Duncan British Columbia FamilySearch Centre

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

Everyone is welcome to use our services.

Centre Contacts and Hours

Location & Map:

Address: 

• 1815 Tzouhalem Road (corner of Donnay Drive), Duncan, BC, V9L 5L5 Canada
• Located inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Location on Map

Phone: 250 748-9618 E-mail:   Director   loriaches@yahoo.ca
Open Hours:

• Tuesdays        10:00 am - 2:00 pm      We may close at 1:00 if no patrons are present.
  
• Wednesdays   6:30 - 8:00pm
  
• Thursdays      10:00 am - 2:00 pm
• We may close at 1:00 if no patrons are present.
  
  

Holiday Schedule:

Call to check on closures at Christmas and in the summer. Usually still open by appointment.

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Centre Resources

Collections

• Family History Library Catalog: Online, you can order any of the films and fiche available through the Family History Library Catalog. They are sent to us and you can come in to view them on our readers. Ours is a smaller Centre, so we do not have film and fiche copy capability. Be sure to bring your digital camera because that works quite well.
  

Databases and Software

• FHC Portalsubscription websites, including the following and more:
• Ancestry.com
  
• World Vital Records
  
• Find My Past (includes 1911 British Census)
  
• Access Newspaper Archives
• Fold3 (formerly Footnote)
• For details about these and the the others, go to:
• https://familysearch.org/help/viewdocument?documentId=106761&sliceId=SAL_Public&userQuery=portal+what+premium+websites+available

Hardware and Equipment

• Computers with Internet
• Bring your laptop and we can set you up on our wi-fi (you must use our computers for FHC Portal access)
• Printer (copies 10 cents - please bring correct change)
• Photocopier (not reliable! copies 15 cents - please bring correct change)
• Microfilm and microfiche readers

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Centre Services

Staff Research Specialties

All Family History Consultants are volunteers with different areas of expertise and levels of experience. We will do our best to get you going with what you want to do, and will often refer you to somebody who might know more. 

Other patrons are often helpful too. We all learn from one another.

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Resources in the Local Area

The Cowichan Branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library offers free use of public computers and the Internet for one hour daily. Or one hour of wi-fi access with your own laptop. 

They also have a subscription to Ancestry. You may need staff assistance to find it the first time.

If you wish to order microfilms from Library and Archives Canada - or any other institution that lends to libraries - the Cowichan Branch can order them on your behalf and you can view them on our readers.

Check with other branches of VIRL, as many do offer similar services.

The BC Archives is located in Victoria. You can do quite a bit of advance research online prior to making a trip there.

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Links

http://virl.bc.ca/

http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/bcarchives/default.aspx

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Volunteer at the Centre

We welcome new volunteers to work in the Family History Centre. Please contact the Director, above.

If you would like to do volunteer transcribing/indexing of records from home, your efforts will be appreciated by untold thousands (millions?) of researchers now and forever. The indexed records will be searchable and the originals will be viewable for FREE to everyone, at www.familysearch.org 

Try it. See if you like it:

https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing

http://www.billiongraves.com/