Genealogical endeavors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stretch back into the 19th century. The following time line gives a brief history of the development of the church's genealogy program:
April 1894 - President Wilford Woodruff announced in general conference that he had received a revelation that ended the law of adoption, which was the custom of being sealed to prominent church leaders instead of direct ancestors. He re-emphasized the need for genealogical research and sealings along natural family lines. With the termination of this type of sealing, genealogical work to trace direct ancestry increased among the members of the church.Nov. 13, 1894 - The genealogical society of the church, known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, was organized.
September 1906 - Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young, lectured at the Lion House on family history. She had initiated the first family history class work in the church. With Elizabeth McCune, she toured the church in Canada and Utah, urging the Saints to become involved in such work.
January 1910 - The first issue of the Utah Genealogical and Historical magazine was published. This quarterly publication served as the voice of the Genealogical Society of Utah. It was discontinued in 1940.
1912 - Susa Young Gates compiled the first family history text, "Lessons of Genealogy." The first edition sold out within one year.
1927 - A card file was instituted to track temple endowments for the dead.
Jan. 17, 1934 - New headquarters of the Genealogical Society of Utah, located in the Joseph F. Smith Memorial building on North Main Street in Salt Lake City, was formally opened. The building previously was part of the campus of the LDS College.
October 1939 - The first large microfilming project to preserve genealogical records outside Utah began in Tennessee under the direction of L. Garrett Meyers and Ernst Koehler. Their filming center and library was a hotel room, where negatives were developed in the bathtub.
November 1944 - The name of the Genealogical Society of Utah was changed to the Genealogical Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dec. 1, 1947 - A project to microfilm European records was started by the Genealogical Society.
August 1961 - The church's first name extraction program was originated out of the need to find enough names to keep the church's temples operating. Originally called the Record Tabulation Program, it consisted of employees transcribing names from English parish registers. They extracted 4 million names from 1,500 registers during the five years of the program.
March 1965 - The three-generation genealogical family group sheet program was initiated.
June 1966 - The Granite Mountain Record Vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon was dedicated by Elder Howard W. Hunter. The vault was excavated in the mountainside near the quarry that provided granite for construction of the Salt Lake Temple.
1966-1977 - The annual genealogical conference, the "Priesthood Genealogical Seminar," was held at Brigham Young University.
August 1969 - Under the direction of Elder Howard W. Hunter, Salt Lake City hosted the World Conference on Records, which opened additional doors for the church's access to genealogical records.
Nov. 18, 1975 - The Church Genealogical Department announced a new "family entry system" to allow submission of names of deceased ancestors for temple work whose birthplaces and birth dates were unknown.
1978 - The name extraction program was introduced in local stakes to expedite extraction work.
March 25, 1984 - A four-phase genealogical program was announced to allow wards and branches to establish genealogical facilities in their meetinghouses.
Oct. 23, 1985 - The church's Genealogical Library on West Temple directly west of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
January 1986 - The church released Personal Ancestral File (PAF) 2.0, the second version of the church's family history software for home computers.
July 15, 1987 - The Genealogical Library celebrates the conversion of the last card from the card catalog to computer.
Aug. 15, 1987 - The church's Genealogical Department was renamed the Family History Department.
July 16, 1988 - The church released Personal Ancestral File 2.1 for home computers.
August 1988 - A milestone in genealogical work - 100 million endowments completed for the dead - was reached.
Dec. 3, 1988 - The golden anniversary of microfilming was celebrated.
December 1989 - The church released Personal Ancestral file 2.2 for home computers.
April 2, 1990 - FamilySearch - a new computer software program on CD-ROM containing a huge database of genealogical files - was announced in a letter to general and local church leaders. It was initially placed in 1,100 family history centers throughout the United States and Canada. It was to be updated annually.
October 1990 - Elder Richard G. Scott told church members in general conference about a software program that would allow researchers to verify whether temple ordinances had been completed for their ancestors, and to clear their names for temple work almost immediately. Some 200 stakes then implemented the software, known as TempleReady, for members' use during a testing period.
Nov. 8, 1993 - TempleReady was announced by the First Presidency in a letter to local church leaders. Also announced was a new booklet, "A Member's Guide to Temple and Family History Work."
Nov. 13, 1994 - A special program was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Genealogical Society of Utah.
June 1, 1995 - From this day forward, members were instructed to process all names for temple ordinance work locally. This ended the practice of submitting names to the church's Family History Department for clearance.
Source: LDS Church News Almanac and Deseret News Archives