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Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services
Armed with microfiche, film and reference books, he is on a mission to help people locate their dead ancestors.
Mormons believe that dead people who rejected the teachings of Jesus Christ or did not learn about him are now in the spirit world.
It's not a bad place --it isn't purgatory.
"It's kind of like a bus station, where they wait for the train to come in," explains Kohlruss.
According to Mormon teachings, when Jesus comes back, everyone will be judged and these spirits will be sent to hell -- unless they are identified and saved.
That's where the family history centre comes in.
Members can be baptized for their ancestors, once they learn their names.
Women are baptized for women; men are baptized for men.
Spirits can then either re-reject Jesus or accept him and save their souls before the world ends.
Kohlruss won't say much more about the baptismal process.
"Many ordinances are sacred and not meant to be discussed outside the temple, so I can't tell you about that," he says.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- based in Salt Lake City, Utah -- owns the largest genealogy database in the world.
Kohlruss says Mormons store billions of files, dating back to the 1500s, in a vault inside Granite Mountain in Salt Lake City.
The information is accessible through family history centres like the one in Yellowknife.
You don't have to be a member to use the centre. Kohlruss says about 85 per cent of people who use these centres are non-Mormons.
The service is offered almost free -- clients pay mailing and photocopying costs.
But will these folks try to convert everybody who just wants to trace their family tree?
"Only if they ask," says Kohlruss. "There's no pressure here. It's just an option for people who want to do research."
