We spent much of the day today at Manurewa Family History Center doing some training. We really enjoyed this. One of the people we helped was a new convert who is just learning for the first time how to do genealogy work. When we started all she had was a couple generations on her mother's side and no information at all on her dad. By the time we were done with our session she had added about four more generations on her mother's line, found a fun photo of her grandfather who had died before she was born and gotten contact information for the funeral home who conducted her dad's services who may be able to provide more information. She was thrilled.
Then when all the others were gone we stayed for a while with the consultant, May Mariner, to help her work on her own family tree. She spends so much time helping others that sometimes her own research has had to take a back seat...something I can well relate to. We helped her retrieve her free Ancestry.com account and showed her how to import four generations of family information from FamilySearch. We then taught her how to use the shaky leaf hints to discover sources and cross check her information with what others have in their trees. Using this tool she was able to add several new names to her tree, completing all five generations of her fan chart.
We loved having this opportunity. This is exactly the sort of work we enjoy doing - helping folks develop new skills and make discoveries that are meaningful for them. We will be going back to Manurewa next week to participate in the planning meeting for a stake family history event they will be having in August. Larry also talked with their High Priest Group leader about the possibility of having us do a fireside on family history for their stake. Good stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment