Family History Library Discovery Center Opens

The Discovery Center is free and open to the public. It is a fun way to share family history with the whole family. Today I had the opportunity to tour the Family History Library's Discovery Experience, which is set to open to the public February 8, 2017.

The Discovery Center is the first thing you'll notice when entering the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The interactive exploration space is over 10,000 square feet, complete computers and touch screens that invite family history exploration.

Visitors are given personal tablets to facilitate the Discovery Center experience. Users log on to their FamilySearch accounts to start the adventure. If you don't have a FamilySearch account, there are volunteers to help you create one and climb your family's tree. It's free.

There are seven interactive stations where you dock your tablet to access the data in your own family tree. The stations are:

What About Me? What is special about my birth year?
Where I Come From: How in the world did you get here?
My Time Machine: What was life like for my family a century ago?
Record My Story: What are my most prized memories?
Picture My Story: How would you look dressed like your ancestor?
Picture Our Heritage: Why is our world culture so important?
My Famous Relatives: Am I related to someone who made history?

Interactive exploration is at the heart of the Discovery Center. Children are encouraged to utilize the touchscreens. They can input their birth years and see special events that happened at that time. During my visit, I saw a French-speaking family accessing family history information in their native language.

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Personal tablet that Discovery Center visitors borrow for the duration.

Interactive station where you learn what life was like for your ancestors. Notice the pink squares below the monitors. Those are the users' docked tablets, each telling the story of one's ancestors.

Station where you're photographed in another time and place. The white docking station on the right is how the experience is tailored to your own ancestral heritage.

The Discovery Center is free and open to the public. It is a fun way to share family history with the whole family. ​