Each day, from March 15-21, I’ll share information and resources from the class I taught last fall at the University of Utah on “Hoaxes and History.”
Look forward to information such as . . .
- Why I taught my students to create hoaxes
- How to analyze a hoax
- How to detect a hoax
- Top 10 free online tools for detecting hoaxes
- Reading recommendations on past hoaxes
Join in the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.
Don’t Be Fooled!
The Church History Library houses the sacred and valuable historical records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If your family has been associated with the Church in the United States or in other countries, these records can help bring your family’s story to life.
Records and Collections
The Church History Library holds millions of original, authoritative historical records, including official church records, diaries, memoirs, personal papers, letters, photographs, oral histories, and local-unit Church records. The records are stored in climate-controlled vaults and are accessible to researchers in the reading room. Many records have been digitized and are also available online.
Free Online Resources
Church History Catalog
The Church History Catalog is the principal resource for searching the Library’s archive, manuscript, and print collections. Simple and advanced searches for names, places, and topics yield results that may be narrowed by material type, date, and language. Wildcard and Boolean searches are also supported. Millions of digitized images are added to the catalog each year and users may recommend sources for future digitization. Materials in the catalog come from a wide spectrum of sources and represent numerous points of view. Users of the catalog should not assume that the Church or the Library endorses every item in the collection.
Database of Early Missionaries
The Missionary Database documents every known Latter-day Saint missionary from 1830 to eighty years ago. The database currently lists more than 42,000 individuals with links to images of thousands of original and authoritative records. The database can be searched by name or browsed to find sources and photos. (Use your FamilySearch login to identify your ancestors in the database.)
Database of Overland Pioneers
The Pioneer Database attempts to document every Latter-day Saint overland pioneer who traveled to Utah between 1847 and 1868; it is the product of more than two decades of work. The database currently lists more than 57,000 individuals with links to thousands of original and authoritative records of pioneer experience. The database can be searched by name or browsed to find sources and photos. (Use your FamilySearch login to identify your ancestors in the database.)
Day-by-day Chronology of Church History Events
The Journal History of the Church is a chronological, day-by-day compilation of Church history events from 1830 to 2008. Taken mostly from newspapers but also from correspondence, diaries, letters, sermons, minutes, and accounts, this 1,200-volume collection contains valuable historical and biographical information. Indexes may be searched for names of individuals, places, church units, and events. Digital images of the index cards and the corresponding pages of the Journal History of the Church are available in the Church History Catalog.
Index of People Named in the Joseph Smith Papers
The Joseph Smith Papers Project is an effort to gather all extant Joseph Smith documents and to publish them with both textual and contextual annotation, including brief biographical sketches for selected persons mentioned therein. Names listed in this index include church leaders and members, Smith family members, people Joseph Smith encountered in his travels, parties involved in legal and business matters, and other acquaintances. (Use your FamilySearch login to identify your ancestors in the database.)
Index of Letters Written to Brigham Young
The Brigham Young Office Files contain approximately 15,000 letters from Church members who sought personal guidance, spiritual advice, or financial help from Brigham Young between 1844 and 1877. Many letters report on missionary matters and colonization progress. The index letter of writers together with digital images of the letters can be accessed through the Church History Catalog. Researchers may also consult letterpress copybooks for replies to letters.
Index to Periodical Articles by and about the Church
The Church Periodical Index enriches access to articles related to the Church and its history by indexing all significant articles in Church-produced, English language magazines, namely, the Ensign, Liahona, New Era, Friend, and Church News. The index also points to content in selected other periodicals, regardless of perspective, that contribute to the study of the history, doctrine, and culture of the Church. The index contains more than 165,000 entries and is searchable through the Church History Catalog.
Answers to Your Church History Research Questions
Click on the “Ask Us” button anywhere you find it in the catalog or on our web pages to submit a question to our archivists, librarians, historians, conservators, curators, or records managers.
Visit the Church History Library
Visit the Library in person Monday through Saturday at 15 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150-1600. Visit the Library online today at ChurchHistoryLibrary.org.
Bonus Links
- Find people named in early Relief Society records. (Use your FamilySearch login to identify your ancestors in the database.)
- Request a copy of an ancestor’s patriarchal blessing.
- Consult research guides for topics including sources on family and local history, the Perpetual Emigrating Fund (PEF), blacks in church history, women’s organizations, women’s suffrage, and much more.
As part of the bicentennial celebration in 2020, the Church History Library has placed original records of the First Vision on display in its ongoing “Foundations of Faith” exhibit.
Published in the Church News, February 1, 2020.
One’s understanding of history is always enriched when one considers the insights from multiple accounts of past events. During his lifetime, Joseph Smith repeatedly testified that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, taught him about individual redemption and instructed him about the kingdom of God on the earth.
