Lodi California FamilySearch Center

This article describes the services and resources available at a FamilySearch Center, a branch facility of the FamilySearch Library.

The Lodi California Family History Center is located in San Joaquin County, California, north of Stockton.

Center Contacts and Hours

Location & Map:

• 731 North Ham Lane, Lodi, CA 95240 (Google Maps)
• Enter from the church parking lot on Daisy Avenue. Please ring the doorbell if the door is locked.

Phone: (209) 369-4148

Open Hours: Monday 10am-5pm, Tuesday 10am-5pm and 7-9pm; Wednesday 10am-1:30pm and 7-9 pm; Thursday 10am-5pm and 7-9pm, Saturday 9am-12noon, Sunday 2:15-3 pm

Holiday Closures: The Lodi California FHC is closed for federal holidays; General Conference weekends; Thanksgiving weekend; and Christmas break. Open by appointment during holidays. Contact your Ward Family History Consultant or the FHC Director Kathryn Marshall (L3) to make an appointment.

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Calendar and Events

Scheduled Classes

"Scanning Photos and Source Documents, plus Basic Fixes in Picasa and Photoshop" on Saturday, February 15 at 9 am in the Lodi FHC.

“FamilySearch Workshop” on Saturday, February 22 from 9:30 am - 1:30 pm at the San Andreas Senior Center for the Calaveras County Genealogical Society. Introduction to FamilySearch Family Tree; Adding Photos, Stories and Sources to Family Tree; Using the FamilySearch Wiki; and Researching with the Historic Records Collection. Call the FHC for details.

“Western Migration Trails” on Thursday, March 13 at 7 pm in Carmichael for the Root Cellar, Sacramento Genealogical Society. Call the FHC for details.

Center Resources

Collections

• Family History Library Catalog: This center receives any of the films and fiche available through the Family History Library Catalog.
• For Lodi's large German from Russia population, the Lodi center has a number of resources relevant to that community, such as the 81 microfilm set of the Saint Petersburg Lutheran Consistory parish records. Dictionaries, gazetteers, and other books relevant to a variety of locations are also available.
• Over 200 microfilms with Finnish church and vital records
• An index of births, deaths, marriages extracted from the Lodi News-Sentinel from 1881-2005, and from the Valley Review, a defunct newspaper.

Databases and Software for use at the Lodi FHC

• FHC Portal provides free public access to premium family history software and websites. Utilize valuable subscription web sites such as Ancestry.com, Fold3, HeritageQuest, FindMyPast, Historic Map Works, and others to research your family lines.
  
• The Lodi FHC also subscribes to Genealogy Bank, offering digital images of newspapers, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society's American Ancestors web site.
  
• AniMap displays and prints changing county and state boundaries over time.
  
• DeedMapper plots maps from metes and bounds descriptions in land records.
  
• Photoshop Elements can enhance readability of old documents and restore family photos.
  
• PAF, Legacy, RootsMagic, and Family Insight are available for recording your family tree. Free versions are available online for your use at home. Staff will gladly help you transfer your pedigree files from one program to another.
  

Free Special Services

• Archival technology to migrate your data from old storage devices to current modes of data storage: We have archival technology to read, save, and transfer your old files to current storage devices. Is your data still on a floppy drive or zip drive? We can transfer your files from 5-1/4 inch floppies, 3-1/2 inch floppies, zip 100 and zip 250 drives to a flash drive or DVD for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for transfer assistance.
• Optical character recognition (Nuance OCR): Do you have a typed manuscript, newspaper article on yellowing paper, or family stories your grandparents told in a one-of-a-kind book? Scan the document. Convert the image from a picture of the page to a written transcript in Word or other software of your choice. OCR software can "read" the image and type it out for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for assistance.
  
• Voice recognition software (Dragon): Transform audio files into typed transcripts. Play the tape or digital recording, and voice recognition software types it out for you. Call 209-369-4148 to make an appointment for assistance.
  

Hardware and Equipment

• Patrons are invited to use our computers, scanner, printers, and copier at no charge for their genealogical research. Twelve work stations are available.
  
• Three microfilm readers, two microfiche readers, and a film/fiche reader printer are available.