History
- 1894: Founded as the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU)
- 1938: GSU begins microfilming records of genealogical importance
- 1963: The microfilm collection is moved to the newly completed Granite Mountain Records Vault for long-term preservation.
- 1995: After a controversy, a deal is struck between the Jewish and LDS communities to "Remove from the International Genealogical Index in the future the names of all deceased Jews who are so identified if they are known to be improperly included counter to Church policy."
- 1998: FamilySearch/GSU begins digital imaging of records
- About August 1998: Decision is made by LDS Church leaders to build a genealogical website.
- May 1999: Website first opened to the public. It almost immediately went off-line, overloaded because of extreme popularity.
- October 1999: Surpassed 1.5 billion hits.
- November 1999: 240 million names added, bringing the total number of entries to 640 million.
- 2001: Work began on a replacement website, backed by a consolidated database, giving users the ability to edit data. (Later named 'New FamilySearch' and which will at some point become known as the 'Family Tree feature' on the FamilySearch.org website.)
- November 2005: New FamilySearch.org enters first Beta test. Enough bugs are found, along with extensive user feedback and suggestions, that it takes longer than expected to get to the second beta.
- February 2007: New FamilySearch.org enters Beta 2 testing.
- June 2007: New FamilySearch.org was made available for church members in some areas (by LDS temple district), increasing through the next several years
- 2008: The Vatican issued a statement calling the practice known as baptism for the dead "erroneous" and directing its dioceses to keep parish records from Mormons performing genealogical research.
- Early 2009: New FamilySearch available to church membership around the world, with the exception of Utah/Idaho and the five Asian temples.
- Mid 2009: New FamilySearch gradually being made available to church membership in Utah and Idaho.
- November 2009: New FamilySearch available to church membership worldwide, except for members in the five Asian temple districts.
Read more about this topic: FamilySearch
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