Chapter 2: Coming of Age, 1907–1920

Much of the credit for the early accomplishments of the Genealogical Society of Utah goes to two forceful advocates who shared a common vision of the Society’s possibilities and doggedly pursued that vision: Susa Young Gates and Joseph Fielding Smith. Susa Young Gates constantly labored towards expanding the influence of the Society throughout the Church and represented it well before other genealogical organizations. She pursued her agenda not only through the Genealogical Society, but also under the auspices of the Relief Society, which for almost a decade carried the responsibility of getting the genealogical program into the homes of Church members. During the same period, Joseph Fielding Smith sought to make genealogy—which was often a low priority among the Saints—equal to the other programs occupying the time of Church members. The Society would absorb a great deal of his adult life.

Joseph Fielding Smith and Susa Young Gates contributed not only to expanding the services of the Society in Salt Lake City, but also to taking the genealogical program to stakes and wards throughout the Church. They exported classes and instructional materials, promoted the growth of local genealogical institutions, started classes at Brigham Young University, and instituted an annual “Genealogy Sunday” in the Church. Participation in the International Congress of Genealogy at the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1915 was a high point in this welter of activity. Yet the difficulty of making genealogical research a high priority in the lives of Church members who were fully occupied with family, job, and other Church activities limited what even the most tireless leaders could accomplish.

Susa Young Gates

Around 1918, Susa Young Gates was preparing a history of Latter–day Saint women. One chapter dealt with the women’s contribution to the genealogical program and suggested an important reality: despite male leadership in the Genealogical Society of Utah, the women of the Church were doing the most genealogical research and temple work. In a witty commentary on the role she thought the women were playing, Gates observed, “The old–time motto of the women’s auxiliary committee of the Genealogical Society of Utah ran thus: ‘Let us provoke the brethren to good works, yet not provoke the brethren while we work.’”¹ Although respectful of priesthood authority, Gates and her colleagues were not reluctant to vigorously seek new directions, to strive for what they believed the Church needed most, and to goad their brethren when they thought them lax or derelict in their genealogical responsibilities.

Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young. As a Society staff member, Gates assiduously promoted the Genealogical Society’s work, 1905–20. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.

Susa Young Gates won respect both nationally and internationally even beyond her work in genealogy. She was the mother of thirteen children and was prominent as a suffragist, a prolific writer and editor, a publisher, a public speaker, and an educator. She was a leader in the Relief Society and the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA) and founder of The Young Women’s Journal. Active in the National Council of Women, she represented the YLMIA seven times at its national meetings. For three years, she chaired the press committee of the national organization. In 1899 she was a speaker at the International Quinquennial held in London. Two years later, she was the sole delegate of the National Council of Women at a meeting of the International Council in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Gates’s commitment to genealogy and temple work, however, was lifelong. She helped compile a thirteen–volume genealogical record of the Young family that contained twenty thousand names. Later, in order to avoid duplication of temple work, she directed the preparation of an index to the Young family records and deposited a copy in each temple.²

Her dedication to genealogical work increased after a remarkable experience in 1901. Taken seriously ill while returning from the Copenhagen conference, she was confined for several weeks at a friend’s home in Geneva. After receiving a blessing from the missionaries, she was finally able to travel to England, but her condition remained critical. “She was ready to die,” recalled John A. Widtsoe, “or at least we thought so.” Then came the miracle. Francis M. Lyman, an Apostle and president of the European Mission, gave her a blessing. Certain she would die, he began with an admonition not to fear death. Suddenly he stopped, and, as Gates recalled later, waited for nearly two minutes before he continued, “There has been a council held in heaven, and it has been decided you shall live to perform temple work, and you shall do a greater work than you have ever done before.”³

Gates became well enough to travel home but did not completely recover at once. Horribly emaciated and weighing only eighty–five pounds, she continued to fight for life. When she next went to the temple, she had to be carried in a chair. Gradually she recovered, and from then until her death in 1933, she was constantly involved in temple and genealogical work. In addition to giving one–tenth of her income to the Church as tithing, she also donated another 10 percent for genealogical purposes.⁴

Joseph Christenson, secretary of the Society, was aware of Susa Young Gates’s great interest in her ancestors and in temple work. One day in 1904, shortly after Gates moved from Provo to Salt Lake City, he asked her, “Sister Gates, why don’t you go over to the Genealogical Library and hunt out the names of the Young family?” Gates replied that she did not even know there was a library in Salt Lake City.⁵

After discovering the Genealogical Library, she was dismayed to find it so full of rich material not being used effectively. Patrons had no instruction in research methods, and an overworked librarian could not oversee all their efforts. As someone wrote later, “No one knew where to begin or how to continue, and, indeed, no one tried except the Library attendant who worked a little in the books for the benefit of a few clients.”⁶ Gates later recalled:

I felt that I must do something more, something to help all the members of the Church with their genealogy and temple work. There was practically no book of lessons in genealogy in existence. Beginners were forced to blunder into record keeping without guide or compass; there were no classes in schools or printed instructions to enlighten them.⁷

Her lifetime efforts to correct this problem included editing a weekly newspaper article on genealogy; organizing and teaching classes under the auspices of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the Genealogical Society, and the Relief Society; writing genealogical manuals; arranging genealogical conventions; and developing programs to help Latter–day Saints gather the names of their ancestors and do their temple work.

