This is a news release from the L.D.S. Church, dated May 24, 1999
"Hundreds of millions of names--part of the
world's largest collection of genealogical data--are now accessible from
home computers for the first time, following a major initiative involving the
Internet.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which encourages its
members to trace their ancestors as a religious obligation, is initially placing
nearly 400 million names of deceased people on the Internet--with the
promise of more to come. The site can be found at www.familysearch.org.
The huge database is part of the world's largest genealogical repository:
the Family History Library™ in downtown Salt Lake City.
Tracing family history has become one of the most popular uses of the
World Wide Web, with millions of people logging on daily.
The Church announced its FamilySearch® Internet Genealogy Service
simultaneously today in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., after an
eight-week test that has already received more than 200 million hits.
In addition to the database now accessible from home computers, the
service includes:
- A new search engine that hunts for specific names and relationships
throughout the Church's on-line database. It also searches for
surnames among thousands of smaller genealogical web sites
already on the Internet that have been evaluated by Church
volunteers.
- On-line access to the catalog of the world's largest genealogical
library: the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
- Ability for users to share their research and collaborate with others
searching the same family lines.
- An option for users worldwide to preserve their own family histories
by submitting electronic files that are then indexed and preserved for
posterity.
Explaining the new service today, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, executive
director of the Church's Family History Department, said the Church's
intent is to make family history research easier and more effective.
"This new genealogical search service will revolutionize the way people
trace their roots on the Web," he said. "It has been an enormous
undertaking. Hundreds of volunteers have been enlisted to evaluate the
thousands of genealogical databases already out there, from individual
home pages to substantial resources."
The Church has been gathering records worldwide for more than a century
to help its members in family history research. Today, the Church is the
world leader in family history. In addition to its massive collection of
records at its Salt Lake City library, the Church operates more than 3,400
Family History Centers™ worldwide.
"We believe that family relationships can be eternal, and by searching out
our ancestors we can begin to better understand who we are and what we
may become," said Elder Christofferson."
