September 21: Mormons and Genealogy

On 21 September 1823, Joseph Smith was visited by the angel Moroni. Between September 21-22, he would be visited a total of five times. Moroni revealed the existence of gold plates from which the Book of Mormon would be translated. On 22 September 1827, Moroni gave Smith the gold plates as well as the means to translate them.

During the course of his life, Smith would also be visited by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Among the revelations Smith received was one on 16 April 1838, when the name of the new church was given to him: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [aka Mormons]. Although the headquarters of the Mormon Church is located in Salt Lake City, the move to Utah did not take place until after Smith and fellow church leader Hyrum Smith were killed by a mob on 17 June 1844 in Carthage, Illinois.

Genealogy is important to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The author of “Genealogy and the Mormon Achieves” explains that “One of the core tenets of Mormon faith is that the dead can be baptized into the faith after their passing. Baptism of the dead evolved from the beliefs that baptism is necessary for salvation and that the family unit can continue to exist together beyond mortal life if all members are baptized.” Ancestors may be baptized by proxy. Therefore, “For Latter-day Saints, genealogy is a way to save more souls and strengthen the eternal family unit.”
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Because their extensive genealogical records are available to everyone, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ interest in genealogy has been a boon to all genealogists regardless of their faith.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption: Vincent Price playing Joseph Smith in Brigham Young (1940). Clair Barrus writes about how Mormonism is portrayed in film in her “Herbert J. Grant and Brigham Young, the Movie.”

One Response

  1. alex mott says:

    The church of latter day saints is a newer religion in the history of the world and as we all know people don’t like new religions or new neighbors. This is evident because people didn’t like the Mormons in the 1800s. There was even a land war because of them. The missouri Mormon war which happened in 1838 and had casualties of 22 people. The people of missouri basically forced all the estimated 10,000 Mormons to leave missouri and they lost their land. Another incident that happened was dubbed the Utah war or buchanans blunder. This conflict was an armed struggle between the United states government and Mormon settlers. Although there were casualties mostly civilians and Non-mormons there never was an actual battle fought. I found this interesting because one of the rights guaranteed to us is the right to religious freedom. It seems like the government was being a tad bit hypocritical and didn’t want to condone a new religious sect growing in their backyard.

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