I’d like to share a good example of the benefits of having access to vital records on films. Several years ago, as my wife and I were working as volunteers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I was struggling with the library’s computer system to locate a town in the Netherlands called Renswoude, where I had learned one of my ancestors, Antje Konink, had been born. I was grumbling, apparently somewhat loudly, at not being to find Renswoude.
Behind my back a lady whom I recognized as a native of the Netherlands and one of the library employees, was passing, and by overheard my frustration. She promptly and boisterously announced “I know where Renswoude is. I used to drive a truck through there.”
She took over the computer I was using and in less than a minute identified the roll of film containing vital records of Renswoude. Together, we fetched the film, inserted it into one of the many microfilm readers available in the library, and within a few minutes she had deciphered the old Dutch handwriting and given me the names of the parents of Antje Konink. They were my eighth great grandparents who had lived in Renswoude in the late 1600s.
I went from frustration to finding it in a short period of time.
—
Ralph Hughes