RootsTech Resources

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

1. Missionary service (Use your FamilySearch login)
2. Known by Joseph Smith (Use your FamilySearch login)
3. Relief Society records (Use your FamilySearch login)
4. Black Latter-day Saints
5. Church History Library Catalog
6. Residence in Nauvoo, Illinois
7. Ocean migration
8. Overland pioneer travel (Use your FamilySearch login)
9. Utah newspapers
10. 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.