Research Guide
Online Historical Resources
This list provides researchers with helpful online resources about Church History and general history to better contextualize the history of the Church.
Overview
The Church History Library receives numerous inquiries from researchers on diverse topics. To help researchers find the information they need, our specialists have prepared the following list of helpful online resources.
This guide has two main sections: Church History and General History.
- The Church History section lists websites and databases that are useful in researching the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith and lives of its members. All of these are available online for free. Some are hosted by the Church, while many are hosted by Brigham Young University and other institutions.
- The General History section lists websites and databases that are useful in providing some context to Church history but are also useful in a broader study of history. Some sites and databases in the section are available online for free, while others require a subscription. Access to the subscription databases listed is available on location at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
While many of the resources included here can be helpful in family history and genealogy research, we recommend that you visit the “
Church History Resources
Hosted by the Church
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in researching the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith and lives of its members. The sites below are hosted by the Church.The Church History Catalog enables you to find records specific to your research needs, view thousands of library items in digitized collections, and experience audiovisual material housed in Church History Department facilities such as the Church History Library and the Matthew Cowley Pacific Church History Centre. You can also find tips for using and navigating the catalog features, informative research guides and research assistance, information about visiting the library, and featured collections.
The press publishes works of Latter-day Saint history that meet high standards of scholarship. These works include documentary editing projects, which offer direct access to primary documents, narrative histories, and topical studies. Most projects will be published in both print and digital formats, and the site contains significant supplementary material for each project. The search function allows for searching across the entire site, including the reference materials that provide information on individuals mentioned in the records.
The Gospel Library provides online access to a variety of Church publications and resources. It is also available as an app for
This website contains images and videos, many of which depict events and locations from Church history. Much of the content may be used for personal, noncommercial purposes unless otherwise noted. Organizations and legal entities may request permission to use these materials from the Church’s Intellectual Property Office at
The project is an effort to gather all extant Joseph Smith documents and to publish complete and accurate transcripts of those documents with both textual and contextual annotation. The intent is to publish, according to professionally accepted documentary editing standards, documents created by Joseph Smith or by staff whose work he directed, including journals, revelations and translations, contemporary reports of discourses, minutes, business and legal records, editorials, and notices. The website includes transcripts and images of the documents, along with additional contextual and historical information.
This searchable database contains information about the lives of early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their contributions to building the kingdom of God, and the records they left behind. It includes the data from the now-retired Missionary and Pioneer Databases, such as information about the missionary service of Latter-day Saints from 1830 to the mid-1900s and about those who immigrated to Utah between 1847 and 1868.
Hosted by Brigham Young University
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in researching the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith and lives of its members. The sites below are hosted by Brigham Young University. The Church does not maintain or control these sites and is not responsible for their content.This online index is a bibliography of newspaper articles from between 1831 and 1900 that are at least somewhat related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is an online version of a bibliography compiled by Chad J. Flake and Larry W. Draper. The work highlights books, pamphlets, periodicals, and broadsides created between 1830 and 1930 that relate to the Church and Latter-day Saints. The database does not provide images of the items covered in the bibliography but is intended as a reference resource.
Originally published in 1992, this encyclopedia contains articles covering various aspects of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Entries are available online in both a wiki format and as scans of the original print volumes.
This research guide highlights useful resources related to the Latter-day Saint movement.
This is a scholarly resource for finding literary writings and associated artistic works by and about Latter-day Saints.
This site features manuscript collections held by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University related to the history of missionary work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is an online gazetteer of geographic locations that relate to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The “Places Map” is a searchable, global map with locations and some boundaries for settlements, congregations (branches and wards), cemeteries, buildings, and events. The “Places List” is an alphabetical list of all items indexed in the database.
This digital collection includes various published materials held by Brigham Young University. The materials are related to the development of the Church in the 19th and 20th centuries.
This index directs researchers to over 100,000 biographical sketches appearing in 185 published volumes. These sketches include persons living between 1820 and 1981 in northern Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and southwestern Canada.
This database identifies the residents of Nauvoo, Illinois, from 1839 to 1846 and documents their lives through contemporary records. This database is hosted by the Center for Family History at BYU.