Susa Young Gates’s organizational leadership in genealogy began within the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP), which she helped found in 1901. This hereditary organization, having a natural genealogical interest, urged its members to collect genealogies. In 1904, Gates was asked to become president, but she accepted only on condition that the organization inaugurate a program for more effectively training the women in genealogy and encouraging them in temple work. The DUP agreed, and Gates was installed in April 1905. She wasted no time in getting started; her first two activities through the DUP were a weekly newspaper column and the establishment of genealogical classes.

Publicizing and Teaching

In 1906, Joseph Christenson suggested that Sister Gates ask the Deseret Evening News to run a section on genealogy.⁸ She approached the newspaper, and the News accepted her offer to write weekly genealogical articles. Her new section first appeared on 1 January 1907. A year later, the Herald–Republican added a similar weekly column, which Gates also produced.⁹ Published each Saturday, it carried genealogical news, genealogical data on various Church leaders, and other items of interest.

After the first year and a half of publication, the board of the Society passed a resolution on 21 July 1908 “requesting that the articles on Genealogy now appearing in the Deseret Evening News under the auspices of the DUP be published hereafter under the direction of the Society and that a committee of sisters to assist in the work be appointed.”¹⁰ Joseph Fielding Smith, secretary of the board, wrote to Susa Young Gates explaining the contents of the resolution and asking the sisters to accept the “calling.”¹¹

Gates readily agreed to the Society’s request for several reasons. First, she believed the column had become so significant that it should be part of the Church’s official genealogical organization.¹² She was also in the midst of a serious disagreement within the DUP over how far its genealogical activities should range. Some, including Gates and her friend Elizabeth Claridge McCune, wanted to subdivide the large organization into groups with special hereditary interests in great LDS historical epochs, such as Daughters of the Founders of the Church, Daughters of Kirtland, Daughters of the Mormon Battalion, Daughters of the Pioneers from Great Britain, and so on. Seeing the increasing secularization of the DUP as a hindrance to their plans for temple work, they wanted the DUP to become a Church organization rather than a state society. When their suggestions for reorganization were rejected, they took the matter to Church leaders. In response, Anthon H. Lund, a member of the First Presidency and president of the Genealogical Society, invited them to bring their work over to the Society.¹³ Almost immediately Gates resigned as DUP president and shifted all her genealogical programs to the Genealogical Society’s newly organized Women’s Committee, which she chaired. She also encouraged all the women she had been working with to join the Society.¹⁴ Her committee represented the first active involvement by women in that organization.

Gates continued to edit the genealogical department in the Deseret Evening News for ten years. But in 1918, faced with the wartime scarcity of paper, the management of the News planned to reduce the size of the Saturday paper and eliminate genealogy. Gates was outraged. On 26 August with the approval of the Board of Directors of the Genealogical Society, she sent a thousand circulars to Relief Societies throughout the Church, calling upon the women to send letters of protest to the Church–owned newspaper. “Sometimes business men are more interested in finances, and city dwellers are more interested in society than in topics pertaining to our spiritual advancement,” she wrote with righteous indignation. But, she urged, “the right of petition is always ours and the women in the Church may well take advantage of this right to convince our Deseret News Management that we are vitally interested in the work of genealogy and temple work generally.”¹⁵

As Susa Young Gates hoped, a number of women soon wrote to the newspaper expressing their concern. At the end of September, however, the News countered by sending a form letter to all the Relief Societies that had responded, explaining that the department had not been discontinued; it had only been condensed and would appear less frequently because of the paper shortage. The letter added that the News would publish matters “of the greatest interest to its readers, and that it is the best judge of what should and should not appear in its columns in these days of stress and government regulations.”¹⁶ A stamped envelope was enclosed with the letter. The sisters were asked to deliver the message to whoever had told them the genealogical articles would no longer appear. They dutifully flooded Susa Young Gates with letters.¹⁷

Dismayed at the attitude of the News, Gates was unwilling to take what she considered undeserved criticism. She wrote to Joseph Fielding Smith on 17 October, explaining that she wanted the News to know she had obtained his approval before she mailed the letters to the Relief Societies. “I think I would like to clear my own skirts,” she explained, “for the Deseret News letter would indicate that I was both untruthful and out of harmony with the powers [that] be.” She added, “However, I do not care very much about it and am willing to do whatever you think best.”¹⁸

As another possible way to lean on the newspaper, Gates wrote a strongly worded letter to the board of the Society on 29 August. She vehemently protested the loss of the column, reminding the brethren of its inestimable value in providing communication between genealogists and in making genealogy “a settled part of our daily life and communication.” She also lamented that “if this department ceases, and if the Relief Society genealogical classes should be discontinued, as some people wish they were, it might so cripple our genealogical interests that the people’s temple activities would suffer irreparable loss.” She was convinced, however, that a male voice would carry more weight:

For some time I have felt that the department should be turned over to your Society and the name of the Secretary, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., placed there in lieu of my own. . . . And although this seems to be a strange time in which to turn over the department to your Society, I now formally do so and beg of you to resurrect it in the columns of the News and thus serve the people who greatly need that help.¹⁹

