El Dorado California Family History Center

Come on in and visit our newly renovated center and get FREE one on one help from our friendly staff, from our friendly staff, take advantage of our FREE public classes, spend time searching through our vast genealogical library, view any of our 4,422 microfilms, or use one of our computers with FREE access to a variety of genealogical premium websites including Ancestry.com, My Heritage and Fold 3 - military records.

Center Contacts and Hours
Location Map:


 * Location Map

Address:


 * 3275 Cedar Ravine, Placerville CA 95667 United States


 * Language:English

Phone:


 * 1-530-621-1378

E-mail:


 * ca_eldorado@ldsmail.net

Open Hours:


 * Tuesday:11:00am-8:00pm
 * Wednesday:11:00am-8:00pm
 * Thursday:11:00am-5:00pm
 * Friday and Saturday by appointment only

Holiday Schedule:

Closed the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

Director: Kori Pilkington

Upcoming Events:
= Temple and Family History Consultant Workshops = '''Introducing an all new training workshop for "Temple and Family History Consultants" throughout the El Dorado Stake. The program will be held for 4 consecutive weeks as follows:''' For those who have health issues that prevent them from attending, we hope to record the classes at the stake center and eventually have them available on the website for you to watch anytime.
 * March at the Stake Center: Thursday evenings, March 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th from 7 to 8:30 pm
 * March at the Family History Center: Wednesday evenings, March 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th from 7 to 8:30 pm
 * April at the Family History Center: Wednesday mornings, April 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th from 10 to 11 am

The workshops will focus on the Find, Take, Teach program including training on how to use the Consultant Planner, Merging Duplicates, Descendancy Research, and Preparing Names for the Temple. By the end of this training program, you will feel confident helping anyone find and take a name to the temple. All Temple and Family History Consultants are encouraged to attend one of these four week sessions.

Introducing an all new Combined: Boy Scout and Young Women Personal Progress Genealogy Merit Badge Workshop...
Attend just ONE of the following workshops (with a tiny bit of prep work at home) and you will complete all of the requirements.

It's FUN!!! And there will be donuts!!!
 * Family History Center - Saturday April 22nd from 10 am to noon
 * Stake Center - Saturday June 17th from 10 am to noon
 * Family History Center - Saturday September 9th from 10 am to noon
 * Stake Center - Saturday November 4th from 10 am to noon

Free Public Classes:
 March 2017 

Learn the Wiki with Kori Pilkington

Thursday, March 9th - 5 to 6 pm

Kori will teach you how to search this most amazing website, contribute a "stub", or even write an article. This class is designed to help you find places and topics related to your genealogical research. It represents over 84,000 articles written by users and people just like you! Two hundred and forty four countries are represented with links to many websites on the internet and in the Family History Center Portal.

Family Search Memories

Tuesday March 21st - 10 to 11 am

Learn how to take photos using the familySearch Memories app on your Android or iPhone and add them to Memories on Family Tree. Also learn how to scan your photo albums and piles of pictures with our new photo scanner and save them to a flash drive and post them in the person view on Family Tree. You can bring your pictures and a flash drive or you can buy one at the center.

Maiden Voyage: Finding Females with Kathryn Marshall

Thursday, March 23rd - 10 to 11 am

Learn the most productive sources and strategies for identifying female ancestors. Searching for female ancestors generally involves using familiar records, but focusing on whole family groups and records about collateral lines. Use timelines to analyze clues suggesting an ancestor might not have been a first husband or wife. Discover what verification logic can help to to assign the right children to the right combination of biological parents when spouses have remarried.

 April 2017 

Family Search Tools with Alton Sissell

Tuesday, April 11th 10 to 11 am

Alton will teach you about some exciting new tools to improve your research.