This large collection contains photographs, drawings, and paintings of Church historic sites, areas of the Holy Land, and significant people in Church history. The images are organized by book of scripture and institute course.
As the research and publishing arm of religious education at Brigham Young University, the Religious Studies Center publishes scholarly works related to the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This online database indexes Latter-day Saint transoceanic emigration records and ship rosters from 1840 to 1932. It contains biographical and historical information, including the names, ages, and origins of travelers, as well as ports of departure and arrival. It also includes narrative accounts of ship voyages from those who participated and links to scholarly articles about the Latter-day Saint migration experience.
This index provides links to talks from Church leaders and Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith that cite scripture.
This database includes citations to a variety of sources discussing the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1830 to the present.
This database includes more than 650 theses on the history, culture, and sociology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The collection includes theses from 1932 through 2005.
This database attempts to track Welsh converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who immigrated to the United States in the 19th century. The site includes journals, biographies, and photos.
This website was created to document the experience of Latter-day Saints in Winter Quarters. It includes information on deaths, burials, and settlements.
Hosted Elsewhere
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in researching the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith and lives of its members. The Church does not maintain or control these sites and is not responsible for their content. This list is not intended to be comprehensive.A nonprofit center that aims to gather all the papers of Brigham Young and make them available online. Supplementary material is provided in the form of maps, photographs, and other content.
Hosted by the University of California, this database provides access to digitized materials from archives, libraries, and museums across the state of California. The database contains a variety of content related to Latter-day Saint history.
This database documents black Latter-day Saints from the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ, in 1830, to 1930. Each entry offers a brief biography of the individual, as well as vital and Church ordinance information. The database is hosted by the University of Utah.
This database identifies the people involved in the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It provides vital information and family connections for those individuals. The database is hosted by the Historical Pioneer Research Group, Inc.
Hosted by the University of Virginia, this database contains data on plural marriage among early Latter-day Saints. It provides marriage lists, data visualizations, historical insights and a searchable database of individuals. Each biographical entry describes known family relationships and links to other family members in the database.
This is a database of digitized materials from a number of institutions. A large amount of material is freely available, while some is restricted to members of the partner institutions. The database contains a variety of content related to the Church, but the Church History Library is not a partner institution.
This research guide provides insight into using the Mormon history collections at the Huntington Library. The library has also made a number of items available
Holding over one million pages of historic Utah newspapers, this database continues to add more material monthly. Newspapers can be browsed by issue or searched by keyword, article title, wedding, death date, and birth date. The database is hosted by the University of Utah.
This database features digitized items from the collections of the Utah State Historical Society. It is hosted by the Utah Department of Heritage & Arts.
The project strives to provide online access to the collected papers of Wilford Woodruff. Images of original documents are presented alongside transcriptions. The site also includes contextual information about the people and places mentioned in Woodruff’s documents. The project is hosted by the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation.
This is a collection of digitized materials held by the Yale University Library system, including the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. A variety of items relevant to the history of the Church are contained in the collection.
General History Resources
Available Worldwide
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in providing some context to Church history but are also useful in a broader study of history. The Church does not maintain or control these sites and is not responsible for their content.General Resources
This database hosts a variety of material from a multitude of different archival institutions to help researchers find primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies.
This website provides access to descriptions and some digital versions of primary sources in the western United States.
This database provides access to a variety of resources from or about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean held in its partner archives, libraries, and private collections. It also has a collection of
This website includes material from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions across the United States.
FamilySearch hosts this vast digital library of books and other resources. Access to much of the content requires creation of a free account.
The online digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France) provides access to millions of images from collections held by the national library and partner institutions.
Sponsored by the U.S. National Archives, History Hub is a crowdsourced site where experts, enthusiasts, and everyday people can ask questions, share information, and connect with other historians and researchers.
The Library of Congress hosts this online portal to digital collections they hold on a variety of topics.
This is an online collection of databases and materials from various institutions in the Mountain West region of the United States.
Western Standard, an electronic research and translation technology company, has created this compilation of historical sources comprising original documents, eyewitness accounts, and historical accounts. It includes the following categories: World History, U.S. History, Social Science, Science and Mathematics, Political Science and Law, Philosophy and Religion, Literature, and Language.
