I heard they were the best at it.
2007-07-08 05:23:05 · 7 answers · asked by Emperor Insania Says Bye! 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It has to do in large part with what's recorded in Malachi chapter 4:5-6:
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse.
Mormons believe that the turning of the hearts of the fathers and children to each other is performing temple ordinances by which families are eternally sealed to each other. That includes sealing to family members who have died before being presented with the opportunity to receive such ordinances in life and who weren't born to parents already sealed to each other as husband and wife (other ordinances, like baptism, should also be performed for deceased individuals if they did not recieve them by proper priesthood authority while in mortality). And in order to do that, we do genealogy work (can't perform the ordinances for a deceased person if we don't know about them, after all!).
That, and it's also really cool to find out about our ancestors (where they came from, what they did, etc.).
(As a side note, Mormons believe that Elijah the prophet came and fufilled the above-mentioned prophecy on April 3rd, 1836 in the Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio. See the below link for a written record of the account, if you're interested.)
2007-07-08 08:14:33 · answer #1 · answered by Rynok 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is important to know the ancestry of their families for the baptism of the dead (which is a rite I won't debate with anyone) and because so many long to know the locations of their own ancestors, they began storing info for everyone. I think it's rather nice that they have done so.
2007-07-08 12:28:29 · answer #2 · answered by Jess 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Rynok said it good....
The baptisms for the dead in the LDS temples are from research from somebody in the church and looked up their ancestors. They submit papers for them if they weren't baptised in the church.
They are Family History Center near Temples and LDS meetinghouses around the world.
2007-07-08 16:11:04 · answer #3 · answered by Samuel The Lamanite 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because we believe that history and in that case family history is very important for the future.
2007-07-08 12:29:12 · answer #4 · answered by dang-duh! 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
so when judgement day comes ...they can bring everyone before god with their personal information and ..judge them...eh..
2007-07-08 12:26:25 · answer #5 · answered by superduped 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
so they dont have incest in their small communities
2007-07-08 12:25:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Fetish.
2007-07-08 12:37:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