When Family History Missionaries were called and sent out to the world, they were sent to serve in local Family History Centers.  The missionaries were trained by a selected staff at the Brigham Young University (BYU) Family History Center.  It was a huge task and it impacted the library operation considerably.  So the training portion of Family History was moved from BYU to another location -- a local chapel.  It was a difficult arrangement for the stake and wards that occupied that chapel as well, because it interfered with their operation.

Jay Grant was called by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to study and implement some changes to the Family History Training operation.  Then a major change took place: the need for full-time couple missionaries to serve in leadership, humanitarian, medical and other areas became critical, so the Church stopped calling Family History Missionaries and turned that job over to the local stakes and wards.  The Family History Training Center then took on a whole new dimension -- to train those stake and ward leaders how to teach their local members in doing research and in submitting names for temple work.

The training operation began to grow when not only stake and ward leaders, but all members learned they could be trained in doing this important work.  So it was necessary to seek another location apart from the chapel.

With a change in the school system in Provo, Farrer Jr. High became a middle school rather than a junior high, and their Seminary building was no longer being used.  This made a good location for the Family History Training Center, so it was moved to that building.  In 2009, the Center was moved to a temporary locaton on Geneva Road in Orem.

The Center is small, which makes students and missionaries rub shoulders a lot, but the spirit of the work is very strong, and it is a very worthwhile operation for the members of the Church.

The Center has been housed in a Young Single Adults Meetinghouse.  Due to growth, new wards were created in 2015 to accommodate more single adults and the space where the Family History Training Center was housed was needed for administration offices for these wards.  On Friday, August 14th at 5:00 PM  the facility was permanently closed after serving patrons and training hundreds of people how to accomplish their family history and share with others.  Thus ended the twenty-year history of the Training Center.