The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Family History Library

Note: This page is not an official or unofficial publication of the LDS church and the Family History Library, and they are not responsible for any errors. The official LDS church web site is at http://www.lds.org/.

• Microfilmed copies of hundreds of thousands of birth, marriage, death and other records containing well over a billion names have been gathered from all over the world and are stored at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Many of the resources of the Family History Library are available through Family History Centers. Here are some of the resources that can be found at Family History Centers.
  • FamilySearch Software on CDROM, which include the IGI, Ancestral File, Social Security Death Index, etc. (See the FamilySearch FAQ for more information about these CD's). Some of these databases can be searched online at the church's new FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Search.
  • Microfiche indexes of material held by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
  • A film ordering service, by which much microfilm copies of much of the material in Salt Lake City may be borrowed for viewing in the Family History Center.
  • Local genealogy information.
  • A place to meet other genealogists.
• See Xena Hansen's article on what can be found at Family History Centers.
• Personal Ancestral File 4.0 is available for free download from Family Search.
  There are a large number Utilities that may be used with PAF. PAF users can often seek help from PAF users groups that are active in many cities. Some PAF users groups have web pages:
  • Silicon Valley PAF Users Group
  • Southern Oregon PAF Users Group
• The Pedigree Resource File FAQ has information about the genealogy CD's published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• LDS Records Research Outline and Family History SourceGuide (Family History Library Research Outlines)
• The Family History Library has published a nice Records Research Outline and Family History Library Research Outlines (Family History SourceGuide).
• The LDS interest in genealogy is part of the religion. The LDS church homepage has information about this on the Family History Information page. More information about the church can be found at LDS-Index.org and the Washington Area LDS Home Page.
• The LDS-Genealogy Mailing List is a place to discuss the LDS Church and relationship to genealogy, as well as to discuss PAF genealogy program and the FamilySearch databases. Archives of the list are available here
• The Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University.
• The Family History Technology Laboratory also at BYU.