You’ve probably heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ ambitious plans to index and digitize all the millions of records in its collection and make them available for free on its FamilySearch Web site.

Now you can get a taste of what’s to come: FamilySearch Labs has added its new record searching interface to the roster of projects the public can preview.

FamilySearch spokesperson Paul Nauta says this system will let genealogists search Family History Library microfilms that have been digitized to date, as well as digital images of genealogical records as they’re acquired from the field. The system also allows for quicker posting of the indexes being generated by volunteers through FamilySearch Indexing. It'll be part of the new, revamped FamilySearch site the church plans to roll out this fall.

To see a demo, go to FamilySearch Labs and click Record Search, then select the link to watch the Getting Started video. You can also get a sneak peek at the  Pedigree Viewer (for online family trees) and Life Browser (for saving and sharing photos and stories).

Click Comments below for information from Diane on how the search works.