The earliest surviving account of the First Vision was written by Joseph Smith in the summer of 1832 as part of his personal history. After spending time pondering and reflecting on the great mercy of God, he penned a deeply personal account that described both his consciousness of his own sins and his frustration at being unable to find a church that matched the one he had read about in the New Testament that could lead him to redemption. He explained that from the age of 12 he worried about “the welfare of (his) immortal soul” and thus spent years searching the scriptures before offering his prayer. When Deity appeared to him, he asked how to be forgiven of his sins, and this account emphasizes Jesus Christ’s Atonement and the personal redemption it offers. Joseph wrote that he felt love and joy for many days after the experience.
Joseph Smith’s journal contains another account of his vision, written by one of his scribes in the fall of 1835. When a visitor arrived in Kirtland asking about the Church, Joseph recounted his experiences in seeking to know which church was right. This account mentions the opposition he felt as he prayed and the appearance of one divine personage who introduced another. This account uniquely notes the appearance of angels during the vision.
The exhibit also presents accounts of the vision that were published during Joseph’s lifetime. The earliest published account was prepared by Orson Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for a pamphlet published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1840. Joseph later drew on this pamphlet in responding to Illinois newspaper editor John Wentworth to describe the rise of the Church and the important Articles of Faith.
A second pamphlet, published by Orson Hyde in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1842, also drew from Pratt’s account. Hyde was returning from dedicating the Holy Land for the gathering of the remnants of Abraham’s scattered posterity and published the account in German as part of the early effort to sound the gospel message to the entire world.
A first edition copy of the Pearl of Great Price contains Joseph’s most widely known account of his First Vision. Joseph began work on a longer history in 1838 that was compiled by scribes under his direction and completed after his death. Writing in context of troubles in Kirtland, violence in Missouri, and confinement in Liberty Jail, this later history positions the First Vision as the beginning of “the rise and progress of the Church.” The portion of the history describing the vision was published in the Times and Seasons newspaper in Nauvoo in 1842.
Nine years later, the excerpt was re-published in England as part of a pamphlet containing some of Joseph’s writings, translations and revelations that was compiled by Elder Franklin D. Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and titled “Pearl of Great Price.” The pamphlet was canonized by unanimous vote at the October 1880 general conference.
High-resolution images of the documents are available online. The Church History Library is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Thursday evening until 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Arrangements may also be made on the library’s website for group visits that include special downtown parking and a historical presentation. Admission to the library is free and the public is welcome.
I’m happy to report that Mormon Women’s History–with its two award-winning chapters–will be released in paperback in March 2020.
The book is already available cloth and e-book versions.
Visit the book’s page on my website to learn more, download a chapter, or purchase copy.
It was a privilege to participate in this video, filmed to accompany Saints, Vol. 2, and featured on the Church’s home page for Pioneer Day 2019.
Giving Life to Lifeless Latter-day Saint Histories
Do you have a 19th-Century Latter-day Saint ancestor who did not keep a journal? Learn about strategies and sources for researching and writing to turn dates and places into rich stories and experiences.
1. Begin with Existing Records and Rumors
- Gather everything possible
- Select accurate information using an outline of events and a list of acquaintances
2. Verify, Verify, Verify
- Missionary service (Use your FamilySearch login)
- Known by Joseph Smith (Use your FamilySearch login)
- Relief Society records (Use your FamilySearch login)
- Black Latter-day Saints
- Church History Library Catalog
- Residence in Nauvoo, Illinois
- Ocean migration
- Overland pioneer travel (Use your FamilySearch login)
- Utah newspapers
- Biographical sketches
So you think your ancestor was Joseph Smith’s bodyguard?
- Members of the Nauvoo Legion
- Members of the Nauvoo Police force on 29 Dec 1843 and Mar-Dec 1843
3. Flesh Out with Original Sources
- Pioneer database
- Church periodicals
- Index to periodicals #1: Early Church Information File
- Index to periodicals #2: Journal History of the Church
4. Fill Out with Contextual Information
- Mormon Places
- Global Histories
- Searchable bibliography of Studies in Mormon History
Recommended Histories
General Church History
- Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, 4 vols. (2018-)
- The Story of the Latter-day Saints, by James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard (1992)
- Mapping Mormonism: An Atlas of Latter-day Saint History, ed. Brandon S. Plewe (2014)
Early Church History
- Hearken, O Ye People: The Ohio Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations, by Mark L. Staker (2010)
- Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836-1839, by Leland H. Gentry and Todd M. Compton (2011)
- A City of Refuge: Quincy, Illinois, eds. Susan Easton Black and Richard E Bennett (2000)
- Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise, by Glen M. Leonard (2002)
Early Converts and Missionaries
- Men with a Mission: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles. S, by Allen, James B., Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker (1992)
- Mormonism and the Making of a British Zion, by Matthew L. Rasmussen (2016)
- Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia, by William Mulder (2000)
- Unto the Islands of the Sea: A History of the Islands of the Sea in the Pacific, by R. Lanier Britsch (1986)
Pioneer-Era History
- Mormons at the Missouri 1846-1852: “And Should We Die,” by Richard E. Bennett (1987)
- We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846-1848, by Richard E. Bennett (1997)
- Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856-1860, by Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen (1992)
- A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (2017)
Additional information and resources are available on the Church History Library’s website.
