COMMENTARY

By Paul D. Peery, Editor

NEW CD-ROM: FAMILY HISTORY SOURCE GUIDE
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, April 5, 1998
The LDS Church announced Saturday that its Family History Library, which contains more than 13 billion names on microfilm, is making some of its genealogical data available to the public on compact disc.

The library -- the largest of its kind in the world -- has put together a Family History SourceGuide, computer software which provides information from more than 150 research guides, to help people through the sometimes arduous process of finding their ancestors.

In addition, the LDS Church has put two of its resource files on CD: the 1851 British Census for three counties (about 1.5 million records) and the Australian Vital Records Index from 1788 to 1905 (4.8 million entries).

"A new era of family history has arrived," said LDS Apostle Russell M. Nelson in the afternoon session of Saturday's General Conference.

These resources can lead people to genealogical records in countries, states and provinces around the world, Nelson said, and help people "use these records to identify their ancestors."

The Vital Records Index, containing approximately 25 million records, will be released in segments by geographic area with the next few months.

All the new genealogical products will be available at the LDS Distribution Centers at several locations in Utah.
--Peggy Fletcher Stack

[Sun, Apr 4, 1998 -- PDP]