Mission of the BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy
- Provide quality online research and resources for public use at no cost.
- Provide extraordinary mentored-learning experiences for students learning the science and methods of family history research.
Take Hist 205 for religion credit: Help gather Israel!
CURRENT PROJECTS
BYU Repatriation Project
The BYU Repatriation Project assists the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) with their mission to account for all missing military personnel, and where possible, to return their remains to their families. There are over 81,000 military men and women who remain missing from our country’s wars back to World War II. BYU uses traditional genealogical research as well as basic DNA concepts to identify living next of kin and potential DNA donors for each soldier.
Early British Census Project
The Early British Census project (EBC) brings the numerous pre-1841 English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh census records into one searchable database. The extant 1400+ returns are stored in dozens of local archives across the UK. Most of these records have never been indexed or published, and only occasional returns have been digitized. When the database is complete, it will likely contain information for approximately 500,000 households.
Linking Families for Hereditary Disease Prevention
Linking Families for Hereditary Disease Prevention is a CFHG project conducted in partnership with the nonprofit organization, ConnectMyVariant. This effort is a public health initiative for families with genetic variants that cause hereditary disease. The Center uses genetic and traditional genealogical research to build family trees for the participants, and the team at ConnectMyVariant then helps the participants inform their relatives of the family’s increased risk. With this knowledge, extended family members can take measures to prevent hereditary disease.
Script Tutorials
This website offers guidance in the deciphering of manuscripts and other old documents that were printed in old typefaces or written in old handwriting styles. Languages covered here include English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Latin, and Catalan. The content of this website may be useful for genealogical, historical, and literary research.
Nauvoo Community Project
Family history students at Brigham Young University's Center for Family History and Genealogy are working in conjunction with Church Historic Sites to identify the residents of Nauvoo, Illinois, from 1839 to 1846. Wherever possible, each resident will be documented from birth to death in the records of the time. This data is available to all who are interested in the history of the community, as well as descendants seeking information about their families.
Immigrant Ancestors Project
The Immigrant Ancestors Project uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries. Volunteers working with scholars and researchers at Brigham Young University are creating a database of millions of immigrants based on these emigration registers.
Discovering English Ancestors
Researching English ancestors? Dr. David H. Pratt, Emeritus Professor of History at Brigham Young University and Accredited Genealogist Emeritus, has prepared this up-to-date tutorial outlining some efficient ways to trace English persons in the past. This web site will also assist professional scholars doing biography, demography, prosopography, the study of a place or the family as an institution as well as the genealogy.
Welsh Saints Project
During the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, converts from the British Isles played a crucial role, providing much-needed strength and leadership to the fledgling church. Among these, the Welsh were prominent, with influential figures such as Dan Jones and others making significant contributions to the growth of the work.
English Marriages
Bertram Merrell created this index by correlating the information he painstakingly extracted and transcribed during his many visits to the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, England. Over the course of many years, Merrell cross-referenced the information he extracted from the marriage licenses, allegations, or bonds with the information he extracted from the Church of England’s parish registers or Bishop’s transcripts.