Although no evidence indicates that Gates responded directly to the Deseret Evening News, whatever pressures were applied by others apparently had an effect. The genealogy column was absent for a few weeks in August, but it began again as a regular feature in September, even as the controversy continued to simmer. Nephi Anderson, prominent writer and genealogist, eventually replaced Gates as editor.²⁰

Another of Susa Young Gates’s enterprises was the development of genealogical classes. As president of the DUP, she obtained the use of a room in the historic Lion House, then being used by the Latter–day Saints University. Formal genealogical classwork began in the fall of 1906.²¹ Gates directed the meetings and asked both men and women to give the lessons. Among the early lecturers was Duncan McAllister, who was the Salt Lake Temple recorder, an avid genealogist, and Gates’s personal friend. Other genealogical stalwarts who participated included Joseph Christenson, Elizabeth McCune, and Joseph Fielding Smith. One of the lectures, Elder Smith’s “Salvation Universal,” was eventually printed in pamphlet form and circulated widely in the Church.²²

The classes were so successful that the DUP continued them on a regular basis. Weekly classwork began in the fall of 1907. The women in charge were surprised when sixty people showed up for the first class, and they had to postpone instruction in order to move to larger accommodations. In addition, they conducted a special class on 7 October for those attending the Church’s semiannual general conference.²³

The following year, the Society absorbed not only the newspaper column, but all the genealogical programs of the DUP. At the first meeting of the Women’s Committee on 4 September 1908, Joseph Christenson asked the members to arouse greater interest in genealogical work and increase membership in the Society, “not slackening in their labors until a sufficiently large membership had been secured which would enable the Society to purchase every genealogical book now published or to be published.”²⁴

This was an ambitious charge, but the women pursued it avidly. They wrote stake presidents, asking permission to speak on genealogy and temple work in the various wards.²⁵ The committee continued the lessons and lectures that had been started under the auspices of the DUP and also held a series of balls and other social activities commemorating historical events and memorializing Church leaders.²⁶ In 1909 the Women’s Committee began publication of a yearbook that contained information about meetings and classes. The result of the committee’s activity was so impressive that the January 1910 issue of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine reported a great awakening in the past two years and acknowledged that the Women’s Committee was one of the chief factors.²⁷ Four years later, the First Presidency also complimented the women:

The sisters in charge of that [classwork] have labored with zeal and efficiency and have accomplished wonders, not only in the direction mentioned, but in arousing interest in it through the Church and greatly increasing the membership of the Society.²⁸

In 1910 the board of the Genealogical Society decided, as part of a larger administrative change, that the work being done by the women should be subdivided and that the Women’s Committee itself should be superseded by six committees. The new committees were named, but the Women’s Committee remained active until its work was absorbed by the Relief Society in 1912.²⁹

Relief Society Sponsorship

Members of the Women’s Committee were eager to transfer classes from the Genealogical Society to the Relief Society, seeing such a move as a giant step toward achieving their goal of genuine Churchwide participation. The transition took time, not because of any resistance by Relief Society leaders to genealogy, but simply because some of them questioned whether their organization should adopt any uniform course of study, feeling it inappropriate to interfere with the local autonomy of ward Relief Societies. Discussions began as early as 1906, but not until the end of 1907 did the board finally compromise by deciding to have lesson outlines prepared for genealogical classes. However, their use by the stakes was to be optional.³⁰

Even the President of the Church could not force the issue when it was first discussed. On one occasion, President Joseph F. Smith overheard an interesting conversation about genealogy classes among his wife Julina (a member of the Relief Society General Board), Relief Society president Bathsheba W. Smith, Isabel W. Sears, and Susa Young Gates. He injected himself into the conversation, remarking, “Why Sisters, you ought to put that work into the Relief Society.” The women laughingly assured him that such a “Herculean task” was not possible even for them. He repeated his suggestion twice more, but when the women made a tentative effort to introduce the idea to the Relief Society, they met with no success.³¹

The Relief Society General Board continued to resist expanding the Relief Society’s role in genealogical instruction, but after 1911 things began to change. Susa Young Gates and Elizabeth McCune were appointed as board members. In addition, some local organizations began taking the initiative. The Relief Societies of Ogden joined together in October 1911 in asking the Genealogical Society to provide instruction for their members. Then, early in 1912, the Women’s Committee of the Genealogical Society wrote the Relief Society officially requesting that it sponsor genealogical classwork, and the board agreed.³² On 20 April 1912, the Relief Society sponsored its first genealogical class in Ogden. Fifty people attended. Susa Young Gates organized the class, and Annie Lynch, secretary of the Women’s Committee, taught it. Only ten people continued for the full sixteen lessons, but three years later, in mid–1915, the Ogden Stake reported that 369 people were actively working in genealogy, a total of 5,939 genealogical visits had been made, and 30,777 names had been collected.³³

In December 1912, the Women’s Committee of the Genealogical Society proposed sending a corps of genealogical teachers throughout the Church to provide instruction in addition to the lessons sponsored by the Relief Society. Gates and McCune could afford to travel. Carrying letters of recommendation signed by Anthon H. Lund and Joseph Fielding Smith, they began to stump the Church. During the summer of 1913, they visited all the Church communities in Canada and traveled throughout southern Utah. They preached the message of genealogy, held classes, and wrote back urging the Genealogical Society to open even more classes.³⁴

All genealogical classes were optional, but Gates and her friends still hoped the Relief Society board would require them as a regular part of the Relief Society program. In the meantime, Gates urged the women of other stakes to write to the Genealogical Society requesting help. She anticipated that eventually the Society would communicate with every stake in the Church.³⁵ By the fall of 1913, classes had extended to several additional stakes. In Salt Lake City, special genealogical classes were held for the general boards of the Relief Society and the YLMIA.

