Family History

[LostnFound]

I was reading in the Ensign last night on family history. I have done very little with family history. It has always interested me, but I have never found the time. I really have never had that strong prompting to dive into my family history. I have always felt this is something I would do when I was older and had more time.

I was wondering if anybody has done a lot of work regarding their family history and if they were prompted to do so... or if they did it because we are encouraged to do so.

Also what is a simple, easy way to get started?

I would love to learn about anyones success stories with their family history.

[Erudite]

I have. My first 10 temple cards are with my brother (his kids are old enough to do the baptisms) after a year and a half of diligent work. When we moved into this Stake, we heard the Stake president ask us to spend an hour each Sunday working on family history and since I've always loved doing that kind of work, it was easy to be obedient.

No offense intended, but I think that "prompting" is irrelevant. Family History work is a commandment and we shouldn't need to be prompted in it (see D&C 58:26), but that doesn't mean you have to spend hours at a family history library or schedule a trip to Alabama to spend time in a local courthouse. We aren't given commandments that we can't fulfill (see 1 Nephi 3:7) and you know your ability and whether or not it is your season for a specific kind of family history work. But with some effort we can do SOMETHING about family history. It can be as simple as reading a family story to children on a Sunday. Or helping children to start and keep a journal (and keep your own up to date). Scrapbooking is family history. Asking grandparents to share their stories is family history. Pat yourself on the back because you are probably already doing one or more of these things! Family history doesn't have to be PAF and familysearch.org though at some point, it can be.

But I think that is the kind of family history that you're asking about, yes? Here's how I got started. I downloaded PAF from the church site. Then I started downloading my family going back through the generations from familysearch.org. (You'll need specific information from your church records to see temple work in this site.) In not very long I had 1000s of names....with all the work done. Since my goal was temple cards, that was a little discouraging at first. You see, I come from long pioneer lines on all sides. The work has been done over and over and over and over and in some cases over and over and over. So what I've been doing is just verifying that the work had in fact been done for all the names in my system. I still have 1000s of names to verify, although a lot of them are on my list because there are no known parents. That would be the time to head to that local courthouse, but it isn't my season to do that kind of work.

I also asked for other PAF files from family members so that I could download all of their work as well...let me suggest that you START with this. I did it second and it caused me weeks of re-work because I had to match all the names in a new file with all the names I'd downloaded. But you do get to know the system doing that. Just collecting the current information is a good way to do family history.

Anyway, this all means I've done no original research to find particular families. I can't even find holes in my geneaology until 7 generations back. And that includes all the siblings. It's just a tiny bit frustrating when your goal is temple cards, but I have perservered and finally have some temple work to do. I believe it's mostly in my husband's family (he also comes from long pioneer lines), but work is work.

Finally, you have to realize that this is one of those "faith precedes the miracle" things. You aren't going to feel prompted until you get into the work, until you know what the work is, until you know your family lines and can be specifically directed down a certain path. Dive in...you'll never regret it and possibly, you'll come to love it!!

[amberpatomo]

This is also something I have wanted to learn more about. My father in law has done a lot of work with his family because he is a first generation member. I know he has collected the names from family and it just started from there.

I know I haven't had a great desire to start it myself and I think it's mostly because I am a convert and have never been exposed to it. Just recently in my life I am starting to take on more activities that are important regarding mine and my families involvement in the church. I am really enjoying learning about all the things I can do (for example: food storage, canning, scrapbooking, journal writing, FHE and etc.)

In fact I have never really had the chance to be a visiting teacher because since I was 18 I have been outside of the relief society with different callings and also was in a country where I didn't speak the language. It's a great feeling to be a part of something so meaningful.

I assume that will be the same feeling with family history work... Your time will come when you will be able to "dive" in but simply learning and making effort to put small stone upon small stone will eventually build a tower of family history for you and those you care for.

[LostnFound]

I am in the same boat as you Amber. It was nice to read your comments and not be the only person wanting to start this. Only being active for a few years I am trying all new things in my life also.

Erudite, I am impressed of your knowledge of gospel doctrine. I was unaware that this was a commandment. It is obvious you had the luxury of growing up learning gospel principles.

I guess I have already started on family history. I have always kept a journal and other basic family history work.

[Big_Sissy]

I think it's great that you want to learn and do.

For those of you that didn't get to attend our stakes last Adult session of stake conference you really missed out. I can't remember all the speakers, but the topic was temple work and thus family history. It was an AWESOME meeting.

I learned something that I think I probably knew, but didn't know. When we do work for our ancestors we are in FACT being a personal savior to them. How COOL is that!!!! This is something they could and can not do for themselves. Who can? WE can. That alone gave this an entire new meaning to the phrase, saviors on Mt Zion.

Now let me also state that I'm not in any way shape or form saying we will ever be on the level with the Savior himself. NONE of this would even be possible without his ultimate sacrifice, but because of it we can JOIN him on a very very small scale. Tell me that's not cool!!

