Online availability of early church records for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

LegacyUser

Donald Emmett Engstrom said: I was just looking for some early records (before 1900) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and they are not available on-line. The card catalog indicates they are digitized but not available due to some undefined restrictions. My question is: Why do we expect churches of other faiths to make their records available online and yet we do not make our records available from Historical Records in FamilySearch? I have searched for many of my family records at the BYU Library, but have lost the USB drive before I got the saved documents into my records on my computer. Now at age 84 in an assisted Living facility, I am unable to provide verification through copies of original documents of my heritage and my wife's heritage. I no longer have a car and I have to use a walker for any distance in walking and so I am unable to return to the library to find those entries again.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: They are restricted viewing because of the sensitive nature of what is on those filmed records. When I was in the training zone for the Church and Family History Mission about a decade ago, I had a new missionary who had early Utah members, so we found out what film it was on and trekked over to the Family History Library. There, we had to show our temple recommends to access the films that were held there.

I do not think they have been digitized and they certainly are not listed in the Catalog (that I know of). We had to access some published books that had the film number information in them.

You likely will have to ask a member of your ward to help you in your project. I wish you well and success in your endeavors.

LegacyUser

Donald Emmett Engstrom said: Tom,

Part of my question is: What sensitive information do these records contain that are not on other churches? I am searching the Scandinavian country church records and all of their information is available. Norway and Denmark provide theirs free. Sweden has two competing companies (Genline and ArkivDigital) in addition to the Swedish government. Danish and Swedish church records are being actively indexed as well as online. I do not know about Norway. From the records that I researched in the BYU Library, I was allowed to copy lines pertaining to my ancestry but not others because they might be alive. This was about 7 to 8 years ago. I was searching records in the 1800's and so who is going to be alive today that is included in those records?. As far as sensitive information, the only thing that I can think of might be excommunication which by the way is available in the Scandinavian documents. Illegitimacy can be seen in the records in FamilySearch by comparing births of Mothers and daughters. I don't remember seeing any temple data in my searches. I did not have to show a temple recommend to see the film when in the library except to use the TIB files were different from these early ward records.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: Speaking as a non-LDS member, I would simply say that every church has the right to control access to their own records. Catholics for instance sometimes try to stop Latter Day Saints from viewing their church records due to their opposition to LDS ordinances.

In the Scandinavian countries, they had (and still have in some countries), a state church. Their records get handed over to the government, who is then obliged to make the records publicly available at the archive. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the Napoleonic regime confiscated all the church records, and so remain in state ownership. And again, the laws in those countries oblige the state archives to make these public, since they are over 100 years old.

But in the United States, where there is no state religion and where state archives seizing church records would be unconstitutional, each church keeps their records privately, and controls who can access them. If you disagree with your own church's policies about access, you should speak to the relevant religious leaders.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The records deal with very sensitive information, specifically excommunication and rebaptisms. At that time the Church was attempting to live the United Order and the information provided some details...

LegacyUser

Donald Emmett Engstrom said: This is my 2nd comment. I missed seeing this tab the first time.

These films are in the catalog with a camera by the under the format column. Clicking on the camera shows a bunch of blank boxes with word "PHOTO" in them. The over all comment is:"This image is unavailable for online viewing at this time.". This is what triggered my interest in pursuing my original question: Why are these records not available and what is so sensitive about them?

The way things are now, it appears that they are hiding something and I don't know what it might be.

I originally wanted to send this to church headquarters for a response, I typed it all out and when I was going to through the process of sending it, I realized that this didn't go to church headquarters but was a forum. I have been in an assisted living facility for 6 years now and have not sent a feedback for a long time and of course many changes have occurred. When I realized the difference I made a copy of it which I reported it as a problem.

Tom, I know you are very helpful as I have seen your comments many times in the AQ forum.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The details are confidential and any action taken with any member of the Church is held in strict confidentiality. The early historical records of the Church revealed far too much information, but it was, essentially, the only means to report what happened at the time.