FamilySearch
 |
|
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Family history |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish |
| Owner | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
| Website | familysearch |
| Alexa rank |
 2,894 (October 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | May 24, 1999 |
| Current status | Active |
FamilySearch is a genealogy organization operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was previously known as the Genealogical Society of Utah (or "GSU") and is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history. FamilySearch gathers, preserves, and shares genealogical records worldwide. It offers free access to its resources and service online at FamilySearch.org, one of the most heavily used genealogy sites on the Internet. In addition, FamilySearch offers personal assistance at more than 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries, including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In the search section of familysearch.org anyone can search for records of an ancestor. Use of the Family Tree section requires a (free) registered account. The Family Tree section allows users to collaborate on a single, shared, worldwide family tree (currently with about a billion names in it).
The resource is maintained to support the process of obtaining names and other genealogical information so that Latter-day Saints can perform temple ordinances for their kindred dead.
Founded in 1894, the GSU began microfilming records of genealogical importance in 1938. In 1963, the microfilm collection was moved to the newly completed Granite Mountain Records Vault for long-term preservation. In 1998 the GSU began digital imaging of records and in about August 1998 the decision was made by LDS Church leaders to build a genealogical website. In May 1999 the website first opened to the public. It almost immediately went off-line, overloaded because of extreme popularity. In October 1999, it surpassed 1.5 billion hits. Then, in November 1999 240 million names were added, bringing the total number of entries to 640 million.
In 2001 work began on a second website backed by a consolidated database, giving LDS users the ability to edit data. In November 2005 the new.FamilySearch.org entered its first Beta test. However, due to the time necessary to resolve all the bugs found and to assess and incorporate the results of extensive user feedback and suggestions, it took longer than expected to release the second beta. In February 2007 the new.FamilySearch.org entered Beta 2 testing. In June 2007 the new.FamilySearch.org was made available for church members in some areas (by LDS temple district), increasing through the next several years. This restricted roll out was necessary to enable FamilySearch support staff to support the user community. In 2008, the Vatican issued a statement calling the practice known as baptism for the dead "erroneous" and directing its dioceses to keep parish records from Mormons performing genealogical research. In early 2009 the new.FamilySearch was available to church membership around the world, with the exception of Utah/Idaho and the five Asian temples. By mid-2009 the new.FamilySearch gradually became available to church membership in Utah and Idaho. Finally, in November 2009, the new.FamilySearch was made available to church membership worldwide, except for members in the five Asian temple districts.
...
Wikipedia