Genealogy is becoming increasingly popular with people of all types and religions. Luckily for modern genealogists, LDS genealogy was started a long time ago. The LDS church established the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in 1894 for genealogy, the world's largest library of its kind. LDS resources for genealogy like the LDS Family History Library are non-profit, and are open to the public at no charge. At the Library, you can access microfilms, books, periodicals and LDS genealogy databases like the Ancestral File database (contains about 35.6 million names!) and the Pedigree Resource File database (36 million names).
The LDS resources for genealogy available at the Library contain records from North America , South America , Europe , Asia and Africa . It is the best place to go, especially if you are researching older ancestors, since most of the records come from earlier than 1920. About 50 percent of the workers there are volunteers, which is why access is free, and use of LDS resources is extremely inexpensive.
Even if you aren't a member of the LDS church, you can have access to LDS family history and genealogy records through this remarkable Library. And it's not only for people who live in Utah . There are branches of the Library throughout the United States and Canada , known as Family History Centers.
In fact, you don't even have to go to a Family History Center to obtain mormon genealogy resources. The LDS church has recently made many of its family history resources available online at www.familysearch.org . This Web site will help you with everything genealogy related, from initially getting started with learning how to do genealogy, to joining mailing lists and finding other good Web sites to guide your search. Another mormon genealogy tool is the FamilySearch software available on CD Rom, which includes records like the Ancestral File database, and the Social Security Death Index. You can purchase this CD Rom online.
So why the LDS family genealogy focus? The LDS church believes that life continues after death, and that families can be together for eternity. But in order for the family to be together, they must be sealed together in a temple. Members of the LDS church believe that their ancestors can also be united with their families after death, even if they have not had the chance to be sealed. Living people can act in behalf of the dead to seal them to their families. But before this can be done for one's ancestors, the ancestor must be identified, and this is where mormon genealogy becomes important.
Since members of the LDS church believe that genealogy is so important, they have made many helpful and valuable genealogy resources available, not just to members of their church, but to the general public as well. There are the Family History Libraries and Centers, the FamilySearch Web site and software, and other LDS software resources for genealogy. Whether or not you are a member of the LDS church, if you are interested in genealogy, the LDS resources for genealogy are so extensive and comprehensive that you will more likely than not end up finding many LDS tools helpful in your own genealogy search to find your ancestors.
By: Riannon Cutler