Acknowledgments

Hundreds of people contributed to this new history of the Church, and we are grateful to each one of them. We are indebted to Saints who kept the records on which this book is based and to the generations of historians employed by the Church who have meticulously collected and preserved them. Special thanks to David Golding, Jessica Marie Nelson, and Ryan Saltzgiver for creating the supplemental materials online. The digitization of sources was led by Audrey Spainhower Dunshee and completed by staff of the Church History Department.

We express deep gratitude to the many family historians who have recorded and digitized and shared their records with us. Special thanks to George Durham, Shirley Eichers, Lark Evans Galli, Priscilla Hancock, Gayle Hatch, Donna Ikegami, Lyle Jensen, Kent Johnson, Janet Taylor Jones, Alan Lee, Brian Lee, Kathleen Lloyd, Linda Bang Ludlow, Jennifer Middleton Mason, Cory H. Maxwell, Helga Meyer, Matthias Miller, Ewan Harbrecht Mitton, Becka Pace, Carol Rees, Jacqueline Rich, Jan Roothoff, Karla Smith, Linda Stapley, Grace A. H. Vlam, Edgar Wolferts, and Shauna Zukle. Many thanks to the Family History Department and FamilySearch for their commitment to making genealogical records and services available to everyone. It is no exaggeration to say that without these records and FamilySearch’s discovery tools, this book could not have been written.

Many staff members, missionaries, and volunteers in the Church History Department contributed directly or indirectly to this book. In particular, we thank the following for their assistance: Allen Andersen, Jill Andersen, Jeff Anderson, Jay Burton, Clint Christensen, Tom Clark, Christine Cox, Jeff Crossley, Emily Crumpton, Richard Davis, Keith Erekson, Jared Feller, Seth Gardner, Matthew Godfrey, Cas Hadfield, Joan Harding, Matt Heiss, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Natalie Johnson, Jenny Lund, Brandon Metcalf, James Miller, Tarienne Mitchell, Joan Nay, Jacob Olmstead, Michelle Sayers Pollock, Elise Reynolds, Julie A. Russell, Sheridan Sylvester, Jeremy Talmage, Emily Utt, and Brian Warburton. We also thank James Goldberg for helping shape the literary structure of the book; Jenny Rollins and Laura E. Hilton for helping draft and revise scenes; Nicole Christensen Fernley, Kaytee Johnson, McKinsey Kemeny, Riley M. Lorimer, Taylor Kalia Orr, and Naomi White for editorial contributions; and Sylvia Coates for indexing the volume. The members of the Church Historian’s Press Editorial Board provided ongoing support.

Many expert readers from outside the department offered feedback on parts of the book. These include Ian Barber, Jorge T. Becerra, Richard Bennett, R. Lanier Britsch, Brian Q. Cannon, Néstor Curbelo, Nancy Dance, Jill Mulvay Derr, Christian Euvrard, Kathleen Flake, Casey Paul Griffiths, Mark Grover, Steven C. Harper, Richard Ian Kimball, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Khumbulani Mdletshe, Dmitry Mikulin, Matthias Miller, Thierry K. Mutombo, Marjorie Newton, Bonnie L. Oscarson, Fernando Pinheiro, Elisa Pulido, W. Paul Reeve, Carlos F. Rivas, Jorge L. Saldívar, Cristina Sanches, Ciro Schmeil, Cherry Silver, Ben Spackman, Jonathan Stapley, George Tate, Douglas Tobler, F. LaMond Tullis, Richard E. Turley Jr., Grace A. H. Vlam, and Gary Walton. Sarah Clement Reed, Michael Knudson, Savannah Woolsey Larson, Heather Olsen, Annie Smith Devenport, Lucia Cathers, Quinn Preece, and Christian Patrick Wawro offered valuable assistance translating the letters of Anna and John Widtsoe.

Greg Newbold created the engaging artwork. John Heath and Debra Abercrombie contributed to the outreach effort, and Benjamin Wood helped with product management. Deborah Gates, Kiersten Olson, Jo Lyn Curtis, Cindy Pond, and Susan Henson provided administrative assistance. Mark Hales provided project management. In his role as product manager for the first three volumes, Ben Ellis Godfrey magnified his role many times over, including creating and hosting the Saints podcast.

Members of several Church departments contributed, including a cross-departmental team made up of Irene Caso, Drew Conrad, Irinna Danielson, David Dickson, Norm Gardner, Paul Murphy, Alan Paulsen, and Jen Ward. Katie Parker of the Publishing Services Department oversaw the final publication process, and Patric Gerber, Benson Y. Parkinson, Lindsey Maughan, Alyssa Aramaki, Preston Shewell, Josh McFadden, Cara Nickels, Wendy Jennings, Sarah Schulzke Trump, and Kat Tilby provided production assistance. Other contributors include Christopher Clark, Jon Thorup, Jake Davis, DJ Christensen, Michael Smith, Jim McKenna, Alan Blake, Jared Moon, Casey Olson, Brian D. Garner, Benjamin Peterson, Paul VanDerHoeven, and Gary Walton. Translators carefully prepared the entire text in thirteen languages.

Finally, we thank readers from all around the world who reviewed the narrative and provided feedback. Their contributions improved the book and helped ensure that it would speak to the minds and hearts of Saints everywhere.