Local Records Series Explained

If organizational information is not included in the manuscript histories and quarterly or annual reports, you will want to search the catalog to determine if the Church History Library holds various meeting minutes (identified by different series numbers) for the unit. The standardized series numbers are listed below:

Series 2: Manuscript histories

Series 3: Historical records (reports)

For an explanation of these two series, see the preceding section, “Manuscript Histories and Reports.”

Series 4–10: Confidential records

The confidential records of missions and other local units are not intended for the public and are closed to research.

Series 11: General minutes

These are ecclesiastical corporation records and general minutes of priesthood and sacrament meetings. General minutes worldwide (series 11) end in 1977. From 1978 onward, the researcher will have to rely on information in annual reports from branches and wards through 1983 and then districts, stakes, and missions from 1984 through 1999. Beginning in 2000, branches and wards were directed to again submit annual reports via the stake.

If organizational history does not appear in the unit’s manuscript history or the general minutes (series 11), search the manuscript histories and general minutes of the branch, ward, stake, district, or mission that would be considered the parent unit. Many branches were dependent upon a nearby ward that had enough leaders and members to actively implement all the programs of the Church.

Series 12: Aaronic Priesthood minutes

Note that for a time, there were separate instruction groups and curricula for Aaronic Priesthood holders under the age of 21 and for those over the age of 21. The latter were sometimes referred to as senior Aaronic Priesthood holders.

Series 13: Melchizedek Priesthood minutes

This series consists of notes from meetings for elders, stake-level Seventies, and high priests.

Series 14: Relief Society minutes

Series 15: Sunday School minutes

Series 16: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA)

Series 17: Young Ladies’ and Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA and YWMIA)

Series 18: Primary minutes

Organizations (formerly called auxiliaries) such as Relief Society, Sunday School, and Primary were directed to submit their meeting minutes to Church headquarters through 1973. Beginning in 1974, Church guidelines stated that those minutes were no longer to be submitted to (and preserved at) Church headquarters. The Church History Library has preserved the pre-1977 general minutes and pre-1974 organizations’ minutes, but the collection has many gaps in coverage.

Outside of the Intermountain West, Sunday Schools were often organized before regular branches were. Thus, Sunday School minutes can sometimes be the earliest records for an area.

Joint minutes of Young Men and Young Women meetings can generally be found in series 16.

Series 19: Miscellaneous minutes (parenting, genealogy, and religion classes and so on)

Series 20: Publications (newsletters, programs, and so on)

Wards and branches occasionally create newsletters and other ephemera. This type of material is often cataloged under series 20.

Series 21+: Unique items

Financial and statistical records, letterpress copybooks, correspondence, items that were included in a major filming project of the 1950s–1970s, items acquired by the Church History Library post-1970s, and so on.