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© 2004 Laurie Ashton

We’re told that we should be working on our family history, but we may not understand the purpose behind family history. Or we may think that our relatives are working on our family history, and they know what they’re doing, so why do we need to? Or we may not understand what to do or where to start. We may even feel overwhelmed at the enormity of the task.

But whether we’ve been a member of the church for decades or mere months, whether we’re the only member of the church in our family, or one of hundreds, we all have something in common.

We should all be actively engaged in doing our family history. Because we do not do our family history as a hobby. We do it in order to provide the ordinances of salvation for the living and dead.

Article of Faith 3 reads:

“We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”

After His Crucifixion, while his body lay in the tomb, Jesus’ spirit went to the spirit world where He preached the gospel. He also sent as missionaries some of these righteous spirits to preach the gospel to those in spirit prison. In Doctrine & Covenants 138:30, we read:

“From among the righteous, he . . . appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead.”

This great missionary effort in the spirit world continues today, and we have our part to contribute to it.

We are commanded to redeem our dead, to provide them with the same opportunities for progression and the same eternal blessings that we ourselves have been given. They no longer have physical bodies, so they cannot perform their ordinances on their own behalf. We must perform the saving ordinances for them on earth – baptism, confirmation, receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood for the men, and the temple endowment and sealing. We, as church members have a responsibility to provide these ordinances for our own ancestral families.

These ordinances that have been performed for the dead then become effective when the deceased persons chose to accept them and become qualified to receive them.

Joseph F. Smith said,

The dead are not perfect without us, neither are we without them. We have a mission to perform for and in their behalf: we have a certain work to do in order to liberate those who, because of their ignorance and the unfavorable circumstances in which they were placed while here, are unprepared for eternal life; we have to open the door for them, by performing ordinances which they cannot perform for themselves and which are essential to their release from the “prisonhouse,” to come forth and live according to God in the spirit and be judged according to man in the flesh.” (Joseph F. Smith, JD 19:264, 11 April 1878.)

Moses 1:39, the Lord God told Moses that his work and his glory was, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

By ensuring that our ancestors are provided with opportunities of receiving the blessings of the temple, we:

"will be sealed to connect the links and make perfect the chain from ourselves to Father Adam. This is the object of the temple. . ." Discourses of Brigham Young, Pg.418 - Pg.419)

In Discourses of Brigham Young, pages 419 through 420, we read:

"Those only who have shared with us in the temple ordinances know for themselves the satisfaction there is in realizing that we are indeed co-workers with our Lord and Savior; that we bear a humble part in the great work of salvation; that we have the privilege of receiving and obeying the truth, and of securing to ourselves that happiness which the Gospel alone affords; and not only of performing these ordinances for ourselves, but of doing the necessary work for our parents and forefathers who have slept without the Gospel, that they may partake also of the waters of life, and be judged according to men in the flesh. This is a privilege, a blessing, which no one can sense unless he is in possession of it."

When we talk of family history, we tend to focus on researching our dead ancestors, preparing their names for temple work, and performing their ordinances for them. Yes, it is important that we have their ordinances performed for them, but depending on personal circumstances, it may not be the right time for you to be actively engaged in these activities, or as actively engaged as you would like to be.

And it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when there’s so much work to be done. But let’s remember to prayerfully select those ways that fit your personal circumstances at any particular time.

There are many ways we can work at redeeming our dead, and some of these are more appropriate at some times of our lives than at others.

1. We can teach our children the importance of doing our family history.
2. We can gather pictures or data on family members.
3. We can do research to identify ancestors beyond the first few generations.
4. We can prepare information on ancestors for temple work to be performed for them.
5. We can attend the temple and performing ordinances when circumstances allow.
6. We can contribute computerized family history information to the Church.
7. We can serve as missionaries in temple or family history work.
8. We can participate in family organizations and promote close family ties.
9. We can keep personal journals and prepare personal and family histories.
10. We can encourage others, including non-members, to learn more about family history and to research their own.

