SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Twelve and a half million vital records from Western Europe are now available on CD-ROM from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Vital Records Index for Western Europe includes information extracted from birth, christening and marriage records from the Alpine, Benelux, French, German, Italian, and Spanish regions.

Jean Pierre Massela, the Church's family history coordinator for France, says the new CD's are an extraordinary tool for people with Western European lineage. "These records are an index of people who have lived one to four centuries ago. It will be a great help for historians and genealogists who will be able to more easily find the original records. The information is taken from microfilms produced by the Family History Department in full agreement with European laws."

Ray Madsen, product manager for the Family and Church History Department, says this is the first time such a large database of records for Western Europe has been made available for home research. "It also has a very powerful search engine that allows you to search not just for individuals but for parents or particular locations."

Novice genealogist Paul Nauta was able to locate 80 new ancestors in just a few hours at home. "My grandfather on my father's side came from a small town in Italy on the Adriatic Sea. Much of this little Italian community's civil registration from 1809 to 1860 was captured on this new database. It has provided a gold mine of information for me on my grandfather's ancestral lines."

The set of 21 discs can be purchased for $27.00 at Church distribution centers worldwide or by calling toll free 1-800-537-5971 and asking for item #50145. It can also be ordered on the Internet at www.FamilySearch.org

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has worked with churches and governments in more than 100 nations to gather and preserve the world's heritage through the records of its diverse peoples. Madsen says, "We want to make these records available to all who are interested and have a desire to trace their family roots." In the near future, vital records indexes will be made available for Scandinavia and Mexico

The Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is committed to producing high-quality products for the family historian. It maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. To promote local and family history (genealogical) research, the Church also maintains the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and over 3,400 Family History Centers in 64 countries.