Baptisms are performed in Mormon temples with members immersing themselves in a baptismal pool as proxies for others. The names used in the ceremonies are drawn from a church-run genealogical database. Its original purpose was to gather genealogical records in order to perform religious ordinances for the dead. When it comes to online genealogy, the two major for-profit players are Ancestry.com and MyHeritage. Ancestry.com got a major head start over MyHeritage, but it mostly focused on gathering historical records while MyHeritage put an emphasis on building and matching family trees. But now it’s also starting to amass a wider range of historical records. Today, MyHeritage announced a major multi-year partnership with the largest nonprofit player in the space, the Mormon church-sponsored FamilySearch. As someone who is interested in Jewish genealogy, my question is how can any Orthodox Jew, use these sites which are owned by the church and openly states that on their sites. Has any one asked a Rabbi what to do about this situation?
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