South Bend Indiana Family History Center

The South Bend, Indiana Family History Center is actually in Mishawaka, Indiana, The two cities seem to be one big city. The dividing line is Logan Street. If you want to find us using your GPS, you will have to enter 930 Park Place, Mishawaka, IN.

Location Map:

Address:


 * 930 Park Place Mishawaka IN 46545 United States
 * We have our own entrance to the FHC. It is in the left front of the building, or right front, looking from the street.
 * It is written in white letters, Family History Center along with our hours of operation.

Phone:


 * 1 574-243-1633

E-mail:


 * IN_SouthBend@ldsmail.net

Open Hours:


 * Tues 12:00pm-7:00pm
 * Sat 11:00pm - 3:00pm.


 * Closed for Thanksgiving, December 24  through  1st Monday January. 

Collections

 * FamilySearch Catalog: This center has the ability to order any of the films and fiche available through the FamilySearch Catalog, from Salt Lake Library distribution. We have over 1900 films in our own Inventory. Plus another 1,000 or so fiche.

There is a $7.50 charge to cover the shipping to and from our FHC. This allows a patron to view the film for 90 days. If they find 90 days is not enough time, they can renew the film for an additonal 60 days for another $7.50 to have the Microfilm for an Extended loan with no defined return date ,if someone wants to  to keep the film here who initially ordered it. Or they can pay the $16.50 up front, and when the film comes in we add it to our Inventory at that time.


 * FHC Portal This center has access to the Family History Center Portal page which gives free access in the center to Premium Family History software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Such as the following web sites. •19th Century British Library Newspaper Digital Archive •Access Newspaper Archive •Alexander Street Press - The American Civil War:    Research Database | Letters and Diaries | Images, Photographs, Posters, and Ephemera •Ancestry.com
 * •Find My Past •Fold3.com (Previously known as Footnote.com) •The Genealogist •Genline FamilyFinder *. •Godfrey Memorial Library •Heritage Quest Online •Historic Map Works Library Edition •Paper Trail •World Vital Records
 * Hardware and Equipment: We have seven computers with access to the above sites, with the ability to print or save to a flash drive the information you find and want to keep. We have five film readers along with one Cannon Scanner that allows you to scan documents you find on any of the films you may have ordered. We are working on adding another scanning device that will be able to take a picture of an image from the readers. This will be of great benefit to our patrons. Now we have a 1 hour time limit on the Cannon Scanner, this allows more patrons time to copy the documents, rather then having to transcribe the information.

Staff Research Specialties
We have several consultants who specialize in Hungary, Poland, German, and England research. Also one who is very good searching Military Records. Once you have an initial contact with them, you can set up appointments with them, at no charge. We do ask $.10 a copy if you make a hard copy of your records, other than that everything here is free of charge.

Resources in the Local Area
The Mishawaka Penn Harris Public Library, located at 209 Lincoln Way East, Mishawaka, (574) 259-5277, with branches at: 602 Bittersweet Rd, Mishawaka (574) 259-0392, and 51446 Elm Rd. Granger            (574) 271-3179.

The St.Joseph County Public Library, 304 South Main St.South Bend, IN (574) 282-4621

The Allen County Public Library, in Ft. Wayne, IN (260) 421-1200

Links
http://wicklow.rootsireland.ie

www.geneanet.org and www.archive.org

www.verwandt.de and www.mocavo.com

www.in.gov/library/genealogy.htm

Volunteer at the Center
Anyone can be a volunteer at our Family History Center. You don't have to be an expert at doing research or on how to use a computer. We would be glad to have anyone who has a couple of hours during any of the days we are open. There is more to do than helping people with their research, I as the Director can find something for you to do to assist us in making this the best Family History Center.

Terry Brown, Director