Founded in 1894 and funded by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this non-profit organization has the largest collection of original genealogical materials on microfilm in the world. Current holdings comprise 1,700 periodical subscriptions, 175,000 vols., bound, over 500 hrs. of oral family history tapes, and more than 1 million catalogued reels of microfilm. The USSR at present is one of the countries for which the society has only limited holdings, ca. 200 microfilm reels, mostly for the Ukraine with a few from Byelorussia. These are primarily microfilms of registers of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches filmed recently in Polish archives. There are also 1,000 reels of German parish registers for areas formerly in East Prussia, now part of Kaliningrad oblast. There is an ongoing research project for the Soviet Union.The types of items found on microfilm for other areas of the world include census schedules; civil registrations; parish registers; land, probate, and tax records; notarial records; and family and local histories. More information about the society, its collections, and its services, is available in a brochure, in English and Russian, entitled "The Genealogical Society of Utah," issued in 1976.