The effort to promote required genealogical classes for all Relief Societies in the Church was part of a larger movement. The precedent was set in 1909, when the priesthood became the first organization to adopt regular Churchwide lesson manuals. A correlation committee under the direction of Elder David O. McKay attempted to correlate the programs of the various organizations, and representatives from the Relief Society were on that committee.³⁶ In 1914 the Relief Society became the last Church auxiliary to inaugurate uniform Churchwide lessons. That year the Relief Society Magazine began publication and carried outlines for monthly lessons on four different topics. The auxiliary devoted the second weekly meeting of each month to genealogy, fulfilling at long last one of Susa Young Gates’s ambitions. For the next seven years, the women of the Relief Society received at least one lesson each month on genealogical techniques.

By 1915 nearly seven hundred ward organizations and over thirty thousand women were studying genealogy. The Society recommended that special committees be appointed in each ward, and the 1915 reports listed many wards with fully organized genealogical activities. Only a few wards gave completely negative or discouraging reports. One ward clerk reported sarcastically, “Everybody asleep in Beaver.”³⁷

These figures did not mean that everything ran smoothly. In November 1917, Sister Gates informed the board of the Genealogical Society that some branches of the Relief Society “felt discouraged concerning the difficult and technical lessons given on surnames for the past two years . . . [and] others have felt almost justified in setting aside these lessons for the more attractive and really essential work which we are now doing for the Red Cross.” She had also discovered that the Relief Societies in Utah Stake had “gathered the impression that they were to drop their own genealogical lessons and confine their genealogical studies to the outlines just prepared by your society.” She asked the Genealogical Society board what to do: “Will you kindly indicate by letter just what you would like . . . to be undone? We are quite willing to continue our lessons or discontinue them.” On behalf of the Society, Joseph Fielding Smith answered in no uncertain terms: “We feel that it would be a deplorable thing should you, for any cause, discontinue the work in this direction.” Gates published his reply in the Relief Society Magazine, asking the sisters to “resume your studies with renewed zeal and determination.”³⁸ The classes went on.

A natural outgrowth of the lessons sponsored by the Genealogical Society’s Women’s Committee was the preparation of the first genealogical lesson manual. Gates and others saw a need for a well–organized, step–by–step printed research guide. Gates prepared most of the material, and the Society published the first lessons in the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, beginning in October 1911. The Women’s Committee, however, wanted them published as a book. The Relief Society board was unwilling, because of limited finances, to gamble on a publication venture, so the committee raised the money independently. The lessons, edited by Nephi Anderson, were published in 1912 as a forty–five–page book, Lessons in Genealogy. Within a year, the first edition was sold, expenses were met, and a second edition was issued.³⁹

The Relief Society also published, with the approval of the Genealogical Society, Susa Young Gates’s Surname Book and Racial History. Three thousand copies were printed. It was used by students in genealogical classes and in the Relief Society. A copy was also sent to every known genealogical and historical library in America and Europe.⁴⁰

Encouraged by the success of these publications, the Relief Society General Board expanded its activities to include semiannual genealogical conventions in Salt Lake City. In the board meeting of 4 September 1913, Jeanette Hyde proposed that a series of genealogical lessons be given for interested people attending the forthcoming October general conference of the Church. It was too late to plan such an activity, but the board liked the idea and during the conference held a special genealogical reception for stake representatives.

By April 1914, the women were ready with a full–scale, three–day convention to follow the regular general conference meetings. Five hundred delegates from sixty–five stakes attended. After President Anthon H. Lund, representing the First Presidency of the Church, opened the conference, the women conducted all the sessions. Two meetings were held each day, consisting of instruction on genealogical methods and temple work. Emmeline B. Wells, president of the Relief Society, made a significant observation when she noted, “The work of the Relief Society is so closely connected with that of the Genealogical Society that membership in the one practically implies interest in the other.”⁴¹ For the rest of the decade, the two societies continued to cooperate in sponsoring genealogical conferences or lectures at general conference time.

Joseph Fielding Smith

One of the most energetic young Church genealogists in the early twentieth century was Joseph Fielding Smith, son of the President of the Church. After his return from missionary service in 1901, he went to work in the Church Historian’s Office, paying particular attention to genealogy. On special assignment, he traveled to Massachusetts to gather data on the Smith family. His research resulted in his first book, Asahel Smith of Topsfield, Massachusetts, published in 1902.

Joseph Fielding Smith’s leadership in the Society spanned more than half a century. Appointed as secretary in March 1907, he became librarian the following year and treasurer a year after that—holding all these positions concurrently. Although he was called as an Apostle in 1910, he served as secretary of the Society until 1922, vice president from 1925 to 1934, and president from 1934 until 1961. Following in the steps of his father, he eventually served as President of the Church.

