The State Archive Service of Ukraine (Ukrderzharkhiv) continues cooperation with Family Search, U.S.-based international genealogy service supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In cooperation with Mormons, Ukrderzharkhiv plans to digitize the main documentation complexes useful for genealogical research.
The memorandum of cooperation was signed by the Head of Ukrderzharkhiv Anatolii Khromov, says the official Facebook page of the agency. Further cooperation agreements between the Family Search and particular state archives are expected to implement the Memorandum.
Ukrderzharkhiv is a Ukrainian state agency aimed to carry out archival and record-keeping policy, managing state archives. Digitization of archival processes has been set as one of its priority tasks.
Family Search already provides online access to more than 20,500,000 documents from Ukrainian archives that were digitized during 1994-2011.
Mormons believe that the family is central to a person’s life, and family ties continue in the afterlife. LDS Church worshippers study their family tree and baptize their ancestors. Today, there are about 15 million Mormons in the world, 57% of whom live outside the United States. There are about 55,000 Mormons in the European Union. According to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, as of 2019, there were 36 active Mormon religious communities registered in Ukraine, each of which, according to the law, has at least ten members.