Theodore Moyle Burton (March 27, 1907 – December 22, 1989) was a general authority of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church) and one of the main leaders of the Genealogical Department of the church in the 1960s. Under his direction the department expanded its operations, largely through the opening of many more

Family History Centers Family History Centers (FHCs) are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The centers supply resources for research and study of genealogy and famil ...

. Burton was born in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. From 1927 to 1930 he served as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

in the Swiss-German

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

of the LDS Church. As a youth, Burton became the first

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in the Pioneer Stake of the LDS Church. In 1933 he married Minnie Susan Preece. In 1934, Burton received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, where he became a

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. He worked for the treasury attache at the U.S. embassies in both

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and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He later taught at Carbon College and Utah State Agricultural College. He returned to

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

where he earned a

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in chemistry in 1951. He returned to Utah State, but in 1957 was called as

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of the West German Mission of the church. In 1960, Burton was called as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He served in this position until it was disbanded in 1976; he and the other Assistants were subsumed by the First Quorum of the Seventy. During the 1950s, Burton had served as

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the Logan 4th

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prior to becoming a mission president. Leon R. Hartshorn. ''Outstanding Stories by General Authorities''. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1975) Vol. 3, p. 40. Burton served as president of the European Mission of the church and later as the

Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

Supervisor in

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. As director of the Genealogical Department, Burton initiated the translation of materials into languages other than English. He held the title of executive director of the Genealogical Department from 1972 to 1978. He also negotiated the contracting out of

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

ing work to a private company in 1967 and then its later resumption as a function of the church department.

Notes

References

"Elder Theodore M. Burton Dies"
''

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'', March 1990 *Allen, James B., Jessie L. Embry and Kahlile B. Mehr. ''Hearts Turned to the Fathers: A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994''. Provo: BYU Studies, 1995. *''Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint Church History'', pp. 156–157 *''2005 Deseret News Church Almanac'', p. 79.

External links

Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Theodore M. Burton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Theodore M. 1907 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Mormon missionaries American genealogists American Mormon missionaries in Germany Assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles College of Eastern Utah faculty Genealogy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Members of the First Quorum of the Seventy (LDS Church) Mission presidents (LDS Church) American Mormon missionaries in Switzerland Writers from Salt Lake City Purdue University alumni University of Utah alumni Utah State University faculty American general authorities (LDS Church) 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers People from Salt Lake City American expatriates in Austria Latter Day Saints from Utah Latter Day Saints from Indiana American male non-fiction writers