A visit to the Parktown Family History Centre

Report and photographs by Penny Evans

Gwyneth Thomas gives her talk.

A visit to Parktown Family History Centre on 14 May 2011 was well attended by members of the West Gauteng branch of the GSSA. Members were made to feel welcome by the directors Elder Lewin and Sister Pat Daubney, who gave of their time and expertise to assist members.

Members were able to use all the facilities to research their family history. The directors allowed our branch to use their kitchen so that we could have a break for refreshments, which were provided by Margaret Humphries and her team.

Doing research.

Christa Roberts.

Gwyneth Thomas, a branch member, gave a short but interesting talk on the resources available in the centre. Gwyneth assists at the centre when they have staff shortages.

Parktown Family History Centre is well equipped with facilities for research.

• Free use of computers and the familysearch website
• Free use of microfilm readers;
• Over 20,000 microfilms;

Elsabé Calitz.

• On line websites for other countries;

Robin Templeton.

• Church records with reference to microfilms—all denominations;
• Civil registrations for the four main provinces;
• British census records;
• South African voters rolls;
• General reference books, individual South African genealogy books, 1820 settlers and old atlases.

The LDS Church is in the process of indexing and digitizing all the church records which are available to them.

This centre is closed on Mondays. It is open from 9.30am to 2.30pm Tuesdays to Fridays. It opens 7am to 2.30pm on Saturdays.

We are very fortunate to be able to use this centre which has such a vast storehouse of records. A big thank you to the staff who welcomed and assisted us.

Click on a photoghraph to enlarge.