We inspire people everywhere to connect with their family—across generations.

Founding of Familysearch1894

The Genealogical Society of Utah, now FamilySearch, was founded to help Church members trace their family trees.

Research Help in Multiple Languages1924

What started locally supporting a handful of languages nearly 100 years ago has blossomed into a website that has users from 238 countries.

Microfilming Starts1938

Filming of paper documents began in church and government archives. Microfilm was used until 2002, when capture became 100% digital.

Photo provided by Nelson W. Clayton

First Local Family History Center1964

The first local family history center opens. FamilySearch centers currently provide in-person research help at more than 5,000 locations worldwide.

Website Goes Live1999

The FamilySearch website launched and quickly became the most popular family history website on the internet with 7 million hits per day. In 2020, our average visitors per day is 400,000.

First Searchable Records2002

The 1880 census, listing United States residents in 1880, becomes the first publicly searchable record collection on FamilySearch.org.

First RootsTech Conference2011

RootsTech debuts in Salt Lake City. Over the years it has become the largest genealogy and family history conference in the world.

1 Billion Indexed Records2013

FamilySearch.org tops 1 billion records indexed thanks to hundreds of thousands of indexing volunteers. Five years later we crossed 2 billion.

1 Billion Historical Records2014

FamilySearch.org publishes its 1 billionth image of a historical record. Site guests use records to learn the details of their family story.