The LDS church operates thousands of Family History Centers, as well as an excellent free website, for the purpose of finding records to identify your ancestors. They are used by Mormons to identify deceased non-Mormon ancestors for baptism. Non-Mormons are welcome to use these services, without any pressure to convert to Mormonism. Any genealogy buffs are familiar with (and grateful for) these services.
Two things that really bug me about their service is so much of the information is incorrect and unless you are mormon you can’t get them to correct it
And they list Jesus Christ as having three wives or one wife or two wives depending on the entry.
Listen...for the purposes of why Mormons do this...
...they could NEVER build enough such centers...
...NOR ever uncover the BILLIONS of non-existent records that don't exist about people who'd lived on the face of the earth...
Their claims by their "prophets" just don't match realistic apprisals. 'Tis all a fantasy of the mind:
In chapter 34 of the recently published Teachings of the Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, Smith said:
Not a soul that has ever lived and died from off the face of this earth shall escape a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they receive it and obey it, the ordinances of the gospel will be performed for and in their behalf, by their kindred, or their posterity in some generation of time after them, so that every law and every requirement of the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be carried out, and the promises and requirements fulfilled for the salvation of the living and also for the salvation of the dead. (Original citation: “Latter-day Saints Follow Teachings of the Savior,” Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, 2 vols. (n.d.), 2:561–62.)
That’s why the mainstream Lds curricula book, Gospel Principles, “Jesus has provided for EVERYONE to hear the gospel, whether on earth of after death.” Gospel Principles, 1997, p. 104
Sorry, there's no markings of the dead on stones to be found for even a small contingent of the dead.
BILLIONS died pre-Gutenberg.
BILLIONS still (have) died in more recent centuries either illiterate areas or where there's no centralized record-keeping of their lives.
Besides, even for ALL they uncover, there's not enough temple Mormons to run their baptism-for-the-dead industry...even if they ran their proxies through 24/7!
Now. The Mormons tout how "fair" it is for ALL to supposedly hear their gospel version. Yet how "fair" is it for all these BILLIONS to NEVER either be listed @ a family history center OR be dead-dunked in less than 150 Mormon temples?
Don’t do it! My family did and to my parents’ great amusement, they have been posthumously baptized. Most of the amusement stems from the fact that THEY ARE STILL ALIVE. I wonder if people have to meet quotas.
Genealogy *buffs* might appreciate the LDS services, but serious genealogists don’t accept any documentation from there.