How the Family History Center has changed

The Family History Center sendoff and computer growth.

My regular shift at the family history center was rather calm until 1pm when some of the workers came in to celebrate the ending of my 12 year term on the staff at the center.  I cannot believe that 12 years has elapsed since I began as a staff member at this family history center.  I have seen it go from  a grand total of 3 used computers and a cantankerous printer on one side of the room and a very ancient computer on the other side of the room that still used cartridges containing cd’s of genealogical information, to the sleek computers and constant connection with the internet that we have today.  These were very trying times because the computers were old and not up to the amount of work they were expected to do.  After about 2 – 3 years of this struggle, the old computers were replaced by some very new computers donated by Brother and Sister Ira Fulton.  We were ecstatic to have the new computers and we even got a new printer to boot.  Sometime later the internet was  available through a hookup to the Facilities Management office.  It did not work all the time and when it was working, even then it did not work well and we had to charge $1.00 per hour for people to use the internet and we had to set the timer to equal out the usage of the computer time.  The internet was still in its infancy and many of the search engines were not yet operational or even invented in some cases.  Amid all the chaos of internet problems, updates of websites and computers and upgrades of genealogical programs, we were treated to a complete overhaul of the family history center itself.  There was the agony of choosing the right kinds and colors of paint for the walls – the staff chose Mauve and it was wonderful but the Facilities Management people said that we had to paint the walls white – so someone painted over the walls with white paint and the mauve bled through so we have the most pale mauve walls and it is good.  A visitor to our library commented that we have the most colorful library in the church system.

We then received 10 new computers with windows XP professional installed and a computer wizard named Dan Vester to keep them humming.  They keep going in spite of the abuse that they get from the patrons.  We have very little down time with the internet these days and Ancestry has restored quite a bit of their program for use in the FHC.

I am sad to leave the FHC but The Director is positive that after my mission is over, that I will return to Prescott and take over as Director of the FHC.  He even took my name badge and put it in the inner office for safe keeping until I return.  We do not know from one day to the next what life will bring, but I sure hope that the FHC is still in operation when I return.

I do think that when I get back to Prescott in about a year’s time, that computers will be even more advanced than they are today and possibly we will have a whole new crop of computers to help with the research of family history.