Some people think that Ancestry.com and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormon Church) are connected. This may have to do with the fact that Latter Day Saint genealogy is a big deal and both the Mormon Church and Ancestry.com are headquartered in Utah. Is it a coincidence? Depends. Part of Ancestry.com’s roots come from the fact that Latter Day Saint genealogy is a big deal. But Ancestry.com isn’t really affiliated with the Mormon Church—it just fills a need that exists due to the emphasis that Latter Day Saints place on genealogy.
Not that the Mormon Church doesn’t have its own ancestry website for Latter Day Saint genealogy (or ancestry research for anyone, for that matter)—FamilySearch is run by the Church. It is a free website, and a pretty decent one too, maybe the best free resource on the internet. But of course, it doesn’t really compare in the same way to Ancestry.com’s resources. In fact, the main connection that Ancestry.com and the Mormon Church have had in the past is that Ancestry.com’s resources have been available in some Church-owned genealogical centers for Latter Day Saints interested in genealogy. But this is an affiliation based on business, not on religion. Because while the Mormon Church is of course interested in religion, Ancestry.com is only interested in it as far as it relates to business.
Interested in Latter Day Saint Genealogy? Ancestry.com is the Best Resource Available!
If you are Mormon and want to expand beyond FamilySearch into some intense Latter Day Saint genealogy research, then Ancestry.com is the best place to go. Not only does it have the largest ancestry record databases on the internet, but it also has important fields for your family tree data that relate to temple work. While Ancestry.com’s primary user-base does not consist of those interested in Latter Day Saint genealogy, they have modified their software to accommodate any Latter Day Saints looking to do genealogy research on the internet.