Research Your Family's History

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Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming

of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,

and the heart of the children to their fathers,

lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Malachi 4: 5,6

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When we read the scripture above and understand it correctly, the Lord is saying that unless we bind people with each other in families, He will curse the earth (and its inhabitants).


So, what resources do we have to do all this? We are going to be part of a Pioneer trek in another week (son, husband and myself) and my son was supposed to find an ancestor to have his name with him. My husband found a name, Samuel Rowley, that was in the Willie handcart company. He was thankful that his grandma had done an extensive genealogy work on deceased relatives. Me on the other part, I have a long ways to go, simply because none of my relatives are here. Maybe the following will be of help to me and others like myself:

"In May 1999, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched the FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service at www.familysearch.org. This Web site offers access to four databases: Ancestral File™, the International Genealogical Index, the Family History Library Catalog, and the Internet Index to the Pedigree Resource File.

1.Ancestral File is a collection of millions of names from individuals, families, and genealogical organizations throughout the world that are organized into pedigrees and family group record forms.

2.The International Genealogical Index is an index of more than 330 million names of deceased persons gathered since 1970.

3.The Family History Library Catalog describes the books, microfilms, and microfiche in Salt Lake City’s Family History Library.

4.The Internet Index to the Pedigree Resource File will let you know if your family history is part of that collection of family histories submitted by individuals via the Internet. The Pedigree Resource File is available for later publication on CD-ROM through LDS Distribution Centers. Information is organized in family groups and pedigrees. It is printed exactly as submitted and not combined with information from other submitters as is done in Ancestral File. Nine such CDs are currently available.

Resource: go here.


Also, enjoy this Mormon Messages video about Family History.

Researching our family's history is like weaving a thread between our past and present, in such a way that our future won't turn into dust.

What kind of stories will you leave behind for others to find, as treasures in the dust?

To see the Neighborhood News for Monday, 18 July, please click here.

We welcome your comments. Post by clicking the link below.

Parenting Your Parents

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At some point in our lives, we're all going to go through this: taking care of our aging parents. Marie Ricks, from 'House of Order" talks about it in her latest "When Children Become Parents of their Parents." She says: "Becoming the parents of your own parents is a sometimes stretching season in life. As an experienced parent of a parent, I have a few stories to tell and feelings to share."

Our next entry comes from "Family Reunion Helper." Did you know that you can do a theme about "Family History"? That is such a great idea, and a twist of the old 'flight 125' idea, where you get in a plane, crash and are visited by your ancestors. Great idea.

Our last entry is from Pam Nelson at "For the Love of Cooking." Sometimes we look for something simple and refreshing that will be useful at an activity, like a family reunion, or Relief Society meeting, or youth get together. This sandwich idea is perfect for those reasons and more.

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Wednesday, 16 June's, please click here.

Do You Know Where Your Ancestors Are?

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Sometimes we don't realize all the advancements we have practically at our fingertips that could help us achieve so much in looking for what is lost, or forgotten.

Check out this story from Cindy Beck, in which she's so drawn to what these people are doing in the church library. What are they doing? Read on and you'll figure it out. It's a good read, and you'll love the way the story is put together. Plus her amazing writing skills will pull you in and you'll want to finish reading it. 

From the earliest times in human history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. Some people don't know why we the members of the LDS church want to have the blessings of temples around us. This article from mormon.org explains in simple terminology, the need we have nowadays for these buildings. One of the reasons is to seal our families to that of our ancestors. We want to be connected to them. We want to be able to fullfil the promise made by Malachi, and the times are here when we can have the oportunity to turn our hearts toward our ancestors. We have all we need to do this work.

On the lighter side of family history, make it interesting for your children. Here's an activity that can be done during FHE, or with a group of relatives, or youth activity. Put it together and enjoy the results.

It's Friday again. And you know what that means! Enjoy Free Download Friday at yourLDSradio. We're featuring Irene Peery-Fox, a piano virtuoso from BYU. Piano fans will want to collect this first volume of the forthcoming Irene Peery series.

To view a copy of Friday, 12 March's Neighborhood News, click here.