Clark County Genealogical Research Trips

Picture of everyone on the road trip.

What a great trip!

Alice Allen

Wonderful time!

Paula Schoenlein

Great Adventure

Marcia Lawson Grubb

Research Trip to Salt Lake City - November 17, 2019

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Family History Library Salt Lake City, Utah

Clark County Genealogical Society occasionally helps organize a fall trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. We encourage all family researchers to make the visit whenever it is possible. Come join us and have fun researching with a group of fellow genealogists.

CCGS member Paula Schoenlein is going to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City the week of November 17, 2019. If you are interested in joining that group, contact us for more information. (See contact information below)

Paula has also created a Research Trip Focus Group that meets the third Monday of each month at the library from 10:00am to 12:00pm. Feel free to come and join the group as they discuss what to know before you go on any research trip.

There are a number of hotels in Salt Lake City. Here is a list provided by Google Search: SLC Hotels. Or search for “Hotels near Family Search Library” in your favorite search engine. Here are two hotels that our members have used before.

For more information on our next trip:

Email us at gensoc (at) ccgs-wa (dot) org
Subject: “Research trip”

After The Trip...

This intrepid group of CCGS members spent a week in Salt Lake City in November, at the Family History Library. The above picture is one of the new features available in the FHL ―Discovery Center

Following are comments by some of our fellow travelers:

I had a wonderful time visiting the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Now that the library is open every day of the week, I had many hours to research. I even found some time for fun in the discovery center.

I spent most of my time on the international floor going through many reels of microfilm. These rolls were in German and I had no idea what I was looking at but I received help and encouragement from staff and volunteers in the library. The help that was offered to me to translate from German to English was invaluable. I would not have looked at these documents at home even if they were available to me because I would have felt intimidated by the handwriting, but I am now feeling encouraged to learn more about German handwriting and language.

The stay at the Plaza hotel was enjoyable, despite the fact that I didn’t spend a considerable amount of time in my room. The close proximity to the library and food choices made this the best choice for me and I would absolutely stay there again.

I learned a considerable amount from my trip and would love to make a return visit someday.

~~Paula Schoenlein

Today as I write more than 10 days after returning from my first research trip to Salt Lake City, it is clear to me that the ancestors called and they have hot gossip for me! From www.newspapers.com, I discovered my dear grandmother in the Covina (CA) Argus in 1953 ―Viola Lawson teacher of Piano. Beginners and adv pupils FO 8-9464. 4933 N. Hallowell. Arden and Lower Azusa.

Further from her obituary published in 1973 Arcadia Tribune, I learned ―she taught piano in her home for 55 years and was a member of the Alhambra Musicians Club. Wow, locating this document made my heart skip, I lived out of state when my favorite grandmother passed away and never saw the obituary published at the time. After reading it, the numbers didn’t add up. I attended her funeral, knew the attendees, the mortician, and my grandmother personally. So I am well qualified to dispute the printed facts. One example: at age 69, teaching in her California home for 55 years equals 14 years of age when she began teaching (she also lived in Oregon, not California). A ―don’t believe every word printed genealogy lesson here for certain!

My 2019 trip to Salt Lake City was a great adventure, made fabulous with 7 perfect genealogical travelers.

~~Marcia Lawson Grubb

What a great trip! A lot has changed at the Family History Library over the years. Gee, a lot can change overnight, apparently—as some our CCGS researchers commented that a bank of computers (or maybe it was microfilm readers) disappeared overnight, replaced with a sign that indicated changes were coming. We all discovered we had German roots, and most of us spent some time on the International floor working with staff and volunteers. I know I got a lot of help from different workers, and was even able to discover a brother for my grandfather who had never been entered into the Family Search Family Tree.

~~Alice Allen

The research group will continue to meet on third Monday of each month at 10 a.m., even though we don’t have a specific trip planned in the near future. There are tips presented to help you plan a trip on your own, as well as the group. Hope to see you Monday, December 16.