“Family history work has the power to do something for the dead. It has an equal power to do something for the living. Family history work…has a refining, spiritualizing, tempering influence on those who areengaged in it.” Boyd K Packer Ensign, August 2003 While participating in the work of family history, I find that it… Read More Experiences With Family History Build My Testimony
For the first time ever, the world’s largest family celebration event will be entirely virtual and completely free. Get ready to celebrate shared connections with people from around the world. Connect with friends, your family, your past, and your heritage and homelands—all from the comfort of your home and in your browser. If you have… Read More RootsTech 2021
This past year has created many unexpected and difficult challenges. In addition to concerns about the Corona virus itself, there is isolation from friends and family, church services interrupted, temples and family history libraries and centers closed. It has also created situations that have brought wonderful blessings into our lives. I am grateful for the… Read More The Plan of Happiness
Last Tuesday we had our first online class for 2021, Introduction to the Family History Guide. Dave Castleton, who attended this class, wrote: “This past week I have been overwhelmed at the scope and breadth of the work of temple and family history. On Tuesday night I felt such gratitude as I listened to Bob… Read More A View From 40,000 Feet
In Doctrine and Covenants section 110, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in 1836, Joseph Smith received a marvelous vision which opened this dispensation for the gathering of Israel and for temple blessings. In this vision, Jesus Christ directed the members of the Church of Jesus Christ to rejoice. D&C 110: 5-6, 9 5 Behold,… Read More Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!
My distant cousin handed me a black leather diary and asked, “Would you like to transcribe this?” And, that was the beginning of my testimony of family history. In the months that followed I was privileged to transcribe the journal of my great grandmother’s sister Ann Fellows. Written when she was about twenty years old,… Read More Because of Ann
With all the resources available for us to meet virtually, sometimes we forget the basics. We have Zoom meetings, Google meet, Microsoft Team, share screens, FaceTime, etc. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m so caught up in the latest and greatest, that I forget the basics to help with family history. I have… Read More Helper Resources
This past week I logged on to Family Search and noticed that a family member whose genealogy I had been working on the previous week appeared on my homepage, under recommended task, with a “record hints available” icon next to their name. Since I had hit a dead end on this family line, I was… Read More Record Hint Available
It was in the 1950’s when my mother and I became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her family had always been religious and interested in their ancestry, keeping letters, pictures and stories close. The Spirit of Elijah had parked on their doorstep, including mine. He is a permanent fixture and… Read More FAMILY HISTORY REMEMBRANCES
A couple years before I was born, President Spencer W. Kimball said, “I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse” (“When the World Will Be Converted,” Ensign, Oct. 1974, 10). How true that is today! In the palm of our hands,… Read More The Blessing of the Family Tree App; Map My Ancestors Feature