Ancestors Plus Great ‘Genes’ Shop

Do all area genealogists know that Ancestors Plus, a genealogy shop, has moved from the Shadle Shopping Center to the Garland Shopping District? It’s now on Garland between Wall and Monroe. Parking is plentiful on the street and behind the Garland Theatre.

Owners Ann and Lew Hemmert are expanding the shop’s “gene” section with scrapbooks and diaries, and they’re in contact with more publishers to stock a much larger inventory of genealogy resource materials. On your next shopping trip, visit Ancestors Plus, or give them at call at 328-6558.

Recently, Ann Hemmert took time from running the shop to conduct a survey. She wanted to know what special collections or holdings were in the area Family History centers to pass along to her customers.

This is what she learned:

The Pines Family History Center, Highway 27 South and 40th, is the area’s largest and oldest center; it has four computers, eight microfilm readers (including two handicap readers), four microfiche readers and one copy machine. In-house collection specialties include Native American genealogy, Norwegian and Danish genealogy and an extensive federal census collection on permanent loan. For days and hours, call 926-0551.

The West Terrace Family History Center, on Melville Road near Cheney, has three computers and plenty of microfilm and microfiche readers, and copiers. Its special collection includes 35 films on Cornwall, England, and many on Sweden. For days and hours call 455-9735.

The Northside Family History Center, 401 W. Regina (across from Brentwood School), has three computers, five microfilm and three microfiche readers, plus copiers. It has a special microfiche collection of people who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church from Norway and Sweden and then emigrated to Utah. There’s also the entire set of films for Revolutionary War pensions. For days and hours call 466-4633.

The Southside Family History Center, 1717 E. 30th, has several computers and many readers for patrons’ use. Its specialty is a large collection of Canadian films, with several on Ontario. It also has several reels of British Isles material, and some for Scandinavian countries and Germany. And it boasts the largest book collection of any center. For days and hours call 455-7164.

There are centers in Colville, 260 E. Juniper, (509) 684-6642; Coeur d’Alene, 2801 N. Fourth, (208) 765-0150; Moscow, 1657 S. Blaine, (208) 882-1769; and Sandpoint, 433 S. Boyer, (208) 263-8721. Call for information on their special collections, days and hours.

Each center offers free access to the FamilySearch computer program and unlimited 5-cent printouts from the program’s several databases. For the cost of postage, you can order microfilms from the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City into these centers. Microfilmed records can include family or county histories; vital records, such as birth, marriage, death, probate, military or census records - all with the possibility they might contain information on your family.

The centers are located in LDS meetinghouses.

Anyone interested in genealogy and family history should plan a visit to a nearby Family History Center and Ancestors Plus.

The telephone number for ordering the new 1870 Census Index CD-ROM from Heritage Quest is (800) 658-7755. The 800 number number listed in the “Heritage Hunting”genealogical column in the Sunday, July 27 In Life section had technical problems.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review