Elder Smith was one of the major driving forces in the progress of the Genealogical Society. According to Society Superintendent L. Garrett Myers, “President Smith was the power, the motivator behind the development of the Genealogical Society. . . . For more than sixty years he was the moving spirit.”⁴² During the half century that the Society was not funded by the Church, Elder Smith donated generously from his own pocket to support its activities and help pay employee wages. He even turned over to the Society all the royalties from his widely sold book The Way to Perfection.⁴³ He expanded the services offered at the library and promoted the publication of a genealogical quarterly. He envisioned the day when genealogy would assume a status equal to all other major Church programs.

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, ca. 1910, a Genealogical Society worker for nearly six decades, 1907–61. Elder Smith served as its president, 1934–61. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.

The leaders of the Society, especially Joseph Fielding Smith, were acutely aware that they lacked the expertise needed to fulfill their ambitious goals. They needed more information on record keeping and genealogical techniques. They also hoped to publish a genealogical and historical magazine and needed suggestions on publishing programs. Part of the solution, they decided in 1909, was to send Joseph Fielding Smith and Joseph Christenson, former secretary of the Society, on a tour of eastern genealogical libraries.

The trip would cost money, and the Society was not subsidized by the Church. The only funds available were the small amounts coming from dues and research fees, and these were needed to pay wages. Obtaining funds was “like squeezing a dry sponge,” Elder Smith reported later.⁴⁴ The Society finally appropriated $500. The frugal twosome avoided all frills and underspent their budget by $200.

The two men visited many leading genealogical and historical libraries, including the Newberry Public Library in Chicago, the Library of Congress, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. They examined card catalogues, filing systems, index systems, and preservation methods. They also asked for suggestions about publishing. When they returned, they made several recommendations designed to improve library procedures as well as to educate Church members about genealogy. In addition, they urged the publication of a quarterly, the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine. The proposal for the quarterly was approved. President Anthon H. Lund was named editor. Most of the work, however, fell on the shoulders of associate editor Joseph Fielding Smith. The first issue came out in January 1910.⁴⁵

The editors conceived a broad role for the new publication. The first editorial noted there was no other publication such as this in the western United States. “We are not publishing the Magazine with the idea of furnishing the general public something to while away a few idle hours,” the editor noted. Rather, the magazine was intended to provide valuable genealogical and historical data and also instruct readers on the gathering of ancestral records so they could prepare to do temple work for the dead. As in the case of the Society itself, the major purpose of the magazine was religious, although the editors felt it would be useful to anyone interested in genealogical work.

Each issue of the magazine contained forty–eight pages. It was well balanced, with personal and family histories; pedigrees of particular families; helpful information on how to do research; articles on various kinds of records and record collections; historical articles of general interest, though mainly with reference to Church history; theological articles, particularly pertaining to salvation for the dead; and other articles of interest to genealogists and historians. It was an ambitious and well–designed journal. There were 368 subscribers to the first edition.⁴⁶

While the Society had carved a permanent niche for itself in the Church’s program, the leaders were dissatisfied with what they perceived as a continued lack of enthusiasm among the members in general. Joseph Fielding Smith tended to feel Church leaders were not doing all they should to promote the work. Little wonder, he felt, that the members were not well informed, when the Church itself was not providing the vigorous leadership it should.

When Joseph Fielding Smith became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1910, it became necessary to find someone to take over his responsibilities as secretary, librarian, and editor for the Genealogical Society. Elder Smith wanted to hire a full–time replacement, paying him a good salary. His irritation became intense when he could not seem to find enthusiastic support for his proposal. When Apostles Heber J. Grant and Anthony W. Ivins failed to attend an important board meeting where the matter was to be discussed, Elder Smith sent a strongly worded letter to Elder Grant that was clearly intended to create more enthusiasm for the next meeting.

In the letter, Elder Smith observed that despite the Prophet Joseph Smith’s declaration that salvation for the dead was the most important work in which they could engage, Church efforts seemed focused elsewhere. Church schools, boards of the Church auxiliaries, missionary work, a museum, and many other things were taking up both time and money. No stake or ward genealogical organizations were functioning. He pointedly commented that the Society’s directors met only once a month, and even then two or three were usually absent in favor of other meetings of “minor importance,” such as bank directorships. The burden of genealogical work was really left to only one or two of the seven directors. “Now,” he chided,

if we can afford to do all this in the other organizations, which we are forced to admit are not of superior importance, why should we not be able and willing to choose an efficient brother filled with the spirit of the work to look after the interests of this Society . . . ? Why should we not be willing to pay him what his labors are worth?

The new Apostle then outlined his vision of what the Society ought to be doing:

I hope to see the time when we can have an organization looking after the salvation of the dead, that will be as important in the eyes of the Saints as are the auxiliary organizations today. When we can have our officers in each Stake and Ward, properly organized and filled with zeal for the work. I hope to see the day when we can secure the records that are being published in the world that ought to be in our possession, without considering, as we have to do now, whether we will have the means to pay for them or not. I am convinced that we are not doing what we ought to do in this regard, and feel that we are even now under condemnation for the lack of interest and diligence given to this work.⁴⁷

Evidently Elder Smith’s pleading had some influence. At the urging of the board, the First Presidency soon authorized hiring Nephi Anderson, who was at that time in Independence, Missouri, editing the Liahona, the Elders Journal. Joseph Fielding Smith continued as secretary and treasurer of the Society, and Anderson became assistant secretary, assistant treasurer, and associate editor of the magazine.⁴⁸

