Yumans can trace their family history for FREE!

Tracing your family history is something that always crosses your mind. We tend to want to do it but either never really get around to doing it or we simply don’t know how or where to start.

Well for anyone in Yuma County, there is a free resource out there that can help you start your trek into tracing your genealogy entirely for free. The Yuma Family History Center located at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers valuable access to resources that can help you trace your roots.

Packed shelves with books ranging in titles like “Irish Cultures” and handbooks that help you translate commonly used Italian words.

Sue Spencer, one of the volunteers at The Family Center enthusiastically gives a tour of the two-room center showing one of the online resources, FamilySearch.org, and how accessible tracing your family roots is.

“We’ve had people come in that trace their ancestry back to the 1600s ,” said Spencer.

Spencer also mentioned that their peak season is usually during the Summer.

One woman in particular, who didn’t want to be named, had traced her genealogy back to the 1500s in England.

Another valuable resource for the community and one that will be of interest to any Yuman looking trace their local genealogy is the archives at the Heritage Library.

Special Collections Librarian, Laurie Boon, mentions that anyone and just about anyone can start searching and tracing back their roots without spending a dime.

“There is no reason why you should be paying for anything, ” said Boone. “See how much you can get done and find what you can with the free resources then you can consider paying for one of those online subscriptions.”

You don’t have to be a member of the church in order to have access to The Family Center. For more information, you can call them directly at (928) 782-6364

The Genealogical Society of Yuma will be having a “What’s new at the Family Center” workshop on Saturday, August 31st at 10:00 am at the Main Library.