Yakima Valley Genealogical Society Library
1901 S. 12th Ave.
Union Gap, WA 98903-1256
(509) 248-1328 yvgs1901@gmail.com
Open 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Monday-Saturday
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society operates a genealogy library and genealogical resource center in Union Gap, Washington. The library is a privately owned, non-profit facility, open to the public free of charge. It is open for patrons Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There are generally two librarians on duty for every shift to help patrons with research and questions. The 7,000 square foot facility serves several functions. Foremost, it houses the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society collection of approximately 22,000 book and film titles and the Family History Library (FHL) collection of 6,000 microfilms and 6,000 microfiche. The collection spans all of the states of the union and a variety of foreign countries. The facility has a media room for viewing film and fiche, an office/work shop and a kitchen. It also has two storage rooms that house the Washington State DAR records and the Washington State Colonial Dames records.
The library has 7 computers available for research. The Society maintains a library subscription to Ancestry that is available to the patron to use for no charge. The Society Library is also an affiliate library of the LDS Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City. This affiliation allows patrons to view records on Family Search that would ordinarily be locked to the home user. The Society also maintains memberships to several other organizations such as the New England Genealogical and Historical Society, allowing patrons to also use these websites. Over the years the society has undertaken a variety of projects involving local records. These projects have resulted in very large collections of Yakima area obituaries, cemetery records, funeral home records and school census records that are digitized and available on our computers.
In the middle of the library is an assembly area that can handle up to 75 people. This is the area of the library where we hold our monthly general meetings, our users groups, our genealogy classes and workshops. This assembly area is also used regularly by the Washington State Genealogical Society, Germans from Russia, Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution to hold their meetings.
For more information about the YVGS book and film collection, click here or to see the YVGS book and film catalog, click here. For more information about the FHL microfilm and microfiche collection, click here or to see the FHL film and fiche catalog, click here.