Elders Smith and Christenson used the ideas gathered on their eastern tour to begin upgrading the genealogical collection and services. Though the budget was limited, they gathered genealogical books from many parts of the United States and Europe, and by 1919 the library could boast over 5,000 volumes.⁴⁹ Near the end of that year, the library received another large shipment of books that had been accumulating in England during World War I. This made the English division of the library the largest collection in the building.⁵⁰

The fact that members of the Society had exclusive library privileges sometimes caused complaints. In February 1908, for example, Susa Young Gates asked the library to allow certain women to search out information for those who were not Society members but had requested information through correspondence. Her petition was turned down, but she persisted, and by the end of the year she got her wish. Women record searchers were appointed to work under the direction of the assistant librarian and received a certain percentage of the fees charged by the library. Eventually the library provided part–time clerks who responded to mail requests by copying the desired information from books. In 1919 the library charged members of the Society at the rate of forty cents an hour, while nonmembers were charged fifty cents.⁵¹ The library had only two full–time salaried employees: Nephi Anderson, the secretary and librarian; and Lillian Cameron, the assistant librarian.⁵² The part–time clerks received modest wages according to the work they did.

The library was for research, but with limited financial and human resources, its staff had difficulty providing all the help that patrons requested. Susa Young Gates constantly urged the Society to open the library in the late afternoon or evenings. In 1910 the library was opened on Friday evenings, but after five months there was so little evening attendance that it was closed again.⁵³ But Gates persisted, and in 1917 she got certain Relief Society sisters to prepare a memorandum requesting that the library be opened from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. In return, “as good tithe payers,” the women pledged to secure new members and to help each other learn the proper use of the books.⁵⁴ In this case, however, the pleading of the women did not succeed. The library continued with only a daytime schedule.

Expanding into the Stakes and Wards

Between 1910 and 1920, the Society expanded its efforts Churchwide. Exactly when it began to foster genealogical committees in the wards and stakes is not clear, but by 1911 local committees were being organized in some areas. Early that year, President Anthon H. Lund complained in a letter to stake presidents that nothing was being done in some stakes, and he proceeded to outline the responsibilities of ward and stake committees. After all, he observed, the Church had two thousand missionaries devoting time to deliver the gospel to the living, so why not do more for the dead? He urged every stake genealogical representative, stake president, high council member, and ward bishopric to join the Society. Stake genealogical representatives were to give personal attention to the matter of helping people, and if necessary, ward representatives should also be called. President Lund also asked all members of the Society to subscribe to the magazine. He gently scolded some stake leaders for appointing genealogical representatives who were too old to meet with others or promote membership. Some had sent in no reports at all, so the Society simply did not know what was happening in those places.⁵⁵

Anthon H. Lund, member of the First Presidency, was also president of the Society, 1900–21. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.

Gradually, ward and stake committees became part of the local administrative structure. In 1912 the Society circulated forms asking for reports from the stake representatives. Some reports were encouraging. In Provo, for example, many people were attending genealogical classes at Brigham Young University (BYU), as well as some adult classes, and Relief Societies were devising ways to assist people in doing their temple work.⁵⁶ Another stake was encouraging young girls in the Mutual Improvement Association to listen to older people tell their stories and write these down along with their genealogies.⁵⁷ In contrast, many stake representatives were doing nothing. In 1913, therefore, Nephi Anderson urged the board to either take action to “awaken these representatives to activity” or ask that the stake presidents replace them.⁵⁸

In 1913 the Society issued printed instructions and suggestions for stake and ward representatives. The suggestions stressed the need for local authorities to assert the importance of their genealogical committees: “The Genealogical Society is one of the regular organizations of the Church,” they were reminded, “and as such its officers—general, stake, and ward—should be recognized and have equal standing with other similar officers.”⁵⁹ The instructions then listed all the responsibilities of the committees, including holding monthly meetings between ward and stake leaders, promoting membership in the Society as well as magazine subscriptions, and arranging for genealogical classes.

At the same time, the Society began its own outreach classes, independent from, though not in competition with, the Relief Society. In 1909 the Genealogical Society had been successful in getting genealogy into the curriculum of Church academics. Susa Young Gates was one of the prime movers behind this program and helped prepare the lesson outlines.⁶⁰ Classes were also conducted at BYU, with Gates as one of the initial teachers. Anticipating the Churchwide “four generation program” of later years, BYU genealogical classes required by 1920 that each student complete a family record that went back to his great–great–grandparents.⁶¹

The Society’s promotional campaign also included visits to ward meetings and encouragement for wards and stakes to open other genealogical classes. By 1913 a number of stakes were holding their own genealogical classes, in addition to whatever the Relief Society was doing. Some of these classes were taught by representatives of the Society while others, apparently, were conducted by locally appointed experts.⁶² In addition to the treks of Susa Young Gates and Elizabeth McCune into Canada and southern Utah in 1913, Society leaders taught elsewhere in Utah and in Idaho during the next few years.