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[Erudite]

You know how you get going on one line of thinking and apply it to a bunch of other lines so something comes out frustrated sounding when when it comes out the frustration isn't even about the thing that it is coming out on? I feel like that's what I did in my post above. And I really apologize. My comments came out SO black and white, when my whole point was that it isn't black and white....I mean, yes, we want to be doing our Family History and BS brings up the exact reason why, but our loving Heavenly Father has provided us with a whole bunch of ways to approach accomplishing the same thing, and guess what...a whole bunch of blessings for our efforts no matter what they are. So it IS great that you're doing something, because that is the point. We don't all have to do the same things...in fact we shouldn't. That's that "season" thing and the reason we all have different talents. Our Heavenly Father loves us too much to make it so we fail if we don't get ourselves down to the Family History centers once a week. Anyway, I really hope I didn't cause offense, by my blackandwhite approach.

Do you mind if I share a more reasonable approach? My answer was so very hurried it didn't give any kind of guidance at all and that wasn't very helpful to your effort in this area. And I do love doing this work and I hope you will too! So this approach is for doing the part of family history where you are working on finding your family members (rather than developing current history which is an approach it sounds like you're already excelling at!).

First, you'll want PAF. It stands for Personal Ancestral File. It's a free program you can get from a number of sources. The family history specialist in your ward should be able to come and help you get it set up on your computer if you don't want to download it from the church site. PAF is AWESOME because it's very straightforward, so you can get going on it right away, but also has some super-cool features when you get more involved in collecting artifacts (like birth certificates and pictures). That's where I recommend anyone start. PAF is also good because you can worry about temple work or you can worry about finding names...or both. So whatever your goal is, PAF can support you in it.

Second, with PAF on your computer, start with your own family, then your parent's family. Then your DH's family. Collect all that information. You may find that your Aunt Harriet has it all already and in that case, by all means just get a copy of what she has. In my Mom's family, that's my Uncle Lovell. In my Dad's family, I think it's me. In my DH's family, it was TR's grandpa, but I got everything from him before he died last year so that I would have it all. Anyway, start from what you know and what is easily accessible in the family.

Third, from there, you want to identify holes. That can be holes in Temple work (which is my goal) or that can be holes in the family lines. To find Temple work, you need access to Familysearch.org. You'll need to contact the membership clerk in your ward to get some specific information so that you can log into Familysearch.org and see Temple work. If you're just looking for holes in family lines, Familysearch.org can help with that too, without the specialized information.

And then the job of the geneaologist is to fill the holes. Simple as that. You gotta figure out where they are and then you start trying to fill them. Among other reasons, journaling is good because it can help fill holes....same with scrapbooking. What you are attempting to create in family history is unbroken line of families....thus the reason all the holes have to be filled. It is an awesome work and absolutely huge in its scope, but with Heavenly Father's help, all the work we do in the field will be for our benefit as well as the benefit of those whose work we find and do. And our Heavenly Father just asks that we do our part. While you may not have felt "prompted", that you're thinking about it and asking questions about it is its own form of prompting.

So start small, start with what you know. Pretty soon, you'll have an excitement about it like no other. The Spirit is in this work and it is one that will bless you in many different areas of your life! I know it! You can do it! I'm happy to try and answer more questions as you have them, but I know I don't know as much as I could/should in this area.

Where's Bookworm? She should weigh in on this too!

[Mamallama]

LnF, I've been a member all of my life and basically haven't done any Family History work, other than filling out my 4 generation pedigree chart---all of which the work has been done though, so that doesn't really count as work that I've done. BS, that was a great meeting and had me so motivated that right when I got home I went online to the Family History website.....tinkered around for about an hour, got so frustrated as I had no clue as to what I was doing or where to begin, that I gave up. And haven't gone back on since.

Soooo, I'm sorry that I'm not of any help here----I do believe that certain things are meant to be done in different seasons of our lives. We can't work on everything all at once. As has already been meantioned, journal keeping and things like that ARE ways of working on family history right now. Especially when you have lots of little ones at home, I think it's much more difficult to take time to do research. When the time is right, I believe you will feel prompted that it's time to work on the research end of it.

I don't have excuses for myself. It's definately something I need to work on as I do have more time now that Big G's in kindergarten.....of which I'm spending too much time in RUNNING.....alas, to find the right balance in all things in our lives. I've been thinking about getting myself over to the family history center over at the church one of these days where someone can give me direction. I'm a hands on visual person....I need to SEE how to do it........you know, have someone walk me through the steps to get me going.

As I think about it, I kind of have a FEAR about doing this. Isn't that silly? Because I have NO clue how to start and I feel like I should already know---seeing how I've been a member all my life----I feel like people will say WHAT, you don't know how to do this....what is wrong with you?!! OR perhaps they will be snickering behind my back about how dumb I am about this!!....Didn't we have a Fear of Vulnerability thread going a while back. I better go back and read over this....Okay, deep breath---it doesn't matter what others think of me. Right?!! This is something I need to tackle and work on.....anyone want to hold my hand and come with me??

[Mamallama]

ER, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and tips on Family History work! That's wonderful how much you've been able to accomplish. You set a great example for us all.

[runamyrun]

I would also like to learn. I feel intimidated about it. For me, I would also need to have someone show me how to do it. I am also a hands on person.