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LDS Filming Projects Questions - Sonja Nishimoto - January 2004

I recently spoke to Daniel Schlyter, who works in the acquisitions area, who I am certain most of you are very familiar with, having heard him speak or had him help them with their Slavic research. I inquired of him what new things could I share with you. He responded by sending me some text from a talk that he gave which answers the number one question which everyone who does Polish (or other research, for that matter) has on their minds. What places are you planning to film or when will you be filming at....??? He has given me permission to use this text to answer this often-asked question.

We have been working with the Polish State archival system since 1965. Starting in the late 1980's we have been working successfully with several Roman-catholic diocese. Presently we have only 1 project with the state archives and 3 with diocesan archives.

The field acquisitions unit of the Family History Department continually negotiates and tries to acquire or make accessible genealogical materials from around the world. We do not share information about our current negotiations because this could disrupt the process. Once a filming project is underway, only non-specific references of what is being filmed can be discussed. Sometimes, well-meaning and anxious researchers have distributed misleading information about our current projects or have contacted the archives, which can jeopardize the relationship between archivists and the microfilmers.

As microfilms or digital images of the records in a particular project begin to come into the library, catalogers start to enter descriptions into the Family History Library Catalog to make them usable to the patron and easy to find. The on-line catalog is now quite up-to-date and the long wait for a new catalog to come out on fiche is now a thing of the past. We are all anxious to receive records of our ancestral villages, but the best way to inquire about these records is still by using the on-line catalog at www.familysearch.org.