The Family History Center is a service and facility provided and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church). The purpose of the center is to facilitate genealogical research. The fundamental reason why the church provides this service is because one of their fundamental tenets is that church members can retroactively baptize deceased family members, especially ancestors, into the church so that, the church believes, they may receive salvation.
The main center is in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the headquarters of the Mormon Church is located. There are satellite centers at many of the churches around the world. However, these are less important than they once were because much of the center's information is now available on-line.
The Center is one of the world's premiere genealogical libraries and research centers, and is open to non-Mormons as well as Mormons.
