LDS Church Records for Family History

Many of the extensive records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are available online, other historical church records are available in microfilm copies. The two main sources of such records are the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Church History Library also located in Salt Lake City. Both of these libraries have extensive online catalogs.

One of the most useful categories of records are the Census Records kept by the Church. These records include the following categories:

• Utah Bishops' Reports 1852-1853
• Church Censuses 1914-1960
• Journal Membership Records 1830-1877
• Long Book Form Membership Records 1877-1900
• Three-Part Form 1900-1920
• Box-Type Forms 1920-1941
• Card Forms 1941-Present

Additional types of records include the following:

• LDS Emigration and Immigration describes the records of Saints who emigrated from Britain, Europe, and Scandinavia, and the journey of the pioneers to Utah.
• LDS Missionaries gives information about indexes and records of members who served full-time missions for the Church.
• LDS Patriarchal Blessings discusses how to find copies of blessings given by Church patriarchs, and explains their genealogical value.
• LDS Priesthood Records explains what quorum records are, how to find them, and how to trace priesthood lineages.
• LDS Temple Records describes how to locate official documents created by temple recorders showing living and proxy priesthood ordinations, endowments, sealings to parents, and sealings to spouse.
• Ward Membership Records

Some of the most valuable Ward Membership Records are the Annual Genealogical Reports, Form-E. These are described by the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki as follows:

The “Form Es” were submitted at the end of each year by Ward clerks to the Stake. They were kept concurrently with the membership records. They contain blessings, baptisms, confirmations, priesthood ordinations, marriages, missionaries leaving or returning, divorces, excommunications and deaths.

These are generally available on microfilm and can be found in the FamilySearch.org Catalog by the location of the Ward under Church Records.

Many wards and stakes of the Church compiled extensive histories. A significant collection of these histories are digitized and available on FamilySearch.org in the Books section. Additional records may be available in local branch, ward and stake libraries throughout the world.