I know many people shy away from doing their DNA testing, and rightly so if they are not willing to accept that their ancestors were human. They had no idea their secrets would be revealed through a simple test. A few years ago, my husband discovered a half-sister that even his 96 year old aunt… Read More DNA Connections
Recently I was visiting my aging mother in Central Utah. While I was there, I noticed an ad in her local newspaper promoting “Oral Histories” of some of the people who had lived in the area, but had since passed on. Reviewing the list, I noticed the names of those who had previously served as… Read More Gathering Information on Those We Love
When I was a young girl, one of my favorite things to look forward to in the summer was spending a week with my cousin at our grandparents’ house in Nephi, Utah. Their house was so different than living in the city. They had a large plot of land with a barn, chickens, a cow, horses, and… Read More Keep Family History Alive Plant; Something in Honor of An Ancestor
From a messaging conversation on FamilySearch: -Mark Peterson, New Castle Ward Temple & Family History Leader
My husband, David, is the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his family. We had been interested in finding his ancestors for decades and had worked on it to the best of our ability and time. Then, six years ago, we moved into the Little Cottonwood Ward. One of the… Read More Finding my Husband’s Italian Ancestors
Many times when I have been consulting with a patron at the FamilySearch Center, they ask if they can complete all the ordinances available for an individual when using the “Ordinances Ready” feature on Family Tree. From that page, it is only possible to reserve the requested ordinance, for instance; Baptism and Confirmation, Initiatories, Endowments or… Read More All Ready Ordinances
It’s that time of year again for RootsTech! Rootstech is a genealogy conference for people of all skill levels and is sponsored by FamilySearch and other acclaimed genealogical organizations. The conference went virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now returning as both a virtual and in-person conference this year. Rootstech will… Read More RootsTech This Week
My Great-Grandfather died doing temple and family history work. John B. Cannon was the oldest son of 11 kids whose father died at age 51 when he was only 19 years old. During his life, John always felt a strong need to care for and be with family. In the spring of 1983, the Cannon… Read More Visiting Relatives, Living and Passed Away
It was a few days before our son, Sam, was leaving for his mission to South Africa. We were in the kitchen marking off the list of “what to bring.” One item on the list was his genealogy fan chart. We had printed it off and were looking at it. ”I wonder who will be your special guardian… Read More Jacob and Mina
My grandfather, Fred Winters, was the youngest surviving child in a family of 16 children. They lived in New South Wales, Australia until after his father’s death, in 1904. A few years after George, Fred’s father, passed away, his mother, Reachel, and some of the younger children joined the Church and emigrated to Utah and… Read More People Are Waiting for You