What's the purpose of FamilySearch?

Question

Some time ago, someone told me that the church or jesuschrist and the latter day saints used to collect personal information of people all over the world... birth, christening, marriage and death certificates, and kept this info in their records in Salt Lake City. Later I found out that some of this can be found in http://www.familisearch.org.

I got there and found the christening and marriage information of one of my great-great-grandfathers... and later found a death reference of my grandfather. I live in Mexico, and this great-great grandfather lived in a remote tiny town... but they got my grandpa's death notice from the US Social Security Death Index because he worked many years there... and had his insurance.

well now... the point is: WHY do they keep this personal information of people that is not related to them? How to they get it? I mean, it's nice to know that your great-great grandfather may have married when he was 19 yo... but what else is this for??

So then... why keep my grandpa's and my great aunt's death date from the US social security.... They lived in the USA and I can tell, never were LDS, and this church WAS around. They were born catholic, died catholic and were catholically buried. Why don't you just erase them from your records?

Answer 1

Family Search is one avenue to for genealogical research of ones ancestors. There are many other places to go out there. They have access to census data, parish records, birth and death records, etc. just like any other genealogical society.

What makes this website so prevalent is that they have been able to compile such large volumes of data for ANYONE to search. They do not perform religious ceremonies for just anyone. They are to be submitted by family members of the people they find that want this service provided. This policy is was different but the Mormon Church received some flak for not having such a protocol.

Answer 2

Ces, yours is a good question. Tonyamail explained well the crux of gathering the genealogies of our ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only retain the records submitted by its members, having in itself the largest repository in the world. Apparently, your great-great-grandfather is a related ancestor of whomever had submitted his name.

Your question also indicates little understanding that you have about the Mormon Church so I recommend you log on to: lds.org and learn more.

Too often, those not knowing about the church are the first to proclaim untruths about it. Don't become one of them, but search for yourself.

Please read Malachi 4: 5-6. These verses prophesy of Elijah coming before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He has done so and has revealed to mankind, through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the imperative mission of researching our ancestors.

Answer 3

I'm Mormon, or a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We/Mormons believe that this church is the true church. We also believe that after death, those who for whatever reason (maybe the church wasn't around, or wasn't in their area, or whatever) can be taught the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the other side after death. IF they accept what is taught, then they must have the saving ordinences done for them on this side (because they don't have a physical body on that side). Mormons do family history work (searching out their/our ancestors) because the church rules are that work for the dead (aka the saving ordinences) can only be done for our own family members.
NOW, many people think that if we baptize someone who is dead that that person's choice has been taken away. But it hasn't. That person chooses whether or not to accept what is taught on the other side, then chooses whether or not to accept the work done for them on this side. We just gather the names and do the work, it's up to them to decide if they want to accept the gift we are offering.

UPDATE: Because they may change their minds on the other side. I don't mean this disrespectfully. But let's say that the Catholic church had something similar, where non-Catholics could - after death, become Catholic in every sense of the word. And (I'm assuming you're Catholic) some member of your family died without being Catholic, wouldn't you want them to have the opportunity to become Catholic? It's the same for us. Maybe no one in your family is a Mormon now, but in the future someone may become Mormon, or maybe there is some long lost relative of yours who is now Mormon.

Answer 4

HI
they are very much into Genealogy, it has nothing to with spying they like to try and trace their lineage back to Jesus to prove superiority from being a direct descendant of Jesus.
Lammy