Genealogy from a distance: the media of correspondence and the Mormon church, 1910–45*

Abstract

This article adopts a media historical approach to studying the modern history of genealogy, suggesting an alternative to both the dominant methodologies and periodization of the field. Empirically, it focuses on the ways in which correspondence was adopted as a tool for long-distance research by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1910–45, examining in particular its research networks in Sweden. The article demonstrates that letter-writing was a research method dependent on record accessibility and interpersonal reliability. It also had the benefit of becoming its own resource, sustaining its relevance into the twenty-first century.