What do sacrifice, angels, miracles, and family history have in common? Turns out a lot, as evidenced from experiences shared at Family Discovery Day as part of RootsTech 2017. I am always interested in hearing how family history touches the heart of a person. We all come to genealogy and family history with preconceived notions and when all of those fall away and we’re left with just feelings of connection to our ancestors, something miraculous happens. We heard from a variety of speakers, each bringing their own take on family history. President Russell M. Nelson and his charming wife, Wendy,...
At RootsTech today, leaders of the family history department of the LDS church announced changes to the names of family history consultants. They will now be known as “temple and family history consultants.” The primary objective of temple and family history consultants will be “to assist members with a personalized one-on-one family history experience” which will enable them to perform temple ordinances (Temple and Family History Callings at LDS.org). See also Feb 9, 2017 Letter to Priesthood Leaders. President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “All of our vast family history endeavor is directed to temple work. There is no other purpose...
Tamra Stansfield, director of the Family History Library, spoke at RootsTech today about helping LDS church members turn their hearts to their ancestors with one-on-one guidance at the family history center. She encouraged the family history center directors and consultants present to use the Spirit and their experience (or lack thereof) to help people accomplish what they want to do. Her class was titled, “Family at the Center: Making the Family History Center a Sacred Place.” Tamra started by sharing that most members of the church know that it’s important that they do family history work. They know they need...
Today I’m introducing Alana McCormack, my newly discovered cousin from London, England. Actually, Alana discovered me! FamilySearch sent her an email that she had Mormon pioneer relatives, something she never thought possible since she and her mum were the only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in her direct line. Harriet Huggett Kelsey Alana found our connection through our ancestress Mary Holloway, born 1753 in Sussex, England who married James Coomber and had a passel of children. My line comes through Jane Coomber and Alana’s line through her younger sister, Elizabeth Coomber. Jane married Thomas Huggett...
What is Family Discovery Day and why should you go? Designed for families and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is a unique opportunity to introduce people of any age to family history. Nicole and I attended RootsTech for the first time last year and for Family Discovery Day held on Saturday afternoon, fifteen of my ward’s youth and their leaders joined us. The youth ranged from age 12 -17 and for some of them this was their first family history experience. They explored the expo hall, listened to inspirational speakers, and had fun just being...
At the recent LDS General Conference, general authorities of the LDS church spoke about worship, Jesus Christ, faith, and family. Like last time, I listened specifically for guidance relating to family history. Here are six talks that give nuggets of inspiration to help us go forward in our family history efforts. 1 – No Greater Joy Than to Know That They Know By Elder K. Brett Nattress Of the Seventy Elder Nattress asked us to ponder about the greatest gift we can give our children. There are many things I would like to give my children – an upbringing full of love and learning, a financial inheritance,...
Do your loved ones ever question your passion for genealogy and family history? Would you like a new perspective to motivate the youth in your ward to give it a try? Maybe you just need a boost in your own family history efforts? Try taking a few minutes to think of the blessings raining down on you because of your family history labors. Recognizing those blessings will help you share your love of family history with anyone. I recently asked Leah, one of my youth family history consultants, if she’d noticed any blessings since doing family history. Why would I ask this?...
Today I’m introducing two young genealogists, Elisse and Robert Brady. They are sharing how they became interested in genealogy and family history and what they like about it. For more information about the LDS topics they discuss, see Why Family History is Important at Mormon.org. Elisse My name is Elisse Brady. I live in Idaho Falls, ID with my husband and my daughter. I love riding my bike, eating black licorice, reading books, teaching junior high English, and watching period piece shows on Netflix. Every time I heard a talk in church about family history I would squirm a bit because I...
Last month, my 11 year old nephew asked me for help with family history. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to help! He wanted to find a name for his first temple trip in the fall. I used one of the ideas that Diana wrote about – teaching youth to research by “Adopting a Family” and following several checklists. The first two checklists help youth find a family to “adopt” and research. I used her Pandora’s Hope Chest checklist (page 2, here) to help my nephew find relatives in his family tree who needed temple work that he could research. (See my...
Have you been wracking your brain trying to figure out a way to teach your teens how to do family history? Maybe you need a fun way to involve your youth consultants in teaching others how to do family history? After I had completed the Mission Possible activity with all of my ward youth, I wanted to help them take the next step and learn how to do some research. I came up with a series of checklists that I named “Adopt-A-Family.” The whole premise of this series is to show teens, or anyone for that matter, some of the...
