Images in FamilySearch

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

​Have you used the image search in FamilySearch? A friend mentioned it to me the other day, so I checked it out. There are so many ways to search for information on FamilySearch, but this was one I hadn’t tried. Let’s look.

​To get started, go to FamilySearch and sign in. You need to have a free account with FamilySearch. Once you have done that, click on the search button and then select Images. I have looked at images in the Memory section, but these are different. So far, the images that I have found are not photographs or pictures but scans of documents.
 
For my first search I put in “North Dakota” and this was the result:

​I chose North Dakota, United States 1889-Present, State. And this resulted in over 1500 results. You can filter these results by using the list at the left-hand side of the page. I chose Richland County, North Dakota which had nineteen results.

Here are some of the nineteen results from that search.

Could you find this information by searching the catalog option? Likely. I do think that by doing this search you gain an appreciation for all the types of information available. The newspaper articles in the example above relate to various organizations in Richland County like Foresters, the Bohemian lodge, and others. It is unlikely that I would have noticed these if I’d been researching in newspapers for ancestors but perhaps one will be mentioned. I even found an article bemoaning the need to replace wooden planks in the crosswalk because of their disrepair. Further down the list you can view digital versions of the Richland County, North Dakota Marriage records from as early as 1877. North Dakota marriage records are available on Ancestry and searchable but if you don’t have a subscription, this would be an option. There appears to be  alot to explore.
 
I don’t see that you can do an automated search within these documents/images but sometimes it is good to slow down and spend time reading what catches your fancy. Have fun exploring something new in a site you may visit on a regular basis. Happy searching!