The Mormons Family History library located in Salt Lake City has long been a popular resource for Genealogists. The official name for the Mormons is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and was founded by Joseph Smith around 1830.

They started their Genealogy research because their religion required them to honor their ancestors but you cannot honor someone if you know nothing about him or her. They started a central Genealogy library in Salt Lake City in Utah to hold their research records.

Joseph and Hyrum Smith
Temple Salt Lake City

However few genealogists have the opportunity to go there in person and look at the original records. Someone based in Europe would have to fly in the region of 5,000 miles to pay a visit. Because repeat visits would be essential this would quickly become prohibitively expensive. But luckily for these genealogists the Mormon church founded Family History Centers usually abbreviated to FHCs. These are branches of the main Family History Library in Utah. The branch organization has spread across 64 countries and now totals over 3,000 in number.

The FHCs exchange over 100,000 rolls of microfiche a month between the main center and the branches. As a result much of the information needed is now available locally for genealogists to access. Some care was taken in choosing locations. So there is a mixture of locations with some in big cities where you would expect but others in smaller communities.

The centers hold an enormous volume of records and consequently they are extremely valuable to the genealogist. They hold copies of census, birth and death records plus church records and historical land ownership together with immigration. Mormon Genealogy provides all of this free of charge. The upkeep of records is carried out by church and community volunteers. They do a very useful service including answering queries from library visitors. The local libraries are funded by local Mormon church congregations. Because of this they are normally found in Church buildings.

The branches are sometimes known as satellite libraries. In addition to the various family history records the libraries also include family tree databases and books and maps on the subject. The collections of of microfiche, microfilm and books in each library is enormous. All of these are made freely available for viewing. Some records are not immediately available if they are in another location but the library will get them for the researcher.

The central record store in Salt Lake City is much bigger than the others as you might expect and can be requested by the local library. All this administration is done by the FHC volunteers. They do charge a small fee to anyone who wants to borrow records. It can take several weeks for requested records to arrive locally. They only keep it for a few weeks so you need to view it during that period and make detailed notes to avoid the need to view it again.

If you are concerned about the Mormons trying to convert you to their religion then do not worry as they do not force their views on visitors. Mormon Genealogy is a great service to the community and very commendable that they provide it largely free of charge.

As mentioned earlier the Mormon church started genealogy research for their own purposes but realized that a lot of other people would be interested. They then extended their mission by sharing their records with anyone with a similar interest in Genealogical research. Mormon Genealogy records are unique in that no other collection of records is as comprehensive or as wide ranging.
 

Mormon Genealogy Resources

Ancestor Hunt – Search facility for Mormon Church records

Free Mormon Genealogy Information – a nice Genealogy resource with articles and other help

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints official site