I’m not sure what my grandparents and other family members were celebrating in this picture, but I’ve often thought it was New Year’s. Perhaps it was New Year’s 1946, right after World War II ended, which would have been cause for a great celebration. There would have been hope for a brighter future and, perhaps, a resolve to do something new or better.

As we look ahead to the year, 2024, many of us have made New Year’s resolutions to start something new or improve ourselves in one way or another. Perhaps you have a goal this year to get started in family history or get more proficient at it. Maybe it’s not the first year you’ve come up with this resolution and you need a little help to really make it happen this time. If so, Ancestry offers this advice from a recent blog post:

• Decide what matters to you. A goal you can stick with is something that’s meaningful, important, or interesting to you. Forget what everyone else is doing or what you think you should do. Listen to your gut, and choose something you actually want to do. For example, you could decide to learn a new language that was spoken by your ancestors. 
• Get down to the details. Be very specific with what you want to accomplish, and set a measurable outcome. If you want to trace your family roots, perhaps completing a family tree several generations is more your style.
• Break it down. Go even deeper with smaller steps to reach your resolutions. If your goal is to fill in your family tree, dedicate a certain day or time to research a set amount. Make sure you keep these steps reasonable—maybe you choose to research one person on your tree a week or complete a branch every month.
• Identify things that will help. Having tools to support your goals can help them work. For example, an Ancestry membership can help with your genealogy resolutions by providing access to records and documents. The Ancestry mobile app can help by putting your family history in the palm of your hand.

However we decide to pursue our family history endeavors this New Year’s, let us remember the sacredness of this work of seeking out our ancestors that we may perform saving ordinances for them. This may inspire us to sacrifice the time needed from our busy schedules in order to accomplish this work. In closing, President Nelson has given us the following challenge:

“We can be inspired all day long about temple and family history experiences others have had. But we must do something to actually experience the joy ourselves. I would like to extend a challenge to each one of us so that the wonderful feeling of this work can continue and even increase. I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifice—preferably a sacrifice of time—you can make in order to do more temple and family history work this year.”

– Christy Pugh, Communications, Granite FamilySearch Center