“You’ve Never Had It So Good”
Just three years after the First Vision, Joseph Smith was visited by the Angel Moroni who told him of the mission of Elijah. The work for the dead then became one of the major themes in the ministry of the Prophet, who at every opportunity stressed its importance and declared that those who neglected it “do it at the peril of their own salvation”.1
The development of the internet has given us access to a myriad of records containing family history information—but this is all very new. When my great grandmother joined the Church in 1906, she was obliged to write to the clergy of the parishes from which she believed her ancestors came, hoping they would help her find the information she sought. This help was not always forthcoming, with discouragement shown to anyone known to be a member.
In addition, a growing number of requests for help kept arriving at the Church’s British Mission Office from members in America who could not afford to travel to Britain to do their own research. It soon became clear that a structured approach was needed, and in 1941, the Church decided to set up a genealogical board with full-time employees working around the country in areas with which they were familiar.2 This work, however, was not just carried out for American members. With high travel costs, branch presidents would be informed when the genealogy board had a researcher working in a particular area, so that members could request work to be done for them, with the cost being split between patrons.
It was hard and sometimes hazardous work for the researchers. Being a time of war, some records were destroyed, and others moved to the country for safekeeping. Petrol rationing meant travel had to be by train, bike or foot. With the ever-present concern about enemy spies, researchers had to carry a special identity card to allow them to travel within twenty miles of the coast.
Once names had been found, the Millennial Star (a British church periodical that was published from 1840–1970) urged the British Saints to send names and addresses of those willing to act as proxies or else to take advantage of the welfare scheme in operation in Utah. Two shillings (now 10p) sent with every baptismal and endowment request would be paid to “aged workers” to act as proxies.3 Branch presidents were also asked to check branch membership records and extract all data relating to those who had died over the age of eight—this information would also be sent to the temple.
With the ending of the war, more researchers were recruited, but even they at times felt overwhelmed with the amount of work requested. A new innovation, microfilming, saved the day. Changing attitudes to the Church also made a great difference, as permission always had to be obtained from the repositories where the records were stored and from the records’ owners.4
In time, family history centres were set up that enabled members to borrow those microfilms. Today, we don’t even have to travel from our homes. We have access to an ever-increasing number of records via the internet.
In the 1950s, then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the nation, “You’ve never had it so good”5. Today we can reiterate those words in relation to family history and rejoice in the words of Brigham Young who said, “This doctrine of baptism for the dead is a great doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines that was revealed to the human family; and there is light, power, glory, honor and immortality in it.”6