Beginning Your Family History

Step 7. Contact the institution for informational flyers, hours, fees, parking, web site, etc.

Call ahead. If you don't call ahead, you take the chance that the research facility is closed for a variety of reasons, that is doesn't hold the collection you thought it would hold, or that you brought tons of quarters and it requires dollar bills for copying. Make certain that the institution's literature mailed to you well in advance. Look at the web site of the facility for changes in hours, parking, copying procedures, scope of the collection, services they offer and any other information that will make your research easier. Don't end up taking an unnecessary or unprepared trip.