Genealogy, Family History & Temple Work

I admit that upon moving to my current state of residence, I only considered visiting my local genealogical society because I had some ancestry in the area. I doubt I would have considered it otherwise. I probably would have assumed they wouldn't have any information for me about ancestors in other states. Or that they wouldn't have very much information. Of course, I would have been wrong.

For one thing, most genealogical societies have great libraries. While the majority of these books will contain information about the area, they may also have collected books about surrounding areas or have random information that was donated by some passer through. It's always worth while to check their catalog.

While you're at it you might as well become a member. Membership fees are small with big benefits. Suddenly you'll realize you're surrounded by people who share a common interest. You may not realize your neighbor three doors down was an avid genealogist until you meet her at a society function. It really helps you feel a sense of community and that you're not alone in your research.

Most societies hold monthly meetings or host special workshops which focus on genealogical skills in general. Of course some will focus on local resources but the topics should vary.

Maybe one month you'll learn about how to improve your internet search skills. Maybe the next month you'll learn about how to organize your genealogy. At these meetings you can make new friends. Maybe you'll find someone like you, who doesn't have any ancestry in the area. Maybe you'll befriend someone and find out you're actually related through your 9th great grandfather. You won't know until you go. Plus the enthusiasm and passion genealogists have is always contagious, whether you have any ancestors in the area or not. Visiting or joining your local genealogical society may be a great motivator in your personal research.

Have I convinced you yet? If so, all you have to do now is find your local society and go. You can search for the one nearest you by visiting Society Hall and click on the link under Search/Edit the Society Directory.

"And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect. - Doctrine and Covenants 128:15

"Genealogy is not family group record forms, pedigree charts, microfilms, name abbreviations, and technical regulations. These are only tools. Genealogy is the study of one’s family, the study of our ancestors—their birth, their childhood, their dreams, their marriages, their occupations, their children, their deaths. And because these things in the past all have an impact on the present, in a very real sense, genealogy is a study of one’s self." - George D. Durrant, Doing Genealogy: Finding That Glorious, Elusive Condition Called ‘Balance’ Ensign, Apr 1985, 1

You don't necessarily have to know much about genealogy to help others with their family history research. Some of the biggest genealogical helps came about simply because people cared about the history of events or people in their area and decided to preserve or record documents or document sources, either within a specific category or in general. One example of this is the The Dibean Michigan Marriage Index.

Jack and Marianne Dibean began indexing records of marriage for the state of Michigan years ago and the project has been an immense help for those who have ancestors from Michigan, like myself. I found an ancestor in their index which provided me with the information I needed to send for the actual record of marriage.

Now, of course you don't need to start a statewide indexing project. Even if you just help one person down the road you will have done a great thing. Here are 5 ways you can help:

1. Save obituaries from your local paper - This one should take you no more 15 minutes a day to do. Cut out all the obituaries from your local paper. Use a paper clip to hold all the entries from that day and add a note stating the name of the newspaper and the date. File all of your entries in a folder to donate to your local historical or genealogical society. Or submit them to an online website such as the USGenweb. Someone down the road will be very grateful you took the time to do this.

2. Transcribe a local cemetery - Do you have a couple of free hours on Saturdays? Visit a local cemetery and start writing down the information on the headstones. Even if you can't finish the entire cemetery in that time or over a series of weeks, a partial transcription is better than none. Again you can submit the information to an online website or to a local society. Check online first to make sure you won't be duplicating someone else's efforts.

3. Keep a journal intended for public use - This means keeping a journal that might detail how life is in your community. You could keep track of changing prices of staple food items such as milk and bread. You could write about the weather, the wildlife and greenery in your area, the names of neighbors and friends and where they live. You could include newspaper articles about important local events. It's little details like these that your descendants will crave. They will want to know what life was like for you. And others who are not descended from you may get an idea of what life was like for their ancestor who lived in your area, based on your views. Again, publish it online at some point or submit it to the local society.

4. Write down information from the Family Bible entries on Ebay or another auction site - That's right. Its sounds maybe a little strange but what a help it might be to someone. After all, only one person can have possession of that family bible. Old family bibles often have the family genealogy written somewhere within and auctioneers on ebay may list those names and dates or be willing to provide them when asked for. When writing down this information be sure to include the Bible information (year, type, etc.) and the auction information (seller, auction number, etc.) and include any pictures you may have been given of those names and dates. Publish your information online or mail it to a society where the ancestors therein lived.

5. Interview older members of your community who have lived there for a long time - Maybe someone you know or you could ask a local retirement home for permission to visit someone like that. Bring along a notebook or a tape recorder and be prepared to listen. Come with a list of questions to spark remembrances. Submit the entry and whose remembrances they were.

Family History Centers are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Founded in 1894, the Family History Library at present contains over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records. You can read more about the Family History Library's beginning's here.

Of the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm mentioned above, about 100,000 rolls of microfilm are circulated to Family History Centers each month. There are over 1,800 Family History Centers in the United States alone and over 3,400 centers worldwide. These Family History Centers attempt to bring a vast majority of content from the Family History Library to you by providing a lending service for microfilm and microfiche from the Family History Library collection.

