Join us in Salt Lake City for a Week at the FamilySearch Library!

Registration for the St. Louis Genealogical Society's annual genealogy research trip to the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, is now open. This year's adventure runs from Sunday, 5 October through Sunday, 12 October 2025. This is our thirty-second annual trip to the world's largest genealogical library. For one full week, you can enjoy non-stop, immersive working time in this huge genealogy playground! Read on for all the details.

Our annual trip includes seven nights at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, right next door to the library and across the street from Temple Square, group dinners on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, Monday morning orientation to Temple Square and the library, and individual assistance all week long from two experienced leaders. A pre-trip hybrid meeting (in-person and via Zoom) and an electronic mailing list for our group participants ensure that all your questions are answered and give everyone a chance to get to know each other a bit before traveling.

If you've done most of your genealogy research online, perhaps you've never even heard of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. Or maybe you have been to the FamilySearch.org website or heard about the Mormons and their interest in genealogy and wondered what the connection is. Why go to Salt Lake City when it's supposedly all online anyway?

Some Items to Consider:

• First, it is estimated that more than 85 to 90 percent of all available family history documents are still not online.
• Copyright restrictions and state and local laws have and will continue to prevent "everything" from being offered online for the near future.
• Some books and/or documents that were filmed in the past are available ONLY in the FamilySearch Library because of agreements signed with the owners.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns both the library and the FamilySearch website and provides all of the contents to genealogists for free. Doing so perpetuates their beliefs about ancestry and family and makes it possible for family historians to retrieve millions of records in one location.
• Working in the library with two experienced leaders to guide you may be just what you need to move forward in your research.

What's in the Library?

• The FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City is the world's largest library devoted just to genealogy. It contains four floors of history and genealogy books, microfilm/fiche, maps, and reference books from every state and most countries.
• A large computer network in the library gives access to many subscription websites and records that previously had been on CDs or DVDs. Some of those records are ONLY available at the library because of the above-mentioned copyright restrictions.
• Very fast, modern digitizing and printing machines are on each floor, allowing you to save files to your own media or to print them on paper, all for free.
• You can bring your own slides, movies, or other obsolete media to the library to convert into modern formats. Trained staff can help you do this; you just need to bring a flash drive or two.
• Professionals and volunteers, including translators, are available to assist you on each floor.

Interested in Going?

Early registration is taking place from now until 30 June, and you can save $100 and take part in all the pre-trip preparations if you register by that date. More information and a four-page registration flyer are on the StLGS website. If you have any questions, please send an email to slctrip@stlgs.org. We hope you will join us!