Family Group Records Collection

The Family Group Records Collection provides microfilmed copies of about 8 million family group records created by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The collection can help you survey research done previously by others, saving you time and giving you valuable information. While you should not assume the information to be completely accurate, you can use the information and sources provided on the family group records to guide you to original records. The collection is divided into two sections, the Archive Section and the Patron Section.

Archive Section

This section of the Family Group Records Collection contains five million family group records submitted by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1942 and 1969. The records are only available on microfilm.

Collection/ Submission Years	Notes	Films
Main Collection 1942-1969	The family group records are arranged alphabetically by the husband's surname, then given name, and then by the date of birth/christening. In 1993 the microfilms in the Archive Section were checked against the original family group records and it was found that 18,000 sheets were not microfilmed. The missing sheets were photocopied and then microfilmed as an addendum to the collection.	1,998 microfilm reels, beginning with 1273501 and the addendum starts on film 1750758.
Oriental Collection 1930-1979	Family group records for some countries or non-Roman languages were either not included in the Main Collection, or were updated after the main collection was filmed. These additional collections were later filmed separately. This collection is arranged alphabetically by husband's romanized name, then by birth date. Most records are for persons living from ca. 1100-1979 A.D.	33 microfilm reels, beginning with Japanese on 795724, Chinese on 795844, Korean on 795847.
Greece and miscellaneous countries 1942-1982	Family group records for some countries or non-Roman languages were either not included in the Main Collection, or were updated after the main collection was filmed. These additional collections were later filmed separately. This collection is arranged alphabetically, by husband's name when known, and by wife's name when name of husband is unknown. Within this arrangement, records of different people with the same name are arranged by birthdate.	3 microfilm reels, with miscellaneous countries beginning on 1281096 and Greece on 1281098.

In the Archive Section, an asterisk (*) next to the name of the husband, wife, their parents, or their children indicates that this individual appears on another Archive Section family group record. An asterisk next to the name of a child's spouse indicates another spouse is specified on the back of the record.

Patron Section

Three million family group records were submitted to the Patron Section between 1926-1979. The purpose was to share genealogical information and identify others working on the same lines.Each section has some names that cannot be found in other filmings. The family group records often included a brief list of the sources used to compile the record. Some records also included biographical histories for the family members listed on the form.If members of the LDS Church participated in the Three Generation or Four Generation record submission programs, their original submissions would now be found on these microfilms.

Submission Years	Notes	Films
1924-1950	Records pertain primarily to person living from ca. 1700-1962. Contains some records for person living as far back as 600 A.D. Records arranged in approximate alphabetical order. Surnames spelled differently but pronounced the same are often interfiled; some records filed out of alphabetical order. Records for some surnames are incomplete or missing. The 1924-1962 filming includes most of these records and is more legible.	824 microfilm reels, beginning with 260872
1924-1962	Records are arranged alphabetically by husband's name when known, and by wife's name when name of husband is unknown. If there is more than one record with the same filing name then they are arranged by birth/christening date. Some records were filmed slighly out of order. Most of the records submitted during 1924-1950 were included in this filming and are more legible.	614 microfilm reels, beginning with 412088
1962-1977	Arranged alphabetically by husband's name when known, and by wife's name when name of husband is unknown. If there is more than one record with the same filing name then they are arranged by birth/christening date. In many instances several records have been submitted for the same family unit. Comparison of these records will sometimes reveal discrepancies. Filming was done in two groups. Surnames "A" to "Kelsey" were filmed first and occupy rolls 1558711 through 1558961. The filming was stopped when it was discovered that Ancestral File contained information for 80 percent of the sheets. Later the collection binders were removed from circulation and the remainder of the collection was filmed. Surnames "K" to "Z" were filmed in 2003-2004 on rolls 2368889, 2369005	596 microfilm reels, beginning with 1558711
1962-1979	The records submitted during 1978 and 1979 were microfilmed separately because they are not interfiled with the 1962-1977 collection. In later years, the records were put directly into the Ancestral File which can be searched online at www.familysearch.org	61 microfilm reels, beginning with 1281028
Miscellaneous Collection	These family group records are sometimes referred to as supplementary family group records. They were submitted to the Genealogical Society for filing only.	41 microfilm reels, beginning with 284729

Converting Old Microfilm Numbers to New Numbers

The data sources listed on these family group records often include old book and film numbers. There have been a number of old book and film numbers used by the Family History Library over the years to identify and label its book and microfilm collections. When microfilming began, a combination of letters and numbers was used to number the films. Later, a system of serial numbers with part numbers was used. Finally, a straight numbering system was used beginning with film number 000001. Each time, the existing films were renumbered. Today there are more than 2,400,000 microfilms in the library's collection.

In order to find a source on film, you may need to convert an old film number to a new film number. For instructions, see "Old film numbers."

Further Reading

For further details about these family group records see:

• Family History Library (Salt Lake City, Utah). United States and Canada Reference Unit. Tracing LDS Families. Research Outline (34080). Second edition. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2000. Information about availability of the original collection binders is outdated.
  
• "Family History Library Catalog." Online database. FamilySearch.org. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp : copyright 2008.
  
• Meyerink, Kory L. "General References and Guides." In The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, editors. Third edition. Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2006. Page 81.
• Nichols, Elizabeth. "Family Group Collections of the Family History Library." Genealogical Journal 24 (Winter 1996): 11-27. Family History Library book 973 D5gi; not available on microfilm. This article also describes the relationship of the Temple Records Index Bureau Endowment Index (TIB), the Ordinance Index, and "Ancestral File" to the family group records. Information about availability of the original collection binders is outdated.
  

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