[5] FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history.

Facilitating the performance of Latter-day Saint ordinances for deceased relatives is another major aim of the organization.

Although it requires user account registration, it offers free access to its resources and service online at FamilySearch.org.

[12] In 1963, the microfilm collection was moved to the newly completed Granite Mountain Records Vault for long-term preservation.

At that time, its head officer was renamed president from executive director, starting during Theodore M. Burton's term.

[13] In 2008, the Vatican issued a statement calling the practice known as baptism for the dead "erroneous" and directing Catholic dioceses to keep parish records from Latter-day Saints performing genealogical research.

[14] In 1998, the GSU began digital imaging of records and in about August 1998 the decision was made by Church leaders to build a genealogical website.

[19] The system was an attempt to combine multiple genealogical submissions to FamilySearch's databases into one single tree, but it did not allow users to edit information that they had not submitted.

[23][24] On 16 April 2013, FamilySearch completely revamped the site design generally, with new features and a changed color scheme.

Some of the new features include an interactive fan chart and some printing capabilities, as well as the ability to add photos to Family Tree.

They also have a standing relationship with BillionGraves, in which the photographed and indexed images of graves are both searchable on FamilySearch and are linked to individuals in the family tree.

[30] Since 2011, FamilySearch International has organized an annual family history and technology conference called RootsTech.

[33] The main service of the FamilySearch website is to offer access to digital images and indexes of genealogical records.

In keeping with an agreement with Jewish groups and to prevent abuse, performing ordinances for Holocaust victims or celebrities results in account suspension until the researcher proves a legitimate family connection to the subject of their search.

At the end of 2010, 548 million vital records had been transcribed and made publicly available through the FamilySearch website.

FamilySearch stores copies of their records in a dry, environment-controlled facility built into Granite Mountain in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake City, Utah.

The centers are branches of the FamilySearch Library, often located in meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.