The Family History Library now has 200,000 books available for family history research on its website. A growing host of partner libraries, organizations, and volunteers are digitizing historical books and making them available online for free.

The effort began in 2007 to help genealogists and family historians find ancestors. FamilySearch has set up mobile digitization pods at partnering libraries and organizations across the United States. Volunteers are scanning family histories, local and county histories, telephone and postal directories, and other books of historical significance.

To search the digitized records, sign in to FamilySearch.org, then select Search, and then select Books. Or, once you are signed in, you can go directly to books.familysearch.org.

Libraries, organizations, or individuals who want to participate may contact Dennis Meldrum, project manager at FamilySearch, at meldrumdl@familysearch.org.

Learn more by reading the article “FamilySearch Reaches Milestone with 200,000 Historic Books Online.”