Family History Centers are volunteer staffed, so you know those who man the centers are there because they love Family History and they want to help you understand the resources the Family History Center has to offer. Note that staff will not do research for you but they will help you best utilize the resources offered, towards you doing your own family research. Some centers even hold classes for the public on various genealogical topics.

Most Family History Centers are located in meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and everyone is welcome to use them, always free of charge.

Many Family History Centers have published resources (books, histories, etc.) which of course vary from center to center. But all Family History Centers offer the following:

* The Family History Library Catalog on Microfiche

* Computers equipped with Personal Ancestral File.

* Computers equipped with Temple Ready (for Mormons.)

* Some microfilm and microfiche collections from the Family History Library. Those microfilms and microfiche that your library does not have on hand can be requested for loan to your local Family History Center for a small fee. Wait time is usually 2 to 3 weeks and the microfilm or microfiche you have ordered will be kept at your Family History Center for up to 1 month after it arrives, allowing you to come in and view it several times at your leisure.

Hours and days of operation vary from center to center, but you can easily find information about your nearest Family History Center here.

In addition some Family History Center's offer internet access and/or subscriptions to various genealogical databases online such as Ancestry.com.

Don't hesitate to call your local Family History Center to find out what resources they offer. Upon visiting you'll find a wealth of information awaits you.

With the invention of the internet and online library websites and catalogs, people everywhere have realized that the local library they use to look to as the ultimate resource, may actually not carry everything they need in doing research. But even with this realization, traveling to a library far away, then applying for a card there and checking the item of interest out just isn't practical or feasible. Enter the beginning of a wonderful library service called Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Interlibrary Loan brings material of interest to you by following two simple operations: borrowing and lending. If your library is a borrowing library, you can request a certain book or photocopy of information and this request will be sent to a lending library. If the item you want is in circulation at the lending library, it will be shipped to your local library and you will be notified when it arrives and allowed to borrow it. All you have to do after that is return it to your local library and they will ship it back to the library that lent it out. You can make a request in person, or, if your library has a website you may be able to make your borrowing request online. Interlibrary Loan is usually, though not always, free.

Unfortunately the wait time on an item can take a few weeks. Items that are in high demand may not be available to lend. And of course, items that are very rare or very old may not be in circulation due to fear of further damage or destruction.

Also, not all libraries participate in Interlibrary Loan. And not all of those that do, participate with all other libraries that do. Meaning the library that holds the book you want may participate in Interlibrary Loan, but they don't lend to your local library.

It is important to remember that Interlibrary Loan policy varies from library to library. So always check with your local library staff for details on how Interlibrary Loan works there. In many cases, if you know what book it is you want you can just ask the library staff to find out what other libraries carry that book and if they will lend to your library, instead of having to do the research yourself. So ask the library staff before you go searching.

In the event that your library staff does not provide that service, one good resource for finding books in other lending libraries is the WorldCat Database.

Digital picture of my 10th Great Grandmother's Will, housed at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis

An Archive refers to a collection of public records and/or historical documents. It may also refer to the location in which these records are kept.

Also known as Archival Repositories or Archives, these places often hold items of great interest to historians, demographers, lawyers of course Genealogists.

Now, an archive is not the same thing as a library, though many archives may house decent book collections. The main purpose of an archive is to collect unpublished material of historical import, mainly from local surroundings. This of course means that the information you can find varies greatly from one archive to the next. In general though, all archives will contain Primary source records that have been preserved because of their great research value. This may include but is certainly not limited too:

* Diaries
* Ledgers
* Autograph Books
* Tax Books
* Charters
* Biographies
* Land Deeds
* Plat Maps
* Letters
* Church Registers
* Probate Documents
* Registers of Birth, Death or Marriage
* Photographs
* Area Histories
* Yearbooks

What an archive may house greatly depends on how long the archive has been around, where the archive is located and what type of archive it is.

There are Government archives, business archives, academic archives, church archives, and more. State/Province archives (which fall under the government archives category) usually house any number of the above mentioned documents gathered from all over the state/province, while other archives may carry items much more specific and of a narrower range.

State and Province archives are usually open for anyone to use and are of particular interest to genealogists as they carry the most information in general on their particular state/region. National Archives are also a wonderful Genealogical Resource and exist in many countries.

The National Archives (NARA) is the U.S. Government’s collection of documents of important events in American history and is located in the District of Columbia.

A listing of web links to State archives can be found here on the Council of State Archivists(COSA) website.

Keep in mind that even though State archives are open to anyone's use, they are usually not free. A small fee is required for entrance to do research. Each State archives website will give you more details on that particular archives' policies. But as a general rule you'll want to bring cash for copies of items and for a locker (certain items are not allowed), a laptop or notebook and pencil (no pens) and a digital camera with the flash set to OFF. Even then some archives do not allow picture taking of any kind. Another good idea is to browse the archives catalog before you go, if it is online. That way you won't spend your valuable time there deciding what to look for.

If you've never been to an Archives before it may seem a bit daunting upon first arriving. But the archivists are generally friendly and should be happy to help you get acquainted with the archives set up and collections. Prepare to spend your whole day there. It's addicting!