If now is the time for you to work researching your ancestors, and preparing their names for temple ordinances, then here are some basic steps you can follow.

1. Start With What You Know.
2. Use Sources in Your Home.
3. Ask Relatives for Information.
4. Choose a family or Ancestor You Want to Learn More About.
5. See If Someone Else Has Already Found the Information.
6. Search Records For Your Ancestor.

Start With What You Know

Begin by remembering information about each member in your family that will identify that person. Each person can be identified by personal information, such as:

• Name
• Other members of the family
• Dates and places of important events such as birth, christening, marriage, and death
• Ancestral village
• Occupation

Record the information you remember about your family on the pedigree chart and family group sheets or in a family history program such as PAF, or Personal Ancestral File.

First fill out a form for your own family, and then work back to your parents and grandparents. You can quickly see what you know and what information is missing or incomplete.

Use Sources Already Available to You

Look for sources in your home that might contain the missing or incomplete family information.

Useful sources include

• birth, marriage, and death certificates
• family bibles
• funeral programs
• obituaries
• wedding and birth announcements
• family registers
• ancestral tablets
• letters and other correspondence
• journals and diaries
• wills and other legal documents

Add this information to your pedigree charts and family group records.

Record the sources of the information (use the Notes or Sources section on the forms or in your family history program). This helps you and others know where the information came from.

Ask Relatives for Information.

Make a list of other relatives and the family information they may have.

Contact the relatives—visit, call, write, or e-mail them.

Be sure to ask specifically for the information you would like. For example, "Do you know when Aunt Jane was born?" elicits more useful information than “Tell me about Aunt Jane.”

Add the information to your pedigree charts and family group records.

Record the names of the relatives who gave you the information in Notes or Sources.

Congratulations - You have filled out family group records and pedigree charts with the information your family has. Now you are ready to look for information in other records.

Choose a Family or Ancestor You Want to Learn More About.

Look for missing or incomplete information on your pedigree chart and family records.

Select a family or ancestor with missing or incomplete information.

Start with the generations closest to you, and work your way back. Usually, it's easier to find information for a family member or ancestor born more recently.

See if Someone Else Has Already Found the Information.

Warning: A common mistake is to gather every reference to a certain surname even if the person is not clearly a relative.

Look for the names in any of the church databases, such as Ancestral File or the International Genealogical Index. You can find them at www.familysearch.org.

Look for other databases, such as GRANDMA (Genealogical Records ANd Database of Mennonite Ancestry - available from the California Mennonite Historical Society) from family history societies or organizations for your ancestral group.

Look for a published family history at public archives, libraries, or on the internet.

Search Records for Information about Your Ancestor.

Whether it be in census records, ship lists, immigration records, birth, death, or marriage records, parish records, or any other type of record.

We do this work for them, to provide our dead with the saving ordinances, but we also do this work because we cannot be saved without doing this work.

In Doctrine and Covenants 128:15, we read:

“These . . . principles in relation to the dead and the living . . . cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as . . . they without us cannot be made perfect – neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”

Doctrine & Covenants 128:18 reads:

“The earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other – and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also. . .”

Yes, we do this great work to save our dead, but at the same time, we are saving ourselves.

Let us keep in mind the words of Joseph Fielding Smith:

“Some may feel that if they pay their tithing, attend their regular meetings and other duties, give their substance to the poor, perchance spend one, two, or more years preaching in the world, that they are absolved from further duty, but the greatest and grandest duty of all is to labor for the dead!” Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol II, pp 42-44.

The gospel is not a cafeteria where you can take a serving of regular church attendance, a helping of tithing, a good measure of obeying the Word of Wisdom, and then pass on family history. All parts of the gospel work together. They are inextricably linked, and we must do all of them.

Brothers and Sisters, may we do this important work we have been called to do.

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