In all their activities, the leaders of the Society worked through the regularly organized channels of Church administration. The best way to obtain success, Nephi Anderson observed, was to go through the established line of authority—from stake presidents, to bishops, to the ward representatives. In this way, he was convinced, the full Church organization would be involved, and people would not view genealogy as simply a fad being promoted by a few unofficial individuals.⁶³ In addition to the work in the stakes, in 1914 the Society began to send genealogical information to presidents of missions, who, in turn, were to disseminate it to interested Church members.⁶⁴ In 1915 the Church committee assigned to outline priesthood quorum lessons for the Church asked for a course of study on genealogy.⁶⁵

By the end of the decade, priesthood leaders in some stakes were beginning to take genealogical activity more seriously. In 1917, for example, the president of the Granite Stake assigned two members of the high council to head a general stake committee and to coordinate the activities of priesthood genealogical committees in the wards. The following year, President Anthon H. Lund wrote to all stake presidents reminding them that the Society was one of the regular departments of the Church and that its officers should have equal standing with those of other departments. He urged all stake and ward committees to be fully organized in preparation for the new study outline being issued by the Society. The Society was also preparing a list of instructions for these committees.⁶⁶

Moreover, the Genealogical Society found other ways to promote its interests throughout the Church. It held special meetings in Salt Lake City at general conference time for Society members. It cooperated with the Relief Society when that organization also began to hold genealogical conventions at conference time. Another program instigated by the Genealogical Society was “Genealogy Sunday.” In 1912, Susa Young Gates suggested that one day a year be set aside for all Church members to receive genealogical instruction. The First Presidency approved the idea, and the Society designated the Sunday nearest 21 September—the anniversary of the angel Moroni’s first appearance to Joseph Smith in 1823, when the coming of Elijah was prophesied (D&C 2:1–3). For a number of years, genealogy and salvation for the dead were the special topics of discussion on that particular Sunday throughout the Church.⁶⁷

The International Congress of Genealogy, 1915

The highlight of the decade for the Church genealogical program was the International Congress of Genealogy in July 1915, held in connection with the world’s fair in San Francisco. The women of the Relief Society began planning for it at least a year in advance, although Church leaders at first questioned whether their participation would help the Genealogical Society.⁶⁸ But Susa Young Gates felt differently, and her committee was very much involved in both the planning and the advertising.

Both the Relief Society and the Genealogical Society of Utah were invited to send delegates. The Relief Society made big plans. Gates invited every stake genealogical committee in the Church to send one or more delegates to California. She made plans to charter a special train from Salt Lake City. Circulars were printed and sent out. The Relief Society Magazine zealously promoted the conference, telling the women that if they were frugal they could finance the entire week’s excursion for fifty dollars.⁶⁹

Some of the LDS Church representatives to the World Congress on Genealogy in San Francisco, 1915. Front (left to right): Romania B. Penrose, Charles W. Penrose, Anthon H. Lund, Joseph F. Smith, Mary S. Smith, Emmeline B. Wells. Center: Susa Young Gates, Heber J. Grant, Augusta Winters Grant, Charles W. Nibley, Jeanette A. Hyde, Elizabeth C. McCune. Back: James Blake, Joseph Fielding Smith, Annie Wells Cannon, Mark Austin, Lewis Anderson. Photographer P. Cardinell Vincent Co., San Francisco. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.

The women responded enthusiastically, and on 22 July, a special Oregon Short Line train of fourteen cars left Salt Lake City with nearly 250 excursionists aboard. They reached San Francisco the next day. On Saturday, 24 July, they attended a special Utah day at the fairgrounds. The preconference highlight, however, was the daylong meeting hosted by the Genealogical Society of Utah on 27 July, the day before the three–day International Congress met. Considerable outside interest was expressed in the Church’s activities, and the meetings were well attended.⁷⁰

When the International Congress of Genealogy met the following three days, Latter–day Saints played a prominent role. Of the 106 official delegates from forty–six invited organizations, twenty–two were from the Genealogical Society of Utah and twenty–six from the Genealogical Extension Division of the Women’s Relief Society.⁷¹ In addition, many Church participants, especially women from the intermountain states, swelled the attendance. As if to emphasize the growing significance of the Church in genealogical work, the Congress appointed Joseph Fielding Smith and Susa Young Gates to a number of permanent committees. It also authorized the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine to publish proceedings of the Congress in its October 1915 and January 1916 issues. Special bronze medals were presented to Anthon H. Lund as president of the Genealogical Society of Utah and to Emmeline B. Wells as president of the Relief Society.⁷² LDS Church genealogists were making their influence felt.

Transition

The Relief Society and the Genealogical Society continued to promote genealogical activity during the second decade of the century, but the Genealogical Society began to reassume the leadership role. While the women of the Church, largely through the Relief Society, led the effort to popularize genealogy and carried the major burden of research and temple work for many years, by 1920 the Genealogical Society, governed directly by the priesthood, began to take full responsibility for the genealogical program of the Church.

