Definitive Guide to Recording Family History Accurately and co-host of the popular KSL Radio weekly program Relatively Speaking, and our morning speaker, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, a certified genealogist and contributing editor for Family Tree Magazine.
Following Amy’s presentation, representatives from the Family History Library will show a brief orientation film and answer questions. Like the pioneers, the audience will break into small “companies” at 2:00 p.m. and ride a few blocks on TRAX to the Family History Library. As a special service, ten family history majors from BYU will escort us on the trip and be available at the library to help you follow your own research interests. On July 11, 2008, an excited, hardworking APH committee met at the Family History Library (as shown in photo) »  to discuss plans for this fall, when conference attendees will spend an afternoon at the library.	Pictured are (left to right, standing) Amy Oaks Long, Paulette Stevens and (seated) Sharon Carmack & Mindi Stevens.

Tip #1: You are invited to bring an unfinished family group sheet or pedigree chart on which to work at the library. To get started, all you need are the names of your parents and grandparents. Since many of the library records are also available online, you will learn how to access these resources remotely once you get home.