The 110 years of progress of the Genealogical Society of Utah and its library, now called the Family History Library, cannot be separated, and points to yet greater accomplishments, said Raymond S. Wright III, director, Library Division of the Family and Church History Department.
Speaking at the library open house Jan. 24, Brother Wright outlined the history from the society's 1894 beginning.
The library began on Nov. 22, 1894, with the arrival of carpenters building bookshelves. A week later, the Church-owned Franklin D. Richards genealogical book collection was delivered, at the direction of then-Church President Wilford Woodruff.
"From 1894 to today, library workers have focused their efforts upon using the records and publications collected by the society to help library visitors document the lives of ancestors," said Brother Wright. Individuals and events in the ensuing years transformed genealogy "from an arduous science to a hobby enjoyed by tens of millions around the world."
This library, then with 300 books and designed for members only, has grown to a public library with 360,000 books and 2.5 million rolls of microfilm today. In 2004, some 750,000 people visited the library.
In the first decades, the first library was used by 48 dues-paying members who would obtain extracts from library sources by clerks. It grew significantly in 1917, when a new library opened on the fourth floor of the new Church Administration Building with 5,000 books and the first class was taught that year. In 1919, the library accommodated 275 searches.
A pivotal change came in 1922 when avid genealogist Harry Russell, a convert, "changed genealogy forever." After spending the equivalent of a full year doing ordinance work in the Salt Lake Temple for his Abbot ancestors whose names he gleaned from a family book, he traveled to St. George, Utah, to visit his cousins.
After learning that his cousins in St. George were duplicating the work, he proposed what became the Temple Index Bureau in 1922. He was its first superintendent. Data accuracy, personal identification, standards for personal and place names have been included ever since in such subsequent databases as: Computer File Index, International Genealogical Index, Four Generation Program, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File.
In 1938, microfilming began, and as it spread in the 1940s and 1950s, the need for experts in research and languages of others countries became essential. The society began training individuals rather than providing this kind of staff.
In 1972, the library moved to the new Church Office Building, where patronage continued to grow. Classes increased to 800 a year on many subjects. The library moved to its current location on West Temple across from Temple Square in 1985. Now, an estimated 1,900 people visit daily.
