The Universal Awakening of Genealogical Interest

Elder LeGrand Richards (1886–1983) — Presiding Bishop of the Church from 1938 to 1950 and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1952 until his death, and one of the most beloved conference speakers of the twentieth century — identified a miraculous global shift in interest toward genealogy following the restoration of the sealing keys to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836 (D&C 110:13–16). He observed that prior to this time, there was virtually no organized interest in family history anywhere in the world. Yet in the decades that followed, the awakening came: the New England Historic Genealogical Society — the oldest genealogical society in the United States — was founded in 1845, genealogical societies and family history archives sprang up across Europe and America, and governments began establishing public record offices, census archives, and civil registration systems. Richards pointed to this worldwide turning of hearts to the fathers — beginning almost immediately after Elijah's keys were restored — as evidence that the spirit of Elijah prophesied by Malachi had been poured out upon the earth, independent of and often unconscious to the people it moved.

Research note: This account is documented in LeGrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1950), in the section on temple work and salvation for the dead. No verbatim first-person excerpt from the book is reproduced here, as the text remains under copyright and is not available in a public archival source; the historical facts above (the 1836 restoration of Elijah's keys and the founding of genealogical societies, including the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1845) have been independently verified against public sources.