I watched the FGS conference recording today titled: Image Mining: Tips for Locating Digital Records on Major Websites and beyond by Joseph B. Everett, AG, MLS. He said he currently is a Family and Local History Librarian for the Brigham Young University Library.
One of my biggest takeaways from this presentation was the Images search available on the FamilySearch website. The presenter explained that about 20% of FamilySearches content has put into the Historical Collections, about 60% is in the Catalog, leaving the last 20% of content in this Images area. I had no idea!
He said that it was a newer feature. The presentation was recorded in August 2020, so it has been around for at least that long. You can access it by the FamilySearch dropdown for Search and then select Images.
When you do so, you are brought to this landing page:
Included within this area are the Historical Record Collections and the Card Catalog but also millions of images from recent FamilySearch digital image captures that haven’t yet been cataloged and added into the website.
Very important! He said that you can access portions of microfilms that are locked due to other items having restrictions that are located on the same microfilm! Yay!
On the Explore Historical Images Landing Page, underneath the image counter, you can click on the “View the most recently added images” to see the most recent items that have been digitally photographed and uploaded to the site.
In the upper right-hand corner of this page, you can select to show the results in Map View:
All of the red pins are places where FamilySearch currently has teams out with digital camera capturing images. You then then zoom in to each area for more details. Here are the places within the United States that they currently have cameras out:
You can zoom in further and see exactly where in those states they are taking pictures. Currently in Pennsylvania they are in Cambria County and are imaging Estate Files including Wills and Marriage Records, applications, consents and returns. How fascinating!
You can learn more about Joe Everett, AG at his profile page on APG: https://www.apgen.org/users/joseph-everett