The Church History Library and the Family History Library are both located on the downtown headquarters campus of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Each library holds massive collections of historical records. But their purposes are very different. While their collections complement and, in some cases, overlap and link to one another, each serves unique purposes.
The Family History Library and the Church History Library
The Family History Library holds the world’s largest collection of genealogically significant records from all over the world, including books, images of documents, and research aids in a 5-story, 144,000-square-foot building. It is the brick-and-mortar flagship of FamilySearch International, serving beginner to professional family history guests from all over the world in their quest to make fun, personal discoveries and connect generations of families. It is also a top tourist attraction for the state of Utah.
The Church History Library houses collections in 21 miles of archival storage in a 5-story, 230,000-square-foot structure. As an archive, it holds millions of artifacts, historical volumes, photographs, personal records, official Church membership records, periodicals, manuscripts, volumes of scripture in many languages and editions, historical building plans, and much more. All are significant to the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its people since the Church was founded in the early 1800s. (Note: The Church History Museum, located next to the Family History Library at 45 N. West Temple Street in Salt Lake City, is not the Church History Library. The Church History Library is located on the northeast corner of North Temple and Main Street, east of the Conference Center.)
Using Both Libraries for Genealogy Research
The focus of the Church History Library is Church-related history rather than genealogical research; however, its collections contain materials about the Church and its members from a wide spectrum of sources and points of view. After linking families who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints using Family History Library records, guests might find further information at the Church History Library to add depth to those Church members’ life stories.
Using information in their archives, the Church History Library staff works on projects to make it easier to find pertinent records. To help patrons find information about their ancestors, the library has brought together a set of resources on a web page called “Discover Ancestors in Church History.” Among the most popular resources are the Pioneer Database (1847–1868), the Missionary Database (1830–1940), “See Your Connection to Church History,” and the Church History Catalog. Some of these collections can also be found on FamilySearch.org, but these collections are works in progress. They continue to expand. The Church History Library website provides the most up-to-date, complete versions.
Finding Records on the Two Websites
The Family History Library web page provides access to a wide range of digital and physical collections, educational materials, and guest services. Many of the digitized collections in the library are available from the search tab at the top of the FamilySearch web page.
The catalog search on the Church History Library site references its individual archival holdings. They could contain useful details, but users need to scan through those records to find them. To simplify searches, Church History Department archivists and historians have been individually describing items in correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and key collections. This ongoing effort makes these items more readily findable in the catalog based on the names of people and places referenced.
Help Accessing Records from the Libraries
Most Church History Library records are publicly accessible, but some contain sacred, private, or confidential content and require access permission. Sometimes another record contains similar information but without access limitations and can be viewed readily. Walk-in visitors are welcome and will receive assistance, but the best approach for access is to contact the research consultation team in advance. On the library’s home page or in the Church History Catalog, click Ask Us, and then describe the desired information or collection. The staff will review the request in detail and provide access as they can or offer alternatives to help guests achieve their research goals.
Some Family History Library records are viewable only in the library due to copyright, privacy, and contractual limitations. To provide broader access, the library has instituted global one-on-one virtual consultations, library look-up services, FamilySearch communities, and a growing selection of online classes and webinars in multiple languages to assist guests who cannot come to the library to access and navigate records.
Personal help is available to guests who come to the library. The Family History Library staff can support 14 languages. They assist guests worldwide in person and virtually and can translate key information from international ancestral documents. They also provide experiences for Chinese guests, geared toward the high percentage of Chinese visitors to Temple Square each year. Collections include a very large global historical map library to help determine locations as they were set out in earlier time periods when your ancestors lived. The Family History Library also has media conversion facilities to convert personal memorabilia—such as slides, VHS tapes, photos, journals, and books—to digital formats.
The Family History Library differs from the Church History Library in that it is geared toward viewing digitized or microfilm images rather than original manuscript documents. Thus, it has workstations with multiple monitors to facilitate viewing multiple images at a time.
Visiting the Libraries
Visitors are welcome at both libraries, and admission is free. Their locations, telephone numbers, and hours of operation are available on the Church History Library and the Family History Library web pages.
The Church History Library is now open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Library staff encourage guests to schedule an appointment at least a week in advance using the online Ask Us service. Research consultants will help develop a research strategy, ensure access to needed collections, and have the materials ready for people as they arrive.
See the Family History Library web page for updated hours of operation. Currently they are open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and some evenings for groups by appointment. Times will be adjusted as conditions warrant.
Donation Policies
If you wish to donate records to these libraries, the Church History Library, as an archive, selectively accepts diaries, documents, letters, photographs, books, and artifacts with broad historical significance to the Church. For more information, see the Church History Library donation guidelines.
The Family History Library, as its name implies, is a library and not an archive. It accepts images and copies of appropriate records of many types, but often the actual artifact—if it is related to Church members—would be of more interest to the Church History Library. Family History Library donation guidelines can be found on the library’s wiki page.
