My Family Tree

In the most recent General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Quentin Cook shared this story:

A 36-year-old mother of young children recently exclaimed to me, “Just think—we have gone from microfilm readers in dedicated family history centers to sitting at my kitchen table with my computer doing family history after my children are finally asleep.” Brothers and sisters, family history centers are now in our homes.

 I really resonate with that story; the advancements in family history research are truly miraculous!

My first exposure to family history work was in my mid-teens.  When my family was living in Salt Lake City, I went with my mom to the library downtown on Friday nights to search records on microfilm readers.  Later, as a student at Brigham Young University, I took several family history classes, and did my research the same way.  After graduating and moving to Atlanta, I sometimes requested a family history "project" from my mom, and she gave me the name of a deceased ancestor to research.  My research in Atlanta required me to go to a local family history center in a church building, find information that looked promising, order the microfilm record from Salt Lake City, and then wait several weeks for it to arrive.   It was an exciting challenge, but progress was often very slow.

Last summer, I requested another family history research project from my mom.  This time, however, I searched census records, marriage records, birth records, and death records at home on my laptop.  The huge reservoir of on-line records is incredible!  After several weeks of searching, I found many more family members, linked them together in family units, and made some exciting discoveries and connections.   The crowning blessing was then to take those names to the temple.  I have felt my heart turn to my fathers; I want them to receive all the blessings of the gospel that I now have.  This is the purpose of family history research.  

In the last few weeks, I have also added photos to the family search website.  I feel more connected to my deceased family members as I upload their photos; they seem so much more real to me now.  Ezra and I look at the "grandma and grandpa" pictures together sometimes too.  A portrait-style family tree is so much more meaningful to him; he loves pictures.  What a beautiful resource to connect our children with their ancestors!  Have you tried it yet?