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	<title>LDS Blogs &#187; Genealogy, Family History &amp; Temple Work</title>
	<link>http://ldsblogs.com</link>
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		<title>Did Proxy Baptism Make Obama&#8217;s Mother Mormon?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Did the proxy baptism of President Obama's mother turn her into a Mormon? How does proxy baptism work and why is it done?]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/2014/did-proxy-baptism-make-obamas-mother-mormon</link>
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		<title>Genealogy Dilemna: Sorting Out Multiple Marriages</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A much married ancestor can make it complicated to assign all the children to the correct parents. Here are some tips to help you sort out the children in these families.]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/1997/genealogy-dilemna-sorting-out-multiple-marriages</link>
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		<title>Getting the Most Out of Your Genealogy Vacation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Visiting your ancestor's hometown is a wonderful way to access rare resources and "see" him in his own world.]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/1992/getting-the-most-out-of-your-genealogy-vacation</link>
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		<title>Preparing for a Genealogical Vacation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A genealogical vacation can put you on the spot to find records, search cemeteries, and see the world as your ancestors saw it.]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/1969/preparing-for-a-genealogical-vacation</link>
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		<title>Making Ancestors More Real</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sometimes people are bored by genealogy because it’s just a list of names, dates, and places. You’ll find it far more interesting if you make your ancestors real in your mind. Following are some fun ways to bring them to life.
1.	What do the dates tell you about their trials? For instance, one of my ancestors buried a large number of her ten children before she died at a very old age. Some of them died as children. Imagine how she felt, not just losing one or two, but four or five. How did she cope? How did she feel during pregnancies, knowing she might lose the child? 
2.	Examine historical events occurring during their lifetime and place your ancestor into the event. Even if your ancestor didn’t live near a Civil War battle or fight in it, it’s likely she was affected by the war. Find out how the war affected her area and start imagining how she fit into all of this.
3.	Figure out why they moved. Especially in early days, people moved for a reason, not just for fun or employment. What caused them to uproot and leave their families in a time when they couldn’t stay in touch by phone or email? One of my ancestors moved often. When I started researching the towns they lived in, I realized they always moved during times of religious upheaval. The church would begin to argue over some point of doctrine, and their group was the one that moved away and started something new. By examining this, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/222/making-ancestors-more-real</link>
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		<title>Why you should visit your local Genealogical Society</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;t have any information for me about ancestors in other states. Or that they wouldn&#8217;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&#8217;s always worth while to check their catalog.
While you&#8217;re at it you might as well become a member. Membership fees are small with big benefits. Suddenly you&#8217;ll realize you&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;ll learn about how to improve your internet search skills. Maybe the next month you&#8217;ll learn about how to organize your genealogy. At these meetings you can make new friends. Maybe you&#8217;ll find someone like you, who doesn&#8217;t have any ancestry in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/228/why_you_should_visit_your_local_genealog</link>
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		<title>Helping others with their family history</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;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.&#8221; &#8211; George D. Durrant, Doing Genealogy: Finding That Glorious, Elusive Condition Called ‘Balance’ Ensign, Apr 1985, 1

You don&#8217;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&#8217;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  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/227/helping_others_with_their_family_history</link>
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		<title>Starting a Family Newsletter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In a previous post I talked about the importance of improving extended family relationships and mentioned a few ways that this might be done. I&#8217;d like to discuss one of those ways now: starting a family newsletter.
The idea of a family newsletter was another novelty I encountered upon getting married. The members of my extended family usually called each other on birthday&#8217;s and that was about the extent of our contact during the year, excepting the occasional visit. 
After marrying my husband I discovered that not only did his family have regular parties and game nights, they also kept in touch with distant relatives by sending out a quarterly newsletter. We loved receiving that large manilla envelope every four months and reading about the lives of our relatives around the country in their own words. And of course it was fun to write our own little addition detailing new church callings, jobs and other activities. I have no doubt you&#8217;ll love starting your own family newsletter. And it&#8217;s much simpler than planning a reunion.
First you&#8217;ll need to decide on a name for your publication. Our family newsletter is very simply titled, Owens Family Newsletter with the subtitle, The Descendants of Joseph Alma Owens and Alice Elvaretta Harris. You can keep it simple like that or be more creative. You could even ask family for their ideas if you&#8217;re having a hard time coming up with your own.
Additional details that you&#8217;ll want to think through before gathering submissions for the newsletter are:
* How often will it [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/245/starting_a_family_newsletter</link>
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		<title>Planning a Family Reunion</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;I suppose all of us have our own favorite reason for having family reunions. In a way, they are extensions of family home evenings. Family reunions are an opportunity to gather our larger, eternal families together to learn to understand and love one another, and to unite ourselves in the work of the Lord, just as we do in family home evenings.&#8221; &#8211; Alma Heaton, Really Getting Together: Your Family Reunion, Ensign, Jun 1975, 12

In a previous post I talked about the importance of improving extended family relationships and mentioned a few ways that this might be done. I&#8217;d like to discuss one of those ways now: planning a family reunion.
Growing up I had never attended a family reunion, at least in the official sense of the word. We would go on vacations to visit family at times, since our immediate family was alone in our area. We lived in Utah and all of my Aunts, Uncle and Grandparents lived either on the West Coast or in Texas, so we didn&#8217;t see them very often. 
As a youth whenever I heard the word reunion I envisioned a massive gathering of family including extended family I may never have even known existed. I thought maybe there would be games and picture taking and lots of food. I discovered I was pretty much on the mark after I got married. My husband is the 12th of 13 children and his family reunions are even bigger than I had imagined. He grew up with a yearly family reunion [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/244/planning_a_family_reunion</link>
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		<title>Improving Extended Family Relationships</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As a Genealogist there really are times where I feel closer to my kindred dead than to my living relatives. It&#8217;s often easy to bury myself in the discovering of facts about people I wish I had known and forget to forge deeper relationships with those in the here and now. But I know it&#8217;s important to make both living and deceased family members a priority in my life. 
&#8220;Whether we live in the same city in which other members of our family live, or far away, or even whether we have any living relatives, our choices are the same. Our extended family can be seen as a natural extension of ourselves, or they can be seen as distractions from our own needs and interests.
The scriptures abound with insight into the value of maintaining good extended family relationships. Abraham, for instance, left Ur of Chaldees and took with him his brother’s son Lot to follow the Lord in a new land. (See Gen. 11:31.) During a time of famine, Joseph of Egypt saved the lives of his father, brothers, sister, and their families. (See Gen. 42–47.) Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro, discussed their welfare on at least one occasion: “Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he said.” (Ex. 18:24.) Though he was a prophet, Moses honored his father-in-law and respected his counsel.&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Extending Family Relationships,&#8221; Ensign, Oct 1986, 57

It&#8217;s not always easy to improve our family relationships. Sometimes you may not even want to try when [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://genealogy.ldsblogs.com/243/improving_extended_family_relationships</link>
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