During the summer of 2003 I had THE strangest dream. I was playing on a playground with a boy would was about 14-years-old. We must have been playing alone for hours when the boy said to me, "I wish I could go play over there," as he pointed across a long patch of grass. When I turned to look at the spot where he was pointing I saw thousands of people, none of which I could make out because they were far away, and they too were playing on what looked like an enormous playground. I turned back to the young man and found that he was standing next to a very old gentleman. The boy didn't say anything else to me, but the older man said, "Don't you know who this is? This is your great-great-great uncle, and I am your great-great-great grandpa." Then I woke up.
I definitely don't consider myself an "expert" but I'd like to share one of my secret passions with you: family history and genealogy. The morning after I had my strange dream I talked to my mom about what had been said to me. (I thought she would laugh at it because she is the QUEEN of family history...after all, how could there be someone missing from my family tree when my mom was spending 8 hours a week doing genealogy?) Instead she told me I did have a missing g-g-g-uncle. He had run away from home when he was about 14 years old and was never heard from again.
To make a very long story shorter, George Brown (my missing uncle) was found during the spring of 2006 when England released their 1880 London census to the Church's family history center. Can you believe it?!? He was married and had children of his own.
Family History seems like a daunting task, especially if you don't know much about it. I thought maybe I could share some things that might help.
1. If you're starting from scratch you'll need to start with your own, personal 4-generation chart (the chart linked here requires Adobe). Get as much information as you can: full names, birth dates and places, and death dates and places.
*FYI: When you write a woman's full name in any kind of family history you only use their MAIDEN name.
*Dates also have a universal way of being written: Day/Month (in a 3-letter abbreviation)/Full year. For example today is 01 AUG 2007, and Christmas will be 25 DEC 2007.
Some of you might still have church leaders who tell you to submit a 4-generation chart to the Salt Lake Family History center (FHC). Although the FHC wouldn't turn your sheet away, this form of information is obsolete now. The church would actually rather have you submit a PAF file, which will be discussed below.
2. The LDS Church has one of the best family history search engines out there. But don't try to search for someone who is living...they're not in there! Start by searching for the most recent death in your family. This would most likely be a grandparent. All you need is their first and last name, any other information will help narrow your search. Familysearch.org is great because the search results will include different spellings or the name you're searching for. Your search results will come from a few different places: Information other people have submitted, census records, Social Security death index, international information gathered by the church, and personal websites that include the person you're searching for.
3. If you're really interested down load the church's PAF program. (Scroll down on this page and click on the "Free PAF Program link). This is a fantastic computer program...and it's free! A PAF is a "Personal Ancestry File" that you use on the computer. It has taken the place of the church's infamous "4-generation chart." At any time you wish you may upload your PAF online to the Church's Family History head-quarters, where it will later be made available online to the entire world.
4. Once you are able to record all of the information you can based on what you and your family members know you start researching. It's not nearly as boring as it sounds. Although, I won't bother you with it now.
I hope this was informative or interesting, or at least a good way to kill some time...any questions?
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5 comments:
Great post, Skipper! I loved the dream story-gave me goose bumps! I'm one of those lazy girls who figures all of my work is done by my relatives who have traced it back to the pioneers...then I married a convert to the church and now I have tons to do!
I have run into problems with using a Mac though. PAF isn't compatible. Any suggestions or is my assumption out of date???
Another thing is I'll find a branch of family, get all excited, think I'm going to have tons of temple work to do, then I take it to the FHC to get it Temple Ready, and it's already been done by one of his distant relatives. Any way to avoid that double work from home?
Your dream gave me goosebumps too! I have TONS of work to do. Basically nothing has been done in any of my family or my husband's. An exciting challenge, but overwhelming too. I have started it before, and never gotten to the point of having names to take to the temple. I am giving myself a deadline of the next youth baptism trip, so this was great timing to read your info. Thanks!
Skipper, this is great! I got all choked up when I read your dream. How moving! I also love family history. My mom sounds exactly like your mom, so I actually HATED family history my entire life (my mom really liked to talk about all of her ancestors as if we visited them every weekend, and I never had a clue who she was talking about). Then, three years ago, we moved here to Minnesota, and I got called to be a family history consultant. When I called my mom and told her, she laughed for about three minutes straight--as in she couldn't even speak for three whole minutes! :) At any rate, I totally got bit by the bug, and I absolutely LOVE it!
My friend is brilliant at it, and she especially knows about online research. She has Ancestry.com (which I love, but can't afford right now), but she's shown me so many new sites, including ones that have census records (which is what I mainly use Ancestry for), that I feel totally comfortable putting off that investment! If you ever want to swap ideas, feel free to get my email from Linz!
Thanks for sharing this post Skipper!
Thanks guys! To answer question number 1--I'm not sure about the Mac, but I know the church just put out an updated version on the familysearch.org website. Try it anyway.
Also, you can see if temple work has been done for someone if you "sign in" to familysearch.org. It will require your church membership number and confirmation date. Once you have those create an account online and ANYONE you pull up online will have temple work information tagged to their name! It has saved me a lot of time.
By the way, I totally know what you guys mean. It's a HUGE bummer when you think you've found a bunch of names and find out they've already been done. My husband is constantly reminding me that by linking all of these family members together I'm still doing my part.
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