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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ7722891 ↗
Source-derived summary

Since its organization in New York in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has had a presence in Canada. Several church-related items that were the first of their kind outside the United States include: missionaries preaching (Upper Canada), establishment of a stake (Alberta Stake), and construction of a temple (Cardston Alberta Temple).

With the church reporting more than 200,000 members at year-end 2024, Canada ranks as having the 4th largest body of LDS Church members in North America and the 12th worldwide. The 2021 Canadian Census survey reported approximately 0.2% of the population (about 87,725 people) identified themselves as church members.

Early missionary contacts

In the winter of 1829–30, Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page visited Upper Canada while seeking money to finance the publication of the Book of Mormon. After its publication in March 1830, the unbaptized convert, Phineas Young, preached in Ernestown Township, Ontario.

Joseph Smith and Don Carlos Smith—the first official Latter Day Saint missionaries to preach outside of the United States—visited Upper Canada in September 1830 and preached in villages north of the St. Lawrence River. In January 1832, converts Brigham and Phineas Young went to Upper Canada to convince their brother, Joseph to join the church. After Joseph's baptism, the Young brothers taught their family and friends in Canada and baptized over 150 individuals and established four branches of the church, including ones in Kingston and Sydenham.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada” as open-knowledge reference entry. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1830, 2024, 2021, 1829—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Church, Jesus and Christ can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as open-knowledge reference entry. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7722891. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1830, 2024, 2021 and 1829.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada primary sources, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada archive and Church research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.