SUMMARY: LDS AND UTAH RECORDS ONLINE

©2017 by Donald R. Snow-- Numbers in this Summary are same as on full notes online and in Syllabus.

ABSTRACT:  The LDS Church has been a record keeping Church since its beginning and a wealth of records are now available online for anyone searching for LDS and/or Utah ancestry. These include early membership information, vital records from various Mormon locations, emigration records, newspapers, county and state records, journals and diaries, and the WPA (Works Project Administration) interviews of Utahns during the Great Depression in the 1930s. This presentation will show how to find and use some of these records.  The notes for this class and related articles, all with active Internet links, are on Don's website http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
INTRODUCTION
1. Instructors are Donald R. Snow (snowd@math.byu.edu) of Provo and St. George, Utah and Linda Snow Westover (linda.westover@gmail.com) of Orem, Utah.
2. These notes and other related notes and articles, including Don's  LDS AND UTAH RECORDS: SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES  are posted on  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html , all with active Internet links.

LDS RECORDS ONLINE
5.  Susan Easton-Black's "Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830-1848"-- 50 vols of LDS and 6 vols of RLDS (now Community of Christ) -- has errors, but is helpful
6.  Early LDS Members database from 1830 to Utah period -- http://earlylds.com -- Don and Diane Snow helped produce this database while in Nauvoo Mission
7.  LDS Church Historical Department -- https://history.lds.org/?lang=eng -- many databases
   A.  Joseph Smith Papers project -- http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/home/ -- many volumes in print and online, searchable by name for your ancestors
   B.  Early Mormon Missionaries 1830-1930 database -- https://history.lds.org/missionary/ -- searchable in various ways; gives ages of birth, death, mission dates and places; constantly being updated 
   C.  Pioneer Overland Travels -- http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/
   D.  Selected Collections of the Church Historian's Office -- 74 DVDs produced in 2002 with 400,000 images of personal journals, documents, histories, and Journal History -- Most is online now
8.  Early Church Information File (ECIF) -- Wiki article -- Card file of 1.5 million references to early Church members from histories, journals, etc. -- Filmed cards through about 1900 are now online
9.  LDS Member Autobiographies and Ancestors (1924-1929) -- FamilySearch Catalog entry -- 4-page form for all Church members to complet 1924-1929 -- Indexed in ECIF
10.  FamilySearch -- https://familysearch.org/
  1. FamilySearch Catalog -- many helpful entries, search for things like "lds california"
  2. FamilySearch Books -- 300,000 digitized books -- completely every-word searchable -- also see Dallan Quass's  GenGophers  website for searching FamilySearch Books
  3. FamilySearch Wiki -- see  Tracing LDS AncestorsInternational Genealogical Index , and  LDS Biography .
  4. International Genealogical Index (IGI)  has many Deceased LDS Membership Records -- online on FamilySearch > Search > Genealogies > IGI
  5. Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource Files -- online at FamilySearch > Search > Genealogies -- may give starting points for research -- many sources are available
11.  Marvin Wiggins' "Mormons and Their Neighbors" -- https://lib.byu.edu/collections/mormons-and-their-neighbors/ -- references to more than 100,000 individuals
12.  Mountain West Digital Library -- http://mwdl.org/
15.  LDS Immigration -- FamilySearch Wiki article on LDS immigration -- http://familysearch.org/wiki/en/LDS_Emigration_and_Immigration 
16.  Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 -- journals and letters in BYU Library -- http://overlandtrails.lib.byu.edu/ -- completely searchable for any names 
17.  Early LDS periodicals online -- see Don's "LDS and Utah Supplementary Notes" on  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html 
18.  Bill Smith's collection of journals, diaries, and early writings -- http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/ -- completely searchable
19.  BYU Digital Collections -- books, newspapers, photographs, and much more -- http://lib.byu.edu/collections/?q=tag:digital 
20.  BYU Idaho Family History Center -- http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/ -- personal histories, photographs, vital records indices, Idaho history, and Western States Marriage Index (see below)

UTAH RECORDS ONLINE
23.  Mountain West Digital Library (mentioned above) -- http://mwdl.org/ -- portal to collections at many libraries with Mormon information online -- search for "utah" gives more than 305,000 hits with specialized collections listed at left side of page
24.  Utah Digital Newspaper collection 1850s-1950s -- http://digitalnewspapers.org -- goal is to post all Utah newspapers online in pdf searchable format; already has hundreds of pages
34.  Utah births -- Mostly recorded by counties -- Search Utah Births and Christenings, 1892-1941 on FamilySearch Historical Records
35.  Utah marriages -- Search Utah Marriages 1887-1966 on FamilySearch Historical Records -- Most Utah marriage records are recorded by counties, so check counties, State Bureau of Vital Records, and Utah State Archives -- Index of newspaper references for marriages and deaths from the Deseret News Weekly from 1852-1888 on Utah GenWeb -- http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~utsaltla/archive/obit_DeseretNews_1850s.html and the Deseret News Semi-Weekly from 1865-1900 -- http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~utsaltla/archive/obit_DeseretNewsSW.html
36.  Utah deaths and burials -- Search Utah Death Certificates, 1904-1956 on FamilySearch Historical Records -- slider changes size of image of certificate  -- type in name at http://historyresearch.utah.gov/indexes/index.html and see if name is in the Death Certifcate database -- Search Utah Deaths and Burials, 1888-1946 on FamilySearch Historical Records --
Utah Burials Index from Utah State Historical Society -- http://heritage.utah.gov/history/cemeteries 
37.  Utah State Archives and Utah State History Research Center, Rio Grande Building, SLC -- http://historyresearch.utah.gov -- Utah State Historical Society -- http://history.utah.gov/ -- and Utah State Archives -- http://archives.utah.gov/index.html -- has many records of courts, civil, naturalization, land
38.  Deseret News Archive -- http://www.deseretnews.com/daily-index/  and  http://onlinelibrary.utah.gov/news/deseret.html
39.  Washington County Utah WPA Manuscripts -- http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~utwashin/wpa/index.html -- many interesting interviews -- Also see collection and history of Mormon Diaries in Utah State University Special Collections (link above in Mormon section)
40.  Utah Photo Collections -- Utah State Historical Society Photo Collection -- http://mwdl.org/collections/1038.php  -- BYU Harold B. Lee Library Photo Collection -- http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/historic_photos/ -- Google Images -- http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi -- search by name, e.g. Erastus Snow, or St. George Utah; or search Google for utah+photos+people

CONCLUSIONS
41.  Many more LDS and Utah resources and links are on Don's FH Class notes page under Supplementary Notes -- http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
43.  These resources "turn your heart to your fathers" as you check, verify, and find new information about your LDS and Utah ancestors.