Mormons and genealogy, a great love story
But who are Mormons? And why are they so attached to the archives, their ancestors and genealogy? Explanations.
No, these are not those who move in a carriage and who dress with clothes straight out of the little house in the meadow (they are the Amish, and even if they are completely different, they are confused 70 % of the time). These are the Mormons!
Go to Temple Square
Even if Mormons encourage genealogists to come and carry out their research in Salt Lake City, they do very little profit from it.
Most places to visit are at Temple Square, a real "Vatican of Mormons". It welcomes millions of visitors each year. The visits are free, guided, with guides of 30 different languages, all volunteers.
This is the first tourist destination in Utah, and it boosts the local economy with hotels and restaurants, but not directly the Mormon church itself.
Visits are made by missionaries, only women. The fact that they are missionaries and therefore volunteers allows the church to offer these visits for free, without generating costs (and also, we are not going to hide it, to talk about their faith to visitors).
The temple itself is not open to the public. We find in Temple Square "Visitor’s Center for tourists, notably aimed at teaching them Mormon history and informing them about their beliefs.
Aujourd’hui il y a une hausse du tourisme, surtout venu des autres états grâce à ce que l’on appelle « l’instant Mormon », illustré par une hausse de l’intérêt de la population pour cette religion en partie due à Mitt Romney, candidat Mormon à la maison blanche contre Barack Obama en 2012.
And at the family history library
Another high place of tourism in Salt Lake City: the family history library, managed by Familysearch. Again, it is open to the public, which believes that it is their duty to do this genealogical work, and to help people do it. It offers 2.4 million coils of microfilms, microphones sheets ... and provides many tools for researchers: microcomputers, micro-films ...
A hundred genealogist experts are present at full time to help you in your research, as well as 400 volunteers.
Thanks to this, the library is a popular destination for genealogists, thus the genealogical group of the Air France establishment committee organizes a stay in Salt Lake City from Paris from Paris for European researchers.
The library welcomes around 2000 visitors per day. With this genealogical reputation, they organize rootstech, the largest genealogical meeting (more than 3,000,000 participants).
How do they finance all these genealogical works?
The question is legitimate: microfilms have a cost, the equipment to use them, the trips of the members responsible for carrying them, the locals etc.
You should know that it is often accused of Mormons for having a completely opaque policy towards their finances, in fact, they have not published their financial state since 1959 in the USA. We know, however, that one of their sources of profit is DMC, a company that manages radio, TV, or insurance companies.
Mais leurs principaux revenus émanent en fait de leurs propres membres : ceux-ci doivent leur verser une dîme équivalant à 10 % de leurs revenus, ainsi que ce qu’ils appellent le « don du jeune » consistant en un don représentant la valeur de 2 repas par semaine. Ces deux derniers éléments leur permettraient de récolter 8 milliards de dollars chaque année. On estime aujourd’hui que l’Église serait assise sur plus de 40 milliards de dollars.
But apart from the indirect return generated by genealogical tourism which is still relatively low, Mormons do not remove genealogy money. Their Familysearch site, one of the most consulted, is free, unlike its competitors as myitage. The body that takes care of the genealogical questions of the Church, the genealogical company of Utah has the "non -profit" status, the centers therefore prohibit selling or enhancing information, offering research services in exchange for a sum etc.
Here, now you know everything about Mormons!