FamilySearch center

My Mom and I recently visited the FamilySearch Center in Salt Lake City, and I have to say, this place is an absolute gem for anyone interested in genealogy or uncovering their ancestry. From the moment we walked in, the staff made us feel incredibly welcome—warm smiles, genuine enthusiasm, and no question was too small or too big for them to tackle. The resources here are mind-blowing: vast databases, historical records, microfilms, and even helpful tools for beginners like me. I was blown away by how organized and accessible everything is. A special shout-out to Collette Hokanson and Mark Woolsey for their generous help—they went above and beyond, patiently guiding us through searches and sharing tips that unlocked some fascinating family history we never knew about. If you’ve always wanted to dive into your roots or just explore genealogy for fun, do yourself a favor and stop by. It’s free, inspiring, and the friendly vibe makes it feel like a community hub rather than a stuffy library. Highly recommend—5 stars all the way!

Amazing place! Very helpful and friendly staff! They offer a website with free account creation to help you find deceased family and relatives! Their specific computers have free access to MyHeritage and Ancestry Institutions that give you access to documents, sources and searches for anyone and anything that might help you build your tree and find who you came from. My wife and I made our accounts here in minutes and were guided through the way their website works and helps you not get too confused! Then we spent hours here before even knowing it! Came back the next day to continue our journey! They also have clean big bathrooms, a snack room to relax and some other technology we haven’t discovered yet! Definitely recommend!

I’m a genealogist: visiting this famous genealogy center sits on the top of my to do list during this trip. ... and I found my great grandfather! I've heard that they've acquired (or bought) many Chinese family trees from China. Impressed by the size of the library and massive staff, but stunned at their software: it's fatal that it can't handle non-English characters, given that they collect family trees around the world. For Chinese, it's imperative to be able to display Chinese characters because pinyin is inadequate: one of the family, two children's names have identical pinyin spelling (of course, their names have different characters). An old genealogy program, PGV, which was developed by a group of volunteers, handles foreign characters (non-26-alphabet) smoothly. I've been using it. They offer free printing on heavy, glossy paper, which looks great. However, I'd rather have them improve the software program to serve a broader range of languages, which is more meaningful. The Log Home is being renovated.

A plethora of information, resources and assistance with all facets of genealogy! We were so fortunate to draw on the knowledge of Colette, Penny and Paula. They are simply human treasures. They all took so much time to assist in our search for a family member and the staff here made us feel like valued family ourselves! Everyone was so helpful and friendly but these 3 ladies deserve special recognition for all they did for us! Would highly recommend this library and would love to personally return! Thank you, again, ladies!

My husband and I were visiting SLC and on a whim decided to go to this museum. We had the most pleasant experience! I had the kindest soul helping me, Cheryl I believe, and my husband had the perfect humorous Gent helping him, and I left with 9 generations of family members on a poster, thanks to the help of Cheryl. But most of all, we walked out of there with smiles on our faces and warmth in our hearts. Such a great experience all around! Thank You!

Such a wonderful experience! The helpful docents greet you and offer assistance as soon as you walk in the door and throughout your entire stay! I had 3 helpers, so many confirmations of the work I've already been doing and so many helpful tips and tricks to continue to help me with my ancestors! EVERYONE interested in genealogy should go!

Super neat place they walk you through getting started. Costs nothing. I went there the first time and they were able to get me back to the 1500's. If you only have a couple of hours in salt lake stop here. As a tour manager, I make it a point to stop there with my groups. Joel Jorns tour manager for uncommon journeys inc.

If you're doing genealogical research then you must come to Salt lake City and visit this place. They offer a free software very similar to ancestry.com.