The last major genealogical initiative of the Relief Society was the sponsorship of temple excursions. By 1916 the women of the Church were encouraged to spend at least one day a year doing temple work for those people on the Relief Society “charity lists”—lists of names furnished to the Genealogical Committee by those who were unable to travel to the temples themselves. Arrangements were also made for women who lived long distances from the temples to donate money for the purpose of paying a gratuity to elderly patrons to do temple work. In addition, the Relief Society encouraged those far from temples to organize annual temple excursions.⁷³

By 1920 the overlap between Relief Society activities and those of the Genealogical Society became problematic. The Genealogical Society was organizing committees in all the wards and stakes. It proposed, therefore, to assume complete responsibility for assisting in research, giving genealogical lessons, and collecting index cards in local Church units. The Relief Society was asked to continue promoting annual temple days and excursions for women and to teach genealogical lessons that were theological in nature. The Relief Society agreed to the plan, and for one year (1921) the women conducted classes on the theological basis of temple ordinances for the dead.⁷⁴ While these changes were taking place, Susa Young Gates asked the women not to “slacken your efforts . . . but hold up the hands of the brethren and continue in the good work of filling the temples.”⁷⁵

That year Clarrisa Smith Williams became General President of the Relief Society, and the general board was reorganized. Although Gates was retained on the board, she was removed from the lessons committee. Consequently, she did not have as much influence on decisions affecting Relief Society classwork.⁷⁶ Soon, the classes on genealogy were phased out completely.

The ease with which Susa Young Gates abandoned her genealogical classes and related projects to which she had given years of effort may be explained partially by the fact that she saw her administrative involvement in genealogy as a temporary assignment. She started the genealogical classes to remedy what she saw as a lack of knowledge within the Church. With the support of the priesthood leaders, she taught classes to both men and women, but she felt more comfortable working directly with the women, and she moved in that direction whenever possible. She depended upon the Genealogical Society for support and gave her full assistance to its plans even when it meant abandoning her own. Throughout all her years of service, she saw genealogy as a priesthood assignment.

Nevertheless, Gates continued to support and to be involved in genealogy. In 1921 the Genealogical Society officers asked her to serve on the activities and studies committee, directed by her son–in–law, John A. Widtsoe. She accepted the call but suggested, “If you wish some active work and help for women in the Genealogical movement, I would suggest that you create again the Women’s Committee.”⁷⁷ She explained that the sisters she had worked with previously were trained genealogists who had developed study programs and activities for the Relief Society, the Young Ladies, the Primary Association, and the Genealogical Society.⁷⁸ The Women’s Committee was not formed again, but a number of women served with Gates on the Society’s activities committee, which was responsible for the genealogical conventions sponsored Churchwide. The women’s duties, however, were limited, and the Society organized no new activities exclusively for women.

Although by the end of 1920 genealogical programs for the Latter–day Saints were again fully under the auspices of the Genealogical Society of Utah, it was often the women, such as Susa Young Gates, to whom priesthood leaders wrote for advice on how to improve their organization and activities. Female genealogists traveled throughout the Church giving short courses and preaching the importance of ancestral research, and they staffed the library of the Genealogical Society. The Relief Society trained the women, and the women took their responsibility seriously. They tried valiantly to provoke the priesthood brethren to good works in genealogy, but in the meantime, they carried the major burden themselves. In the end, the women’s work of more than a decade had provided the Genealogical Society with much new expertise and a vast new clientele.

The First Quarter Century

At the end of its first quarter century, the Society’s accomplishments were still modest. Though exact figures are not available, by 1920 the Society had approximately 2,000 members.⁷⁹ In 1919, members made 275 “searches” in the library, as compared with only thirty searches ten years earlier. The library added 627 volumes during the year preceding its April 1919 meeting, making a total of 5,027 books. Financially, the Society seemed to be in good shape. For the year ending 1 April 1918, for example, it had an income from dues, library fees, book sales, dividends, donations, and stock sales of $11,553. Total disbursements, including $7,000 for the purchase of seventy shares of ZCMI stock, amounted to $12,177. Society assets also included $38,329 worth of stock in various Utah–based corporations.⁸⁰

No visible image symbolized the expanded activities of the Society more than its new office complex. In 1917 the Church completed the magnificent new Church Office Building at 47 East South Temple Street in Salt Lake City. The first two floors housed the offices of the General Authorities of the Church. The Genealogical Society was given the entire fourth floor for its exclusive use. For the first time, Society facilities were physically separated from those of the Church Historian’s Office. The accommodations included a large room for the library collection, several offices, and a large classroom. The quarters were spacious and, for the time being, adequate. The move from the former location was completed on 17 March 1917, although for the entire previous month, staff members had been busy ordering and arranging the books and research facilities for the formal opening. Research work began on 11 April, and the first genealogical class in the new building was held on 26 June 1917.⁸¹

Church Administration Building, 1917, at 47 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, location of the Genealogical Society, 1917–33.

As the decade drew to a close, the leaders of the Society could express both discouragement and optimism. Genealogical work was more widespread in the Church than ever before, although activities within wards and stakes still varied widely. Priesthood leaders were beginning to assume greater responsibility. Classes were being conducted throughout the Church, but attendance tended to drop off as the enthusiasm of members often waned quickly. Nevertheless, the Society had a rapidly growing membership, good leadership, excellent research facilities, and important contacts throughout the world. In 1918 a Boston bookseller, F. J. Wilder, wrote to the Society with high praise and optimism for the future:

Within the next ten years your Society is destined to become the largest and the strongest in the world for the reason that it is founded on a more substantial basis than any other society of its kind. You will see in years to come people from all parts of the West and the East flocking to your city to spend days and weeks studying because of the advantages that can be had with your Society.

Not only will people of the Mormon faith come to you, but the outsider as well may become interested in your faith because of the treatment he will receive at your hands.⁸²

While it is debatable whether all of Wilder’s prediction was fulfilled within ten years, his statement embodied Church genealogists’ vision of what the Society would become.