Sunday School: Temple and Family History Work, An Overview

For the last several weeks, I haven’t gone to Gospel Doctrine. I’m not sluffing, I promise. I’ve been attending the Temple and Family History Work class. My husband is the ward temple committee chairman, and so he works closely with the family history library that’s located in our building. In concert with the others called to similar positions, they work to educate the ward about the importance of family history work, and part of that education is the Temple and Family History Work class. The curriculum for the class is fairly simple and straightforward and is found in the booklet … Continue reading →

Obtaining the Records

In this modern age, too many people believe that whatever you see on the internet is true. This applies even in genealogy; I have heard many people state that they found their family tree online and so the work is done. No family tree appears automatically online; someone has placed it there through their own research. And while I’m fairly certain that those who put their trees online do so with the best of intentions, the fact is, mistakes are made. Many years ago, when I was getting started, a woman told me that she had found a genealogy book … Continue reading →

Online Genealogy

A few months ago, I talked about doing genealogy from home. I promised to write a blog about researching your family history online and now, at last, I am keeping that promise! As a stay-at-home mom, I have a strong testimony of eternal families and a huge difficulty with doing any research. I’m not wanting my kids to grow up too quickly – I know it will happen faster than I can realize – but one thing I am looking forward to when they are old enough to be without me for a few hours is the research I can … Continue reading →

Joy and Sorrow – The Cost of Procrastination

I’ve already told you several times that I have a strong testimony of eternal families, and of the need to do genealogical work. Now I have a confession to make – despite having completed a great deal of my family history, I have yet to take a single name to the temple. The reason is quite foolish – I just haven’t taken the time to offload the names I need to a disk and take it to the family history center. I very rarely do any research at the FHCs, and so I just have not yet made the time … Continue reading →

Teach Your Children About Their Heritage

July is a great month to focus on your heritage. It is so easy to teach your children about their heritage and family history in conjunction with the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day at church. You could focus your family home evening lessons around the founding of our country at the beginning of this month and then mid-month talk about the pioneer heritage of the church. You can share with your children the conversion stories of the first members of the church in your family. If you are the first member then you are a pioneer and you can … Continue reading →

Courthouse Genealogy

The first time I remember feeling the Spirit was when I learned that families could be sealed together for all of eternity. It should not be surprising, then, that I have a deep love of genealogy and truly enjoy researching my family tree. As a young mom, however, I have restricted most of my efforts thus far to the internet. A recent courthouse trip – my first – taught me a few lessons. For years, I have found nothing but a solid brick wall in regards to my great-great-great grandparents. I did not even know their name, only that of … Continue reading →

Four More Things to Include in Your Family History

When you are compiling your family history, you probably think of including family stories, pictures and videos. These are important things to include, but there are several smaller things that can help to complete your family history. Here are four things to consider adding to your family history. 1) You may want to include your family’s medical records. These can prove invaluable as doctors try to diagnose your children. My son is not growing at a normal rate, and my father was small as a child. I would love to have his measurement to compare them to my son. I … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Family History

When it comes to family history, I usually think about finding lost lines of ancestors, and filling out a pedigree chart. But there is another important aspect to completing your family history. It is just as important that you record the events in your family’s life as well. Here are five easy ways to do that. 1) You may want to create an online blog or journal. This is a great way to keep distance family updated. If you save your entries on your computer as well you can easily burn your entries onto DVD to archive them. Families.com has … Continue reading →

Family History – Are You Doing It?

I have a deep and abiding love of genealogy. The very first time I ever felt the Spirit prompt me – the prompting that lead me to sitting down with the missionaries – was when I learned that families could be sealed together for all eternity. It should be no surprise that, on my first trip to the LDS bookstore I ever made, I immediately purchased genealogy software. As a college student, I spent a lot of my free time researching my ancestors. I made a lot of mistakes starting out that I’ve had to go back and correct, but … Continue reading →

Four Family History Gifts

If you are a family history buff, or even if you have just begun to work on family history, it is important to pass your work on to others. You can teach your family about their family history by giving gifts based on your family history research that you have done over the last year. These make great Christmas gifts, especially to extended family, such as grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. Here are four ideas on family history based Christmas gifts. 1) One great gift to give is that of restored photographs of grandparents and great grandparents. You can have … Continue reading →