THE GENESIS OF
GENEALOGY
“Why do they do what they do?”
A historical narrative about
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’
interest in Family History
The what informs,
the why transforms.
IN THE BEGINNING . . .
 And the Lord God said, It is not good that
the man should be alone… - Genesis 2:18
 The begats - Genesis 5, Genesis 11
TO TURN THE HEARTS
 Closing of the Old Testament with Malachi’s
promise of Elijah’s coming to turn the hearts.
One of several prophets that spoke about a
“book of remembrance” which kept records of
the generations of Adam and Eve’s children.
NEW TESTAMENT
 Genealogy of Mary and Joseph - Matthew 1,
Luke 3
MIDDLE AGES
 Generally, the records were kept to
determine who got power, authority, and
property. If you can tie a line into a royal line
of any country, you will have many
generations already done for you.
 So where do the Latter-day Saints come
into the picture?
 And why are they so closely associated
with this work?
TO TURN THE HEARTS
 One of the first messages given to
Joseph Smith was the reiteration of Malachi’s
promise concerning the coming of Elijah to
turn the hearts – Sept. 21, 1893
FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY
 We believe Elijah returned to earth to deliver
sacred authority on April 3, 1836, in a temple
in Kirtland, Ohio.
 Only three years later, microfilm was
invented.
FAMILIES ARE ETERNAL
 In the early and mid-1830s, Joseph received
several revelations regarding the eternal nature of
the family. At a funeral sermon for Seymour
Brunson on 15 August 1840, the doctrine of
baptism for the dead was first preached publicly.
TEMPLE WORK
 The scriptures teach that baptism is an essential
ordinance.
 We believe that the doctrine of proxy work in
behalf of those who are deceased was revealed so
that all could have an opportunity to progress.
FREE AGENCY
 However, we also believe that this work
performed in the temples of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is done only as a gift
offered to our ancestors. They are still free to
accept or reject these ordinances.
THE WHAT & HOW
 In order to provide these ordinances, our
ancestors have to be identified individually. The
Church began collecting copies of records.
 The Genealogical Society of Utah was
established in 1894.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 The Family History Library was an outgrowth
of the Society’s efforts to collect and preserve
genealogically significant documents.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 The first Family History
Library was located in the
office of the Church
Historian at 58 East South
Temple in Salt Lake City
until 1917.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 For a time, the records
were housed in the lower
floors of the Salt Lake
Temple.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 They were later moved to
the old ZCMI building in
downtown Salt Lake.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 They moved them to the Church
Office Building at 50 East North
Temple after its construction in
1971. The Library occupied part of
three floors in this building, but
soon outgrew it as well.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Current Family History Library at 35
East North Temple opened its doors on
October 23, 1985. It has five floors
(142,000 square feet) devoted completely
to the preservation of family history
documents and making them freely
available to the public.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 Microfilming of genealogical records began
in 1938. The collection now includes over 2.4
million rolls of microfilmed genealogical
records.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 The Granite Mountain Records
Vault completed in 1963 as a secure,
long-term repository for the records.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 In 1965, the Church asked its members to research
and prepare documentation for four generations of
their ancestors. Data collected from this program
provided a large portion of the foundation of the
Ancestral File.
COLLECT & PRESERVE
 Records of temple ordinances performed were initially
recorded in the Temple Records Index Bureau which
covered the years1846 to1969. In 1969, the International
Genealogical Index (IGI) was commenced and recorded
temple work done for deceased persons and initially
made available to researchers on microfiche.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Branch libraries, known as
Family History Centers, began to
open and now total 46,000 in more
than 18 countries throughout the
world. The FHC in Charlottesville
opened in 1970.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Personal Ancestral File (PAF), a computerized
genealogy program, was launched in 1984,
thanks to the work of several computer
programmers who donated their work to the
Church.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Digital imaging of records commenced in 1998.
 In May 1999 the newly created Internet website
www.familysearch.org went online. It almost
immediately crashed due to an overload of eager
viewers. This site made available many of the earlier
databases such as Ancestral File and the IGI.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Development of a new database was begun in 2001. This
new resource, new.familysearch.org, attempted to form
individual entries into a family tree format.
 Learning their lesson, the Church has been rolling out this
site out gradually to its members in order to address the
problems. Will eventually roll to general public.
MAKE AVAILABLE
 Worldwide Extraction/Indexing Project - a project that
aims to create searchable digital indexes for scanned
images of historical documents.
 Available to be done online in one’s home.
 Millions of volunteers.
SUMMARY
 The promotion of genealogy and family history is a
vital part of the mission of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. Millions of dollars along with
millions of hours of volunteer time have been expended
in its support. The Church’s goal is to make all records
more easily available in order to promote an increasingly
greater knowledge of the history of the human family.
SUMMARY
 The Church’s goal is to make all records more easily
available in order to promote an increasingly greater
knowledge of the history of the human family.