Learn the Wiki with Kori Pilkington

Thursday, April 13th - 5 to 6 pm

Kori will teach you how to search this most amazing website, contribute a "stub", or even write an article. This class is designed to help you find places and topics related to your genealogical research. It represents over 84,000 articles written by users and people just like you! Two hundred and forty four countries are represented with links to many websites on the internet and in the Family History Center Portal.

Fold 3 with Kori Pilkington

Thursday April 13th - 6 to 7 pm

Learn the wonderful world of Fold 3 with National Archive, Military Records, Dawes Records etc. Learn how to create a free account and add a memorial to a relative. Don't miss this educational and enlightening class.

How to be a Family History Detective with Bill Taylor

Tuesday, April 18th - 10 to 11 am

Have you ever thought of being a Family History Detective. Learn how to be a Family History Sleuth like Sherlock Holmes and follow the clues to find your ancestors.

 May 2017 

Cutting and Pasting from the Internet with Marian Kile

Wednesday, May 10th - 10 to 11 am

Marian will show us the basics of cutting and pasting as well as some special tips that will help us with our genealogy as well other PC activities.

Pre-1850 County Records with Kathryn Marshall

Thursday, May 11th 10 to 11 am

Early American settlements were based on a personal model that kept records of inhabitants at the town and county level. In the colonial era, most civil matters (such as land ownership, guardianship of children, and even one's occupation) were handled in quarterly sessions of a General Court, whose documentation is preserved at the county level. This class will help you mine rich sources of detailed genealogical data from sources readily available online. Discover how to identify original and subsequent jurisdictions in which your ancestors resided using Animap or free online resources. Follow the trail of records sometimes transferred from local jurisdictions to county and state repositories.

Grannies Attic to my PC with Bill Taylor

Tuesday, May 16th 10 to 11 am

Learn how to convert your big box of family history stuff into an organized digital file. Organize your photographs and learn how to store them online.

 June 2017 

PC Tips all Genealogists Should Know with Marian Kile

Wednesday, June 14th - 10 to 11 am

Marian will show us some ways to make our research and documentation easier. She will cover cutting and pasting, using screen images, saving documents and images, and more.

Alton Sissell

Tuesday, June 13th 10 to 11 am

TBA

Family History on the Go (Mobile Apps) with Bill Taylor

Tuesday, June 20th 10 to 11 am

Learn how to use your portable electronic devices (phones, tablets, notebooks etc) to capture family history information on the go. Learn how to photograph, make audio recordings and save these items to family search.

Collections

 * FamilySearch Catalog: This center has the ability to order any of the films and fiche available through the FamilySearch Catalog.
 * We currently have over 4,000 microfilms and thousands of microfiche and a large library of books to help you with your research.

Databases and Software

 * 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.
 * Ancestry
 * Find my Past
 * American Ancestors
 * 19th Century British Library Newspapers digital archives
 * Alexander Street Press - American Civil War
 * Fold 3
 * Kinpoint
 * My Heritage
 * Newspaper Archives
 * Paper Trail
 * Proquest Obituaries
 * World Vital Records
 * Arkiv-Digital online

Hardware and Equipment

 * Eight computers with access to the free premium websites
 * Free wifi and laptop stations
 * Kodak Photo Scanner

Staff Research Specialties
(Include sections for any other services your center provides. Add additional sections for those services. See the Bountiful and Chattanooga FHC pages for examples.)

Volunteer at the Center
''We welcome volunteers with experience in genealogical research. Our volunteers generally work a three hour shift once a week.''

Our shift schedule is as follows: We also welcome volunteers to teach classes on various genealogical research subjects. Please note: we do not charge for our classes or pay our staff or instructors. We are a non profit community center run by community volunteers.
 * Tuesdays 11am to 2 pm; 2 pm to 5 pm; 5 pm to 8 pm
 * Wednesdays 11 am to 2 pm; 2 pm to 5 pm; 5 pm to 8 pm
 * Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm; 2 pm to 5 pm

If you are interested in volunteering at our center please contact our Director Kori Pilkington at kori.pilkington@gmail.com