About the Missionary Dataset

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Brief History of the Dataset

From its earliest days, missionary work has been a central purpose of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church was organized on April 6, 1830. In June of that year, the prophet Joseph Smith called his brother, Samuel Smith, to be the first missionary for the Church. In those early years, missionaries typically served for short periods and preached as they traveled through towns and regions. Notable early examples include Oliver Cowdery, who, along with several companions, was sent to preach to Native American tribes, and Orson Hyde, who undertook an extended missionary journey to the Holy Land.

The concept of an official mission, with defined boundaries and a mission president, began in 1837 when several apostles were sent to establish an official mission on the British Isles. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, three official missions were organized: the British Mission (1837), the Eastern States Mission (1839), and the Tahitian Mission (1844). It is important to note that missionary work was also carried out in additional locations and countries during this period.

Missionary work expanded rapidly, reaching more than 21 official missions across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania by 1853. Although the rate of expansion varied over time, missionary work remained a key element of Church growth and identity. Between 1830 and1945, at least 47,000 Latter-day Saints served full-time proselytizing missions.

For more information about the missionaries and missions of The Churchof Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints, we invite you to look at the following resources:

• Missions and Missionaries Research Guide
• Church History Topics: Early Missionaries
• Church History Topics: Growth of Missionary Work
• Celebrating Women in the Church History Biographical Database
• Global Histories

Research Process for Collecting the Data

The missionary dataset currently includes only those who served a full-time proselytizing mission between 1830 and missions that concluded at least 80 years ago, in keeping with privacy guidelines. All missionary information in the database is built from primary sources housed in the Church History Library. This data comes primarily from two key collections: the Missionary Registers and the Roster of Missionaries.

The Missionary Registers are a record of missionaries who were set apart in Salt Lake City for full-time missions. A clerk began keeping these records in 1860, and they were maintained through 1959. These registerscontainessentialinformation on missionaries, including:

• Vital information: Full name, birthplace, parents’ names, and baptism
• Priesthood office (when applicable)
• Missionary service: Dates called, set apart, arrived in field, and released

Entries appear in chronological order based on the date missionaries were set apart. In some cases, individuals traveling on Church assignments or gathering genealogical information were also set apart and therefore included in the registers. Missionaries who were not set apart in Salt Lake City are generally not listedin this collection.

The second major source for this dataset is the Roster of Missionaries, compiled under the direction of Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian, in 1925. These rosters represent an effort to reconstruct a list of missions served between 1830 and 1900 using available historical records. Jenson and his assistants worked carefully with the sources available to them.

In addition to the Missionary Registers and Roster of Missionaries, several other primary sources were reviewed and researched in constructing the dataset. Links to these collections are provided in the following section.

Collections Used to Compile the Data

• Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860-1959 (CR 301 22)
• Historian’s Office Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, circa 1925 (CR 100 160)
• Missionary Reports, 1831-1900 (MS 6104)
• First Presidency Missionary Calls and Recommendations, 1877-1918 (CR 1 168)
• Missionary Department Missionary Record Index, 1830-1971 (CR 301 43)