Doing research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (Lori Erickson photo)
One of the most interesting parts of our trip to Salt Lake City was visiting the Family History Library on Temple Square. I know that some of you who follow this blog are avid genealogists, so I don’t need to tell you that for people tracing their roots, this library qualifies as a holy place.
It’s really quite remarkable. The library’s five floors contain more than 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 727,000 microfiche; 356,000 books, serials, and other formats; and over 4,500 periodicals and 3,725 electronic resources. Staff members and volunteers can help you find books and records, analyze what you uncover, identify your next research steps, and translate non-English documents. They can even help you decipher old-fashioned handwriting. You can bring your own computer and use their WIFI as well as their subscriptions to websites such as Ancestry.com. (You can also search many of their records from home via www.familysearch.org.)
The reason why the LDS Church is so strong on genealogical research relates to the practice of proxy baptism. Here’s what the LDS website has to say about this practice:
Many people have died without receiving a valid baptism, and they cannot undergo this precious ritual as mere spirits. “Because all on the earth do not have the opportunity to accept the gospel during mortality, the Lord has authorized baptisms performed by proxy for the dead. Therefore, those who accept the gospel in the spirit world may qualify for entrance into God’s kingdom.” . . . One thing that should be made perfectly clear about Mormon baptisms for the dead is that each deceased soul has the personal choice to accept or reject it. There is nothing in Mormonism that states that the person who is being baptized by proxy must accept this ordinance; he or she is simply given the opportunity to choose.
Good for them, I say, especially since they make all these wonderful resources available to non-members.
Entrance to the Family History Library (Lori Erickson photo)
When I visited the library, I first watched a brief orientation video and then was guided into the main room of the library. There I was matched with a woman who became my personal guide, sitting next to me at a computer as she taught me the basics of searching records. Within a short period of time she helped me find pages from the 1930 census that showed information on my father and grandfather and the rest of my family. Seeing their names written in long hand on that sheet of paper was oddly moving. I could begin to see the thrill of the chase experienced by genealogy fans.
An hour later I emerged, having hop-skipped my way through ten different websites until I came across the information I had most wanted to find. I now had the name of the town in Norway from which my grandfather’s parents had immigrated: Hadeland. A quick Google search gave me a map of its location south of Oslo. It’s a farming community, and there’s a famous Viking burial site there. Hmmm….methinks there is a trip to Norway sometime in my future.
(And to think it’s a journey that will have started at a library computer in Salt Lake City, Utah.)
What a fascinating tale this was! Congratulations on tracing your father’s lineage back to Hadeland, Norway, and what an impressive and generous resource you found in Temple Square.
I’m not surprised to hear about a Viking burial mound near the farming community though. Gadzooks. Could it be that you’re related to the original unholy rovers? So then the Holy Rover sets it right. Not quite a proxy baptism, but close . . .
With this post you have clarified for me the mystery of LDS commitment to genealogy. Additionally, I appreciate the idea I may still be making choices on the other side!
And good for you successfully accessing your personal history. When Norway does figure into travel for you and Bob, might Finland and Denmark be included? Thanks Holy Rover…
While in Scandinavia, don’t forget Sweden. Lovely country!
My daughter Rachel and I have been thrilling to the chase via Ancestry.com (it was started by two Mormons) for two years and have made some remarkable discoveries. Our most exciting find was a direct line to one William Beckwith, a taylor, who left Featherstone, Yorkshire, England in December, 1607 and arrived in Jamestown, Virginia aboard the supply ship, Phoenix, in April 1608. He managed to survive starvation and horrible living conditions, dying there in 1633. In April, I spent a day in Jamestown walking the ground he walked on and feeling a spiritual connection to him.
Welcome to the genealogical vortex, Lori.
I always love your posts, Lori, but I’m really appreciative of your posts on Temple Square and the Genealogical Library. I love so much about the LDS church, which I recently rejoined, as you know, but their missionary program and their temples are two of my favorite things. As you said, the missionary program is so wonderful in that it sends out young men and women at that point in their lives when they are filled with energy, and directs that energy and passion into doing what Christ’s first disciples did: preaching the gospel. They come back so enriched and matured. And the temples are truly places where Heaven and earth meet. And the genealogy is amazing: I’m just getting started on that and I now see I have to visit the Family History Library! Thanks so much.
Oh, my, where do I start? This brought up so many topics. In case any of you don’t know, many middle-sized to large cities have Family History Centers run by Mormon volunteers–look in the phone book under Latter-Day Saints. Help might be right down the street! Lori, ours is on Bradford Drive. They’ll order microfilm or microfiche for you, to be used at the center, and they’re usually very knowledgeable.
I spent a week in the Salt Lake City library and loved it. They didn’t assign someone to me because I was there with a genealogical group. But if I came up with a problem all I had to do was raise my hand and GROUPS of volunteers would rush over to help! They are all missionaries, serving their two-year stints in that way. They would run off into the stacks to get something I needed; recommend new ways of thinking about the problem; come up with lists of alternate spellings of names… Just so much help.
Jim, I love the “genealogical vortex” phrase. Exactly right! Mary, isn’t it true that Mormons must do a genealogy at some point, to know who the ancestors were?
On Thursday night that week I took a break from genealogy. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has an open rehearsal every Thursday for Sunday’s service and nationwide broadcast, so you can listen to them for two hours. Lovely experience.