Original Research

Once the preliminary survey phase at the Family History Center has been conducted on the family you are interested in, you can avail yourself of a variety of resources for pursing original research, some of which is available at that Center, including the Accelerated Indexing System (AIS).

The AIS is very helpful when you don't know the location of your ancestor in a particular decade and you know only his or her name. It will help you locate the county where everyone with that name lived. After you find the local county jurisdiction, go back to the Family History Library Catalog or the center's card catalog to see if any county vital records are available locally.