LDS - Family History Microfilm Discontinuation

[goldie61]

I save the images to a memory stick too.
I think it will be the same in all LDS libraries smudwhisk.
You use the system logged in as that LDS library - so I they'll all run on the same system.
And yes, hurworth, I always run out of time!
So much to look at, I'll be doing many visits! 

[StevieSteve]

I take a photo with my phone which they've always been fine with

[smudwhisk]

Thanks hurworth, goldie and Steve.  I'm hoping to save images rather than have to photograph them, something I've had to do in the past with microfilms.  There are several centres within a 20 or so mile radius of me, I used to use one which was 17 miles away which has good opening hours but am hoping to see if I can use one closer, albeit that doesn't open so often, because, as goldie says, there are a lot of things to view now.   I've not been since the early days of their digitisation and the centre I used was having teething problems viewing the images in the catalogue.  That was, though, quite a few years ago.

[goldie61]

I hadn't been to an LDS library since the 'good old days' some 30 years ago when we used to go and trawl through the microfilms ordered from Salt Lake.  I never thought I'd be visiting again! I've found the rooms much reduced in size - I guess now that 'everything' could be got on he Internet they cut down.
I've also found that apart from lots of PRs not yet digitised by the big genealogy sites, they also have some films digitised of Parish chest records - Poor rates, overseers accounts etc. You can check this when you go into 'Church Records' on your chosen place. And in Scotland, besides all the  PRs, plus non-conformist registers, there are Session minutes if you're lucky - I can't see the big sites ever digitising those (and it costs a lot to get somebody to look at them at NRS) - and even if SP do, it would cost lots to view them there too.
Hours and hours (well, weeks and weeks) of fun! 

[lanercost]

Saving images is definitely the way to go but there is a limit of about 160 downloads per visit so don't go too nuts.

[hurworth]

And here I was thinking I'd spend less on ScotlandsPeople if I accessed some baptisms this way

Finding out who one relative was named after sent me on another quest, so of course I HAD TO get  her will! 

[smudwhisk]

Saving images is definitely the way to go but there is a limit of about 160 downloads per visit so don't go too nuts.

Is the limit definitely only for saving and not for the number of images viewed please? 

I could easily get through viewing that number of images in a short space of time.

[goldie61]

Saving images is definitely the way to go but there is a limit of about 160 downloads per visit so don't go too nuts.

Is the limit definitely only for saving and not for the number of images viewed please? 

I could easily get through viewing that number of images in a short space of time.

Really?
I was just thinking how hard it would be to even view 160 images never mind save them. The libraries I've been to are only open for about 3 hours on any one day. And by the time you've found the right film, then the right image, (which can take quite a long time if you have to plough though the film which might contain not just the place you want to look at, but possibly three other places as well; then  pinpoint the year you want, then find the marriages, say, which are not with the baptism but hundreds of images further on after the deaths, or the dates are out of order, or some years the marriages are mixed in with the baptisms, and some they're not ............ I could go on and on!). Then you have to find the actual bmd you want amongst a page of spidery, cramped writing with missing dates and the peculiar variety of handwriting of that particular vicar/clerk.  The point is, sometimes it takes a good deal of that 3 hours to just find several exact bmd entries on a film.
It's not like SP or the family search records site - there's no immediate call up of the image you want - you just have to locate it on the film - which as I say can take ages.
I know I'd be very hard pressed to download 160 images, unless you just want to copy the whole film I guess.

Don't let this put you off though! It's really very interesting. And you often stumble across something you hadn't expected or even thought might be there. And of course you can get sidetracked in the middle of looking for something specific......... which takes even longer! 

[StevieSteve]

Forgive me for saying, goldie61, but I think you could make that process a little more efficient by using the catalogue

For example Bromley, Kent gives

General register (baptisms, 1558-1714; marriages, 1575-1734; burials, 1578-1678); Baptisms, 1558-1844.

1042453 Items 3 - 7

Baptisms, 1844-1877; Marriages, 1735-1837.

1042454

Marriages, 1837-1880.

1042455

Burials, 1678-1880; Banns, 1838-1875.

1042456

and more, which gives you an idea of the film you need and where each section is in the film


When you go to the actual image screen,  if you click on the thumbnail view you see about 30 images on the screen.

With the information you have from the catalogue you can either scroll down a suitable amount or guesstimate a good starting page number - and if you're wrong, the catalogue gives an idea of how wrong