Oakland California Family History Center - Oakland

Oakland California Family History Center ¹

Oakland California Family History Center is a part of the Oakland California Temple (Mormon Temple) which is devoted to genealogical research. The Center is open to the public and has helpful volunteers to assist patrons.

Contrary to what might be thought, the volunteers do not try to convert people who are using the History Center for research.

"The Oakland (California) Regional Family History Center is one of the largest and most accessible centers for genealogical research in California, with over 9,000 volumes of books, periodicals, family histories, city and county histories, city directories, plus over 37,000 reels of microfilm and 9,000 microfiche containing millions of local vital records and historical census data from all over the world." ¹

Classes on genealogical research are offered at the Center for free, though sometimes a small fee is charged for handouts and preregistration is required. There is also an African American Research Workshop presented on a monthly basis which is free as well with no preregistration.

Because of past thefts of rare materials, all bags and purses must be placed in lockers provided and only pencils are allowed for writing, but these are minor and understandable details due to their vast and invaluable collections.

The History Center is extremely well equipped, with 60 computers with printer access; copiers, 10 microfilm readers, 2 microfiche readers, 3 mircorfiche/film scanners, and a flatbed scanner.

Within the Center is an area with a computer, scanner, printer and software to assist in the scanning of photos and transfer to your flash drive or DVD; scan slides or negatives and transfer them to your flash drive or DVD, convert your photo files back and forth from gif, tiff, jpg or other sources.

There is also many different databases and specialized software available for use:

Genealogy database software (Ancestral Quest, Family Insight, Legacy, PAF, RootsMagic)
Charting software (PAF Companion, Legacy Charting)
OpenOffice software on all computers for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation preparation
Photo editing software (IrfanView, HP Photo Smart Essential, MGI Photo Suite, ACD Foto Slate and Canon Zoombrowser EX).
Pedigree Resource File (complete on server)
Free access to several subscription sites through the FamilySearch Portal such as Ancestry.com, British Newspapers, Find-My-Past (UK), Footnote, Genline (Swedish), Heritage Quest, World Vital Records and others.
Free internet access to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEGHS) website (americanancestors.org)
Free internet access to Genealogy Bank.com, newspapers.com and Vital records-Worldwide (each on one designated computer)
Research aids such as Animap.
Research databases such as Acadian-Cajun Family Trees, Austrailian Vital Records and Mormon Immigration Index. ¹