I have never really been into genealogy, but that didn't spare me all the lessons in church over the years.

The JoJo version of Malachi says:

38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. (JS-H 1:38-39)

During class discussions I was made to understand that the "spirit of Elijah" didn't come into the world until after Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey had the visions of Moses and Elijah in the Kirtland temple restoring the priesthood keys to gather Israel and begin the proxy work for the dead. After those keys were bestowed, the "spirit of Elijah" came into the world and people started to become interested in family history.

During one lesson, someone had a PowerPoint showing a timeline of when the first genealogical associciations began to be formally organized —— they seemed to be right on cue after the Kirtland temple.

I never cared enough for my mesmerization to last very long after class got out —— at least felt some obligatory guilt about that —— but I do remember thinking a few times how blind the rest of the world was that they couldn't figure out that their interest in family history was because of the Mormon church.

Someone knock some sense into me.

Sort of related to this 'principle' is the idea that all the earth's population and technology are blessings in fulfillment of prophesy that are only possible because of the amount of priesthood holders in the world today.

I aways wondered why it was that so many people had kept family trees, and family history in their Bibles if they didn't care about genealogy. Obviously there were a LOT of people who cared, or there would be no records. The whole Mormon fairy tale didn't add up imo.

There are still cultures who keep their "genealogy" verbally, passed down generation to generation. These predate Mormonism by generations!

They don't know Elijah from Adam.

Every good idea in Mormonism was ripped off from somebody else. Buddhism's ancestor worship predates Mormonism by thousands of years. Joseph's original ideas centered on perpetrating fraud.

Genealogy feels good because it's good to remember your people. The fact that the temple work is a nonsensical fantasy is beside the point.