This is an online archive of books, images, newspapers, maps, and so forth focused on Australia and the Pacific and provided by the National Library of Australia.
Map Resources
This site contains over 100,000 land ownership maps detailing the geographic and development history of the United States since its beginnings.
This online collection is a searchable database of fire insurance maps that were created by The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. The collection contains maps from over 30 states, with some maps of cities in Canada and Mexico. This database is hosted by the Library of Congress.
This online collection of maps includes resources primarily related to Scotland and dating from 1560 to 1964.
This database provides maps for many locations around the world. The site offers a search function with options to narrow the date range of the results and the map scale.
This collection contains large-scale, detailed maps of Utah cities spanning 1884 to 1950. This database is hosted by the University of Utah.
Newspaper Resources
This website provides access to historical U.S. newspapers and some digitized newspaper pages from all U.S. states and territories. This database is hosted by the Library of Congress.
Hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico), this database provides access to historical, public-domain newspapers of Mexico. Those digitized items still under copyright are accessible only at Hemeroteca Nacional de México (National Newspaper Archive of Mexico) facilities.
This database contains issues from 146 newspapers from the state of Illinois. This database is hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Holding over one million pages of historic Utah newspapers, this database continues to add more material monthly. Newspapers can be browsed by issue or searched by keyword, article title, wedding date, death date, and birth date. This database is hosted by the University of Utah.
Hosted by the Utah Department of Heritage & Arts, this database features digitized photographs, manuscripts, and films from the collections of the Utah State Historical Society.
Provided by the National Library of Wales, this database offers access to 15 million Welsh newspaper articles. It includes a mix of articles in Welsh and English.
Available to Visitors of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah
This section lists websites and databases that are useful in providing some context to Church history but are also useful in a broader study of history. The resources in this list require paid subscriptions. On-site visitors to the Church History Library are provided complimentary access to the following on the library’s computers. The Church does not maintain or control these sites and is not responsible for their content.This EBSCO site is considered by many historians to be the definitive database of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
This site, created by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, focuses on early American records. It includes databases covering Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
A product of Alexander Street, a ProQuest company, this database includes over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, and memoirs from the Civil War.
From the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, this NewsBank database includes 13,000 print items from throughout the US Civil War and several decades afterwards.
This NewsBank database includes thousands of newspapers published throughout the United States from the late 17th century into the early 20th century.
This NewsBank database offers access to periodicals published by and for African Americans, including over 350 newspapers from several states.
This website contains full runs of 48 newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent 19th-century Britain.
This NewsBank database offers access to over 140 18th- and 19th-century newspapers from 22 Caribbean islands.
This database specializes in the United Kingdom and its historical colonies. Collections unique to this database include British newspaper archives from England, Wales, and Scotland; parish records from across England and Wales, dating back to 1538; British army records from 1760 to 1915; passenger lists of ships leaving the UK between 1890 and 1960; and Irish court records.
This site focuses on providing access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.
This database contains digital English records, including census records, parish records, court and criminal records, directories, and landowner records.
This NewsBank database, based on research efforts by the University of Houston, offers access to hundreds of newspapers published by Hispanic communities in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.
An EBSCO site, this is an abstracts resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
This site contains photographs, posters, and ephemera from the Civil War. It currently holds over 12,200 images. This database is hosted by Alexander Street.
This digital library provides access to many academic journals, books, and primary sources.
Most of the available newspapers were published in the United States, but there are many international publications featured, as well.
Paper Trail contains journals and histories of pioneers who headed west to Oregon, California, Utah, and Montana. You can search for diaries, letters, remembrances, and newspaper articles. The preliminary searches can be done for free, but a subscription is required to access reports and surveys. On-site patrons may inquire at the reference desk for more information. This website is a service of the Oregon-California Trails Association.
This is an enormous collection that allows students, scholars, and online researchers to experience the past through thousands of private writings and personal narratives. More than 8,000 individual writers are represented in the collection, and the materials provide windows into history dating from 1675 to the present. This collection is a product of Alexander Street, a ProQuest company.
This resource, hosted by Alexander Street, is for students and scholars of US history and US women’s history. It focuses on the history of women in social movements in the US between 1600 and 2000.