Getting to understand family history work for me has been like going on a road trip. Each experience along the way leads you closer to where you are going. As you begin, it unfolds and opens up new vistas that you didn’t know existed before.
I never really thought about family history work until my husband, Mat, and I were sitting in sacrament meeting and the speaker was talking about family history. He began telling a story about one of his ancestors that came over on the Mayflower. The story started to get really funny and I found myself having to leave the chapel because I was going to start laughing. Not giggling, like really laughing. After regaining my composure I began to think for the first time in my life about family history work.
Ten years after the funny story, I had a feeling that I should check on my Grandpa Paul’s temple work. I had this feeling for several months and I thought it was strange. I had never had such feelings before. Finally, I went to a family history center in our area and found out that he needed to be sealed to his 2nd wife, Truelove. Yes, that is her real name and she married my grandpa, Paul Angell. So Mat and I went to the temple and did the sealing for Paul and Truelove Angell. It was a sweet experience and I thought that was all I needed to do. I thought I was done with family history work.
A couple of years later, a friend asked me if I wanted to do family history. She had a young family like me and she did a lot of family history work. I thought how strange that she does this. She is not retired. How does she find the time to do it? So she helped me get signed up for FamilySearch and we did a little bit of research together. It was slow going and I figured that all the work had been done on my pioneer ancestors.
Years later, I could see that my friend’s example and love of family history work planted a seed for me. Eventually this seed would take root and start to grow with Heavenly Father’s guidance and listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Then we moved to Highland and I noticed something strange about this ward. It seemed like they were on fire about family history work. Even young and middle aged people. I thought maybe this was because it was Utah County. Mat and I were warned that things were a little different down here.
After 5 years of living in this ward, I was sitting in Gospel Doctrine class and I had these words come into my mind, “You should go to the family history class.” I thought, I can’t do that. I don’t even have a laptop. Then the next week the same thing happened again – “You should go to the family history class.” My response was, “I don’t know where it is.” The 3rd week, I finally decided to listen to this guidance from the Holy Ghost. So I followed the people with the laptops to their room after sacrament meeting.
I remember going to the class for the first few weeks and feeling a bit overwhelmed. One week I was working with one of the consultants and she had FamilySearch up and then opened another tab. I thought, “Wait a minute sister! What are you doing and how am I going to learn all of these computer skills?” Well it actually got easier. They helped me a lot. We found out that my grandparents, who I was the closest to growing up, needed some work done. This was my mom’s parents. Apparently my uncle Tony (my mom’s adopted brother) was never sealed to them. The whole time I was growing up my uncle Tony was on drugs. Needless to say, their relationship was a bit strained.
I have to say that as I prepared their names for the temple and got ready to go, it was a very spiritual experience. I could feel them more than I had in years. As I prepared to go do their temple sealing, there was a bit of opposition, as there usually is. I pushed through it. That morning I put on a scarf that reminded me of my grandma and I got in the car. As I started the car, I began to cry. I felt the Spirit a lot. Upon arrival and getting ready for the sealing, I also felt feelings that were very strong. I have to say that during the sealing of this family, I felt such joy that I cannot express it in words. It was a wonderful experience and I’ve had many more powerful family history experiences since then.
My testimony is that family history work is not just for the retired. It can be a wonderful blessing for us all. I have seen relationships in my family improve as a result of doing family history work. In fact, I feel like as we have engaged in this work the Lord has blessed and healed us in many ways.
-Julie Hyder