A Conversation about Microfilming

The Church recently marked fifty years of microfilming records for family history research. To learn about microfilming today, the Ensign talked with Richard W. Ebert, Jr., director of acquisitions for the Family History Department.

Q. How many countries currently permit the Church to microfilm their family history records?

A. We have two hundred camera projects going in more than forty countries. We are acquiring or have acquired microfilmed records for most countries in North and South America, the British Isles, Scandinavia, many countries throughout Europe, much of the Pacific Basin, Africa, and some countries in Asia and the Orient.

We have tried to prioritize the countries of the world where members of the Church are most likely to need to do genealogical research, and to identify and copy the records which are most likely to provide the information members will need. Keeping these goals in mind helps us use our available resources as wisely as possible.

Q. How has it been possible to film records in so many places?

A. The most important factor is that the Lord is blessing us. For one thing, he has given us some excellent microfilmers who are real examples of faith and dedication. And they have better equipment than ever before. Our negotiators are being blessed in getting permission to film in many places that were previously closed to us.

Then, too, so many nonprofessional people are now involved in family history research that professional archivists are finding greater need to preserve records and make them available. Because the Church has become well known in the field of records preservation, many archivists turn to us or willingly listen to proposals from us to film their records. In fact, we have many more opportunities to film than we have cameras with which to film.

Q. How many microfilmed records does the Church have on file?

A. At present, we have about one and one-half million original rolls of microfilm in our collection. These rolls contain more than one and one-half billion exposures.

The rate at which we are filming throughout the world is increasing. In 1985, our workers filmed about thirty-seven million individual records. In 1988, they filmed nearly ninety million. We duplicate about seven thousand miles of microfilm each year for use in the Church’s family history libraries.

More important, though, is the fact that not only are we acquiring more records, but members of the Church are using the records we acquire more than ever before.

Q. Aren’t there many nonmembers who use these Church libraries?

A. About 67 percent of the users of LDS family history libraries are non-Latter-day Saints. We hope many of these people will contribute their research to the Church for inclusion in the Personal Ancestral File. That way their research can be preserved. Sometimes an uninterested spouse or relative will throw away the results of years of research after an avid family historian has died.

Most family history research is built upon the work of others. There’s a lot of sharing in the research community. Right now, for example, the Church is working with non-LDS genealogical organizations in the British Isles to compile information from the 1881 census.

Q. Is it difficult to win the cooperation of such groups?

A. Not as much now. Because of what Latter-day Saints have done in advancing microfilming and the preservation of documents, many international experts seek us out. The Church has made a tremendous contribution to records preservation in the world. This contribution is something in which the individual member of the Church can take pride.

Richard W. Ebert, Jr., director of acquisitions for the Church Family History Department. (Photo by Philip S. Shurtleff.)