PROVO, Utah — Contrasting the ancient keeping of records on stone, clay, bones, animal skins and plant substances with the miracle of today's technology, Richard E. Turley Jr. declared that it is indeed "a new harvest time" for family history.

Brother Turley is managing director of the Church Family History and the Church Historical departments. In that dual role, he gave the keynote address at the March 18-20 Computerized Genealogy Conference.

He quoted the words of Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve from the April 1998 general conference: "The time of harvest is come. A new era of family history work has arrived. As President Gordon B. Hinckley recently noted, 'The Lord has inspired skilled men and women in developing new technologies which we can use to our great advantage in moving forward this sacred work.' "

Brother Turley traced the historical development from ancient times to today of technologies that pertain to family history in three areas: record keeping, transportation, and communications. He reviewed the technological progression of the Family History Department of the Church, including card files, microfilming, main-frame computers, and personal computers with associated databases and software.

Finally, he gave an overview of new products for family history research that have resulted from the Church's application of new technology. Announced previously, these include Family History SourceGuide, Vital Records Index and census compilations on CD-ROM.

"The vision of the future has been captured well by President Howard W. Hunter . . . who was a longtime supporter of the Genealogical Society of Utah [or Church Family History Department]," Brother Turley said, "and who, at the centennial celebration of the society, made the following statement: 'The role of technology in this work has been accelerated by the Lord Himself, who has had a guiding hand in its development and will continue to do so. However, we stand only on the threshold of what we can do with these tools. I feel our most enthusiastic projections capture only a tiny glimpse of how these tools can help us and of the eternal consequences of these efforts.' "