Genealogy can be challenging enough without libraries adding practical jokes to the mix. Particularly the Family History Library, an entity I always felt was on the side of the genealogist. But this latest experience left me shaking my head.

I was looking for the 1859 baptismal record of my grandmother’s grandmother Maria Bukmakowski. I found the following resource in the Family History Library catalog at https://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlc/:

Since this was my first adventure with German records I chose just one film to start: 1857610.

If you read the line that describes this film, you may wonder at the letters inside the parenthesis (r.S). I wondered too. When the film arrived, I learned they mean this film contains only the right side of the book. To see the whole book, one must order film 1857626. (That’s the one with (l.S.) in the description.)

I really don’t mind that it took two films to see one record, but it took an additional two weeks to see both halves of the page. If the description had contained just a few more words, I could have ordered both films right away.

Oh well. In the end, I was able to see Maria’s baptismal record, even if it took two microfilm readers to do so: