Research Center Operations

Notice: Due to construction, the Research Library's phone is out of order until July. If you want to contact us, please send an email to one of the addresses on the Contact Us page. Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience.

The Mount Vernon Genealogical Society’s Research Library is now officially a FamilySearch Affiliate Library. This means that members using the computers in our Research Library (RL) will now be able to view those digitized images on www.familysearch.org that previously they could only view at a FamilySearch Center, or other Affiliate Library. Those images were the ones in the search results that had a camera with a key over it.

When you’re in the RL, using one of the RL’s computers, not your own laptop or tablet, you will log on to familysearch.org using your own id and password. Once logged on you’ll be able to view those digitized images and you don’t have to do anything special.

So, when you’re researching at home, start keeping a list of those items that have the camera and key, so that you’ll know what to look up when you’re in our RL or at an FHC.

The Mount Vernon Genealogical Society Research Library is located in Room 214 at the Hollin Hall Senior Center, 1500 Shenandoah Ave., Alexandria VA, Phone: 703-768-4101. It is open to members and nonmembers alike every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm. We close at noon on the 3rd Tuesday of the month for our monthly General Meeting (downstairs, but also open to members and nonmembers alike). Non USA Book Shelves

We offer individualized tours of the facility during all hours we are open. Group tours for at least eight, but no more than fourteen people may be scheduled for 10 am any Monday (contact Linda MacLachlan). We will show attendees how our books, journals, maps, manuscripts, member pedigrees, CDs, videos, website, and computers. The only Research Library privileges reserved for MVGS members are the borrowing of printed materials, and videos of past Society meetings.

The Research Library offers a large genealogical library which includes most basic references, a breadth exceeding other Virginia Libraries, and some books and journals available nowhere else in the D.C. area. The catalogs, by subject, author and title and a list of our many CDs may be found under the Research Library tab. These references should be reviewed in advance of visiting the Research Library to get the most out of your visit.

The Library has seven computers linked to the Internet, that have access to genealogical research sites such as Ancestry (World), Fold3, Genealogybank.com, FamilySearch.com, AmericanAncestors.org, and newspaper archives. For members, many books and journals may be borrowed for extended periods of time. Videos (and more recently DVDs) of all lectures presented at the Society’s year-round meetings may be checked out on the same basis.

If you have any questions for the Research Library, you can email us at Researchctr@mvgenealogy.org

Click on the red icon below to take a virtual video tour of our Research Library (formerly known as the Research Center).