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Comment by studiobu | Hacker News Reader

I never got to meet any of my great grandparents. But it turns out that if you find the birth certificate (or other document) of your deceased grandparent [1], that document also has the names of your great-grandparents. And if you find their birth certificate, you can know the names of your great-great grandparents. And so on. I now know the names and even the stories of my ancestors of over five generations.

[1] https://www.familysearch.org/

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A Swedish cousin of my father managed to do extensive research of portions of our family tree, so I know a branch of my lineage back 12 generations, to about 1505. Unfortunately, none of the recent generations appear to have any interest in knowing about their background at all.

I was told the reason the LDS/Mormons have a bunch of ancestry websites is so they can perform baptisms for those who have died, anyone happened to know if that is accurate?

Yes, that's accurate (though it's far from the only reason). We believe that everyone has to have certain rites performed in order to be saved and they can be performed by proxy for those who have died (my explanation here is somewhat oversimplified and technically not 100% accurate but hopefully you get the basic idea). Those who are dead have to choose to actually accept the baptism performed on their behalf on the other side, so it's not like doing a baptism for a dead person guarantees their salvation.

Just out of curiosity, assuming someone is sitting in literal Purgatory and is presented with this choice, can you imagine any conceivable reason why they would reject it? I have zero belief in any of this myself, but if I died and was proven wrong, I certainly wouldn't suffer for eternity rather than chance my proven-wrong belief...

Well for starters, we don't actually believe in an eternal hell (unlike most other Christian denominations). That's part of why I said my explanation was a bit oversimplified, because we have a different understanding of what salvation entails than most other denominations.

We also believe that people stay fundamentally the same after death as they were in life, so someone who would have rejected the truth (and baptism) in life would likely do the same after death. Again a bit oversimplified but that's the basic idea.

Yeah, I recall some of the various levels of heaven stuff. But it's more the second part that gets me. Most people who reject this belief system in life do so because there's no solid evidence to support it. But if they've died and have someone presenting the option to them to ascend to a better heaven or reject salvation, it's a very different situation. Now there is very strong evidence. If I'm the same person after death as in life, then both versions of me are going to make decisions based on evidence, so my decision would naturally change.

>Most people who reject this belief system in life do so because there's no solid evidence to support it.

I agree, and in that sense the biggest beneficiaries of baptism for the dead are those who never had a chance to accept or reject it at all in mortal life. Though for those who had a chance in life and rejected it it's still technically possible to accept it in the next life. It's complicated, just like everything.

>If I'm the same person after death as in life, then both versions of me are going to make decisions based on evidence, so my decision would naturally change.

I mean you could be right, but scripture would suggest otherwise and that having faith (or not) isn't really about physical evidence or logic.

Luke 16:27-31

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

“Jesus Christ taught that baptism is essential to the salvation of all who have lived on earth (see John 3:5). Many people, however, have died without being baptized. Others were baptized without proper authority. Because God is merciful, He has prepared a way for all people to receive the blessings of baptism. By performing proxy baptisms in behalf of those who have died, Church members offer these blessings to deceased ancestors. Individuals can then choose to accept or reject what has been done in their behalf.”

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topi...

FamilySearch.org linked above is one of the LDS sites. They've also done a whole lot of work on scanning church books, and whatever isn't yet online is generally available to look up on microfiche.

This is true, and whether you believe in Mormon doctrine or not, they provide a valuable service to those who are doing family research. My father in law, whose last name was Smith, was researching an ancestor about three generation back, and went to the local LDS ancestry library and asked for help researching his ancestor "John Smith." The way he tells it, it took a little time before anyone took his request seriously...

(Yes, the LDS archives did help him some, but the real treasure trove was in the files of a previously unknown cousin living back east.)

Yes this is accurate. We believe the gospel of Jesus Christ as he taught it has been unambiguously restored along with the authority from God to perform baptisms and other ordinances. People through out time often (but not always) didn't have access to baptism so we perform them in their place. It's up to them (the "dead") to decide if they want to accept it. But we also do genealogy to learn about our ancestors. It helps you see how connected everyone is.

i don't believe in religious gestures coming from a religion i don't believe in, for that reason i neither believe in my own baptism as a newborn, nor do i care about other baptisms

That's fine, but we can still benefit from the records they've digitized.

Don't worry. A few generations later you great grand son will save your soul for you.

YMMV. I have a sneaking suspicion that eg, Nagarle, Karnataka[0] wasn't issuing written birth certificates in the 1910s

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarle

Sometimes that makes it very easy, but misspellings or too common names often makes it annoyingly hard. E.g one of my great grandfather's is an August Magnusson born on the September 9th 1842 in South West Sweden, who then moved to Norway. Seems simple. Only there were two August Magnussons born on that same day within walking distance of each other, who both moved to Norway around the same time. Many more during the same month. I eventually managed to disentangle their records, but many people have the wrong one or a light mix in their trees....

That's to say, be cautious about relying only on the names without ruling out other persons who shares it.

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