Your family research will be more effective and interesting when you understand the history of their times. Learn about wars, governments, laws, migrations, and events in Church history to help you understand your ancestor’s movements, activities and concerns. This may also help you identify new sources to use to find your family. Ward, branch, and stake histories sometimes include biographical sketches of local members. You may find additional sources in the “History” section of the state, province, or national research outlines for the localities where a Church member ancestor lived.

Events in Church history that affected Church members and their record keeping include:

1830	Joseph Smith organized the Church in Fayette, New York. Samuel Smith was called as the first missionary.
1831	The first Church settlements were started in Kirtland, Ohio and Jackson County, Missouri.
1836	The Kirtland Temple was dedicated.
1837	The first foreign mission was opened in the British Isles.
1838–1839	Most Church officers and members left Kirtland. Others were forced out of Missouri. Members settled Nauvoo, Illinois.
1840	The first proxy baptisms were performed in the Mississippi River. The first company of Saints sailed from Liverpool, England, bound for the United States.
1841	The first sealings to spouse were performed for living couples.
1842	The first endowments were performed for living people.
1844	Joseph Smith was martyred.
1846	The Nauvoo Temple was dedicated. Living endowments and sealings to spouse were performed here. Living sealings to parents were also performed.
1846–1847	The Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo and began migrating to the West. The Mormon Battalion was commissioned to serve in the Mexican War.
1849	The Perpetual Emigrating Fund was started to help poor Saints move to Utah.
1850–1900	Major colonization efforts established many towns in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Sonora (Mexico), Chihuahua (Mexico), and Alberta (Canada).
1850	Missionary work began in France, Italy, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries.
1852	Brigham Young encouraged the Saints in Iowa to migrate to Utah. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund was extended to help poor Saints emigrating from other countries. The first Scandinavian converts emigrated to Zion. The Church announced the doctrine of plural marriage.
1853	The first German converts emigrated to Zion.
1855–1889	The Endowment House opened in Salt Lake City. Living endowments and the sealings to spouse, proxy and living, were performed there.
1856–1857	Members were admonished to reform their lives and rededicate themselves to the Lord. Many members were rebaptized.
1857–1858	30,000 members from northern Utah moved south into Utah County due to the coming of Johnston’s army. United States troops under Colonel Johnston arrived and established Camp Floyd. Many members moved back to their homes in northern Utah, but others made permanent homes in central Utah.
1869	The transcontinental railroad was completed. The railroad increased the migration of members to Utah and Church colonization throughout the west.
1877	The St. George Temple was dedicated and the first proxy endowments were performed. Living sealings to parents were again performed. The first proxy sealings to parents were performed here. Brigham Young reorganized the Seventies priesthood organizations throughout the Church. Many members renewed their covenants and were rebaptized. New membership forms were designed to record the rebaptism and reconfirmation dates.
1879	Due to the controversy over polygamy, the Secretary of State of the United States urged European governments to halt the flow of Church emigrants.
1884–1887	Polygamists were persecuted intensely by the federal government. To avoid this, many Saints moved to Mexico and Canada. The United States government confiscated the money for the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, which also restricted Church emigration. Utah counties began recording marriages.
1890	President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto, officially stopping new plural marriages among the Saints in the United States.
1894	President Woodruff received a revelation clarifying that children should be sealed to their parents instead of Church Leaders.
1895	The first stakes outside the United States were organized in Alberta, Canada, and Juarez, Mexico. Utah counties began keeping birth and death records.
1898	Leaders of the Church began discouraging emigration.
1905	The State of Utah began recording births and deaths.
1914	The first Church census was conducted to identify members. Starting in 1920, censuses were taken every five years until 1960, except in 1945 due to World War II.
1918–1919	Weekly services were not held in many areas due to the worldwide flu epidemic. The April 1919 General Conference was also delayed until June 1919. Many blessings and baptisms were delayed.
1924	The first of the three- and four-generation programs began. Members submitted family group records, and they were placed in the Patron Section of the Family Group Records Collection.
1941	The Deceased Members File began.
1942	Family group record forms were used to submit names for temple work.
1969	The new computerized name processing required Individual Entry and Marriage Entry Forms to clear names for temple work. This was the beginning of the file that became the Ordinance Index.
1978	Every worthy male could hold the priesthood and participate in temple ordinances.
1979	The Church began collecting pedigree charts and family group records for the Ancestral File.
1981	The Salt Lake Temple’s recording process was computerized. Most temples were converted to the new computerized Temple Recording System over the next ten years.
1990	FamilySearch was released.
1991	The TempleReady computer program made it possible for members to clear their own names for temple work.
1997	The Ordinance Index was created from the International Genealogical Index.
1998	The Family Name System was started in the English-speaking temples. This allows temple patrons to keep track of their own temple submission entries on colored cards.
1999	The FamilySearch™ Internet Genealogy Service started. The first Pedigree Resource File names were submitted over the Internet, web sites added, and collaboration lists started.