Lianne Krüger: Elder John Andreas Widtsoe

Two of my favourite quotes about family history and temple work, by an apostle, were from Elder Widtsoe.

Before I share those two quotes and more I would like to share the life of Elder Widtsoe because he was dedicated to family history and genealogy throughout his apostleship.

Life events

31 Jan 1872	Froya, Norway Parents: John Andersen Widtsoe and Anna Karine Gaarden
1883	Immigrated to Utah with his mother and brother.
1884	Baptized
1 Jun 1898	Married Leah Eudora Dunford in Salt Lake City, Utah They have at least 3 sons and 4 daughters but only three live to adulthood
29 Nov 1952	Died in Salt Lake City, Utah

Education

	Brigham Young College, Logan, Utah
1887 – 1891	Graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University
1894	Harvard University, Chemistry Graduating in highest honours Met Leah while at Harvard.
1899	Earned A.M. Ph.D. in physiological chemistry (Biochemistry) at the University of Göttingen, Germany.

Work

1900 – 1905	Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Utah State Agricultural College Co-Founded The Deseret Farmer magazine
	Brigham Young University: Professor of Agriculture
1907 – 1916	President of the Utah Agricultural College
1916 - 1921	President of University of Utah

Apostleship

1921 - 1952

A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Other Church Service

1898 – 1900	Missionary to German Mission (with Leah while studying in Europe.)
1921 – 1924	Commissioner of Church Education
1921	Director of Genealogical Society of Utah
1927 - 1928	President of the British Mission
1929 – 1933	President of the European Mission Dedicated Czechoslovakia for the preaching of the gospel.
1934 - 1936	Commissioner of Church Education
1935 - 1952	Associate editor of the Improvement Era magazine He wrote many genealogical articles for the magazine.

Genealogical Work

Before Late 1920s	Genealogical Society of Utah board member. Worked on saving records. Individual Church members were strictly limited in how many ancestral lines they could research. Widtsoe and the board lifted this restriction. Widtsoe served as long-time director and president of GSU
1927	Pushed for the creating of the Temple Index Bureau (TIB) Massive centralized card system cataloged millions of completed ordinances to prevent researchers from duplicating genealogical work.
1938	Widtsoe, and fellow apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, actively championed and reviewed the work of photographer Ernst Koehler, who developed the initial specialized procedures, quality controls and camera modifications needed to capture open books on 35mm film. Adopted using Microfilm for the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) Played a pivotal, transformative role in leading the GSU, laying the direct structural and technological foundation for what is known today as FamilySearch. He bridged the GSU and modern family history practices established the global microfilming and indexing operations that modern users rely on. Millions of microfilms collected during his leadership era were later digitized, indexed and became the core data backbone of the modern online platform FamilySearch. During his leadership era: GSU launched its massive, worldwide microfilming program in 1938 This initiative sent photographers across the globe to capture vital records, church registers and government archives. These microfilms became the core data backbone of the modern online platform FamilySearch. John A. Widtsoe played a pivotal, transformative role in leading the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), laying the direct structural and technological foundation for what is known today as FamilySearch. As an apostle and a scientist, his tenure bridging the GSU and modern family history practices established the global microfilming and indexing operations that modern users rely on.
	Recorded records in Europe while living there
	Lecture: Temple Worship Written for UGA but a foundational text on the subject.
	Advocated for building a central genealogical library and establishing programs for exchanging research, laying the groundwork for the modern FamilySearch library
	Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine John wrote many articles on how to research your family history and how to be organized Available on FamilySearch Full-Text DGS: 8918615 Available at the BYU Harold B Lee library.

The Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) and the Family History Department of the Church are one and the same. The GSU society was organized in 1894 as a separate institution from the Church. In 1944 the Genealogical Society of Utah became more closely affiliated with the Church as the Genealogical Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1975 it became the Genealogical Department of the Church and has since been renamed the Family History Department. The Church retained rights to the name Genealogical Society of Utah and does family-history-related business under that name with major genealogical and family history societies, government agencies and archives.

Sources for information in this blog and for you to learn more about Elder Widtsoe
Dialogue Journal
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/tending-the-desert-john-a-widtsoe-a-biography-by-alan-k-parish
Ensign (1971-2020)
February 2010 issue, John and Leah Widtsoe, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/john-and-leah-widtsoe, accessed 17 May 2026.
FamilySearch
John Andreas Widtsoe, KWCX-SG9
Utah History Encyclopedia
https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/w/WIDTSOE_JOHN.shtml
LDS Blogs
https://ldsblogs.com/65/john_a_widtsoe_mormon_apostle_and_scient
Temple Study
https://www.templestudy.com/2009/11/09/temple-worship-elder-john-widtsoe
Wikipedia, John Andreas Widtsoe,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Widtsoe, accessed 17 May 2026.
Church News
Deseret News.John A. Widtsoe: Inspiring a lifetime of learning,
https://www.thechurchnews.com/1994/11/26/23256210/genealogical-society-a-century-of-steady-growth-and-development
A list of sources from another article
Conference reports of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints