It’s been a long two years.
One of the most valuable, and free, services for family historians is now available again in Ottawa. You get access to records you won’t find at Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and other commercial genealogy sites. And it is totally free.
Perhaps like me, you missed the announcement.
The Ottawa Stake Family History Centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to give its full title, reopened on 29 June.
The facility, at 1017 Prince of Wales Drive, north of the intersection with Heron Road/ Baseline, is now open every Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm.
I stopped in on Wednesday to see what’s changed.
The entrance, at the back of the building, hasn’t changed much. You need to buzz to be let in.
Inside the layout was familiar. Things appear to have been tidied up a bit with fewer books on the shelves, those now available online have been removed.
Cabinets with locally held microfilms are still there.
Old fashioned microfilm readers are in one room, one of the volunteers on duty was using it.
For a Wednesday morning the computer room with access to the full range of FamilySearch digitial microfilms and other resoirces was comfortably busy. Because of the small space masks are required throughout.
Service disruptions do happen. It’s good practice to phone ahead to 613-800-4250 to check the FHC is actually open.
Looks not that much different from when my mum and I visited 30 years ago!!!
My late husband and I did a ton of research there many years before anything like Ancestry was available. That it was all free was winderful. But I was brought up a Presbyterian/Baptist (still calling myself a Presbyterian in recovery) and became uncomfortable with everything being free.
So between us, Ed and I made a generous donation to ease our guilt. We were shocked when we later discovered that the Center considered us Morman. Cheers, BT