khcpl logo

Main & South
Mon-Thu:
Fri-Sat:
Sun:
9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m
2:00p.m.-5:30 p.m
Russiaville
Mon/Tue/Thu:
Wed:
Fri/Sat:
Sun:
9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Closed
9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
2:00p.m.-5:30 p.m

*Russiaville is closed Wednesdays

Hours Today

Main & South:

Russiaville:

All about Ancestry access

(March 9) -- The Genealogy and Local History department was full of patrons March 5, who came to the downtown Kokomo location interested in learning more about one of the library’s premier database offerings.

Genealogy research has never been more popular, and worldwide some 3 million subscribers pay for database access to the roughly 10 billion historical records offered by Ancestry.Com. Currently the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, the company, based in Utah and launched in 1996, operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.

The Genealogy Short Class on Ancestry Library Edition was well-attended and the group benefited from the research tips offered by Amy Russell, the Genealogy and Local History department head. Russell demonstrated ways to use Ancestry’s search tools and offered guidance on analyzing historical records (watch out for those transcription errors!).

Particularly well-received by the class attendees was learning how to cross-reference search results across both the Ancestry website and the Family Search platform.

The library offers free access to Ancestry Library Edition for anyone in Howard County (with a KHCPL library card). The library’s subscription service has a few limitations: library versions are slightly less robust than the paid site. Plus, Ancestry is currently the only database (of more than 90) that patrons cannot access free of charge outside the library buildings.