The history of Latter-day Saint pioneers who died on the trek to Utah could have been lost forever without their diaries.

People like Griffiths, a man listed on death records without a first name, who was from Woodwich, England, and who died in November 1856 while on the arduous journey with a handcart company. At the time, county officials used diaries to log his and other pioneer deaths along the road.

Now Salt Lake County officials and the Genealogical Society of Utah are working together to make sure that pioneers like Griffiths are never forgotten.

Workers digitized more than 100,000 birth and death records, which should be up on the Web for genealogy buffs in a year or so, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said Tuesday.

"This is a history of the pioneers coming across the country," Corroon said. "It's important to protect our past and learn from our past."

For years, the only way to read county birth and death certificates was to put on a pair of white gloves and thumb through the bulky, yet fragile books. But soon, people will be able to trace a family line with a click of a button.

The information will eventually be listed on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' genealogical database, on the Web site FamilySearch.org, said Wayne Metcalfe, who works with the Genealogical Society of Utah.

"Through our efforts, we hope to preserve these records for future generations," Metcalfe said.

It took approximately two months to digitize all the records, said Terry Ellis, the county's director of records management and archives.

Death records from 1847-1949 as well as births dating back to 1890 will soon be available for research on the Internet.

"This cooperative project not only makes these records more broadly available to family historians and genealogists but to anyone interested in the settlement of the West," Ellis said.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com