My distant cousin handed me a black leather diary and asked, “Would you like to transcribe this?” And, that was the beginning of my testimony of family history. In the months that followed I was privileged to transcribe the journal of my great grandmother’s sister Ann Fellows. Written when she was about twenty years old,… Read More Because of Ann
With all the resources available for us to meet virtually, sometimes we forget the basics. We have Zoom meetings, Google meet, Microsoft Team, share screens, FaceTime, etc. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m so caught up in the latest and greatest, that I forget the basics to help with family history. I have… Read More Helper Resources
This past week I logged on to Family Search and noticed that a family member whose genealogy I had been working on the previous week appeared on my homepage, under recommended task, with a “record hints available” icon next to their name. Since I had hit a dead end on this family line, I was… Read More Record Hint Available
It was in the 1950’s when my mother and I became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her family had always been religious and interested in their ancestry, keeping letters, pictures and stories close. The Spirit of Elijah had parked on their doorstep, including mine. He is a permanent fixture and… Read More FAMILY HISTORY REMEMBRANCES
A couple years before I was born, President Spencer W. Kimball said, “I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse” (“When the World Will Be Converted,” Ensign, Oct. 1974, 10). How true that is today! In the palm of our hands,… Read More The Blessing of the Family Tree App; Map My Ancestors Feature
A couple of weeks ago while chatting with our Director, Dave Castleton, he asked me a question that has caused me to reflect on my Family History journey. The question he asked was, “How did you gain your testimony of family history work?” I thought back to the time when the full-time missionaries were allowed to… Read More One By One
Telling our children stories about their ancestors’ experiences is a powerful way we can help turn our posterity’s’ hearts towards their fathers. My grandfather, Armanag Kezerian, was born in a small village in Armenia called Zara, Sivas. When my grandfather was at the tender age of three his father died and his mother was taken… Read More Turning Our Hearts, A Legacy of Faith
Over the past few weeks there has been much in the media about preparing for the return to school in light of the pandemic. A lot of thought and planning have gone into preparing the physical facilities, administration, teachers, and students, to insure that the learning environment this fall will be both meaningful and safe.… Read More Preparing in a Pandemic
I recently received a call from my brother in Sweden who was excited to tell me that he and his kids were at the cemetery in the old town of Laxarby where a few of our ancestors were buried. We paid a visit to this cemetery 8 years ago when my family and I vacationed… Read More Sharing the Spirit of Elijah
Several years ago, I was on a temporary duty assignment with the Army in Mons, Belgium. Mons is the Headquarters of SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe. It was a plumb assignment where I had weekends off and was able to travel and see many of the sites of military interest in the area. … Read More Known but to God.