The Family History Department faced a herculean task five years ago.

Heath Nielson provided the answer.

The challenge was digitizing the genealogical records kept in the Granite Mountain Records Vault, a process that would have taken more than a century. But Nielson, a FamilySearch software engineer, helped develop a technology that makes it possible to complete the project in about a decade.

"Under the old technology, we did not expect to see it in our lifetime," said Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch. "The time required to digitize the 2.4 million records that we have rights to digitize is (now) eight to 10 years."

Read the full story at MormonTimes.com.