Free training · Using FamilySearch · Beginner · 15 min
The Records You Cannot See From Home
Why some FamilySearch images only open on approved premises, and how to use a free family history center or a local affiliate library to read them.
Free FamilySearch training from Stuck in the Branches on restricted record images: why archive agreements limit viewing, how restrictions change, free family history centers, affiliate libraries near you, preparing a list before a visit, saving what you find, and records that were never filmed.
What you will learn
- Recognise a restricted image as an archive agreement rather than a paywall.
- Find your nearest free family history center or affiliate library.
- Prepare a list of exact catalog items before a visit.
- Save and name what you find before you leave the building.
- Know when a record was never filmed and local enquiry is the only route.
The full written guide
Chapter 1. Welcome
The padlock is a contract, not a paywall.
The Records You Cannot See From Home.
Welcome back. Sooner or later you will find exactly the record you need, click it, and be told you cannot view it from home. This guide explains why, and how to go and read it anyway.
You Have Not Done Anything Wrong.
A padlock or a message about viewing at a family history center is not an error and not a paywall. It is a contract. The archive that owns the originals allowed filming on the condition that the images are only shown on approved premises.
The Agreements Are With the Archives.
FamilySearch filmed records in thousands of archives, churches and courthouses worldwide, each under its own agreement. Some owners permit the whole world to see them, some permit only on site viewing, and a few permit none. The restriction follows the owner, not you.
Restrictions Change in Both Directions.
These agreements get renegotiated, so a record locked last year can be open now, and occasionally the reverse. If a key image is restricted, note it and check again in six months. It is not unusual for a wall to come down with no effort on your part at all.
Chapter 2. Where you can read them
Free centers, and the affiliate library near you.
A FamilySearch Center Is Free.
Family history centers are small free research rooms, open to anybody of any faith, no appointment needed in most cases. The computers there are inside the permitted network, so the restricted images simply open. Nobody is going to ask you anything about religion.
An Affiliate Library Is Probably Closer.
Thousands of public libraries, universities and genealogical societies are affiliate libraries with the same viewing access. For most people there is one within a reasonable drive, and you may well already have a card for it. This is the option most researchers never hear about.
Find Your Nearest One First.
FamilySearch has a directory of centers and affiliate libraries, searchable by your town. Look yours up now rather than when you are desperate, and check the opening hours, because many are run by volunteers and open only a few days a week.
Chapter 3. Making the visit count
Go with a list, save as you go, ask the volunteer.
Go With a List, Not a Hope.
The visit is only worth it if you prepare. Before you go, build a list of the exact items you want: the catalog entry, the film or volume, the year range, and the person you are looking for. Two prepared hours beat a whole day of browsing on the day.
Save as You Go.
Work out how you will keep what you find before you start: download where it is permitted, photograph the screen where it is not, and name every file as you save it. People lose a whole visit's work because everything came home as screenshot forty one through sixty three.
Ask the Volunteer at the Desk.
The person staffing the room has usually been doing this for years and knows the local collections cold. Tell them what you are stuck on. This is frequently the single most valuable thirty seconds of the trip, and it costs nothing but saying hello.
Chapter 4. The locks that stay shut
Living people and recent records.
Living People Are Restricted Too.
Separately from the archive agreements, records involving living people and recent events are limited by privacy law and by FamilySearch policy. That lock is not going to open, and it is the same protection that keeps your own household private.
Chapter 5. Never filmed at all
When the record only exists locally.
Some Things Only Exist Locally.
Not everything was ever filmed. When the catalog and the wiki both come up empty, the record may still exist in a county courthouse, a parish safe or a local society's filing cabinet. That is the point where a letter, a phone call, or a researcher on the ground is the answer.
Chapter 6. Wrap up
Find your library, build the list.
Make the trip, with a list.
Look up your nearest center or affiliate library today and note its hours. Build a list of the restricted items you want, and book an afternoon. We are here when you get stuck, and we can go on your behalf.