Last night I distributed the new Beginning Family History sheet to the bishops attending the monthly Bishops Training Meeting. There was no noticable hint of enthusiasm as I went around the room. The sheet is as simple and helpful as possible. But who wants to know how to start? Just another reminder that we aren't doing everything we're supposed to, isn't it?
I haven't walked in beginners shoes for quite some time. Yes, I have opportunity to speak with a few during my regular reference counter shifts. I do my best to get the beginners on a successful track, and I've seen that wonderful bright emotional explosion when they find a document and CONNECT!!! with grandpa for the first time.
But I haven't gone through the paces myself for many, many years.
Today as I waited for lunch, I dusted off an old non-assignment: a cousin's husband is a Mission President. I gave my cousin a copy of my data almost a year ago. She showed it to her husband and later he suggested that it would be nice to have all their genealogy in one file...Well, I happily volunteered for the project and shelved it.
It's been on my mind for quite a while, so today I got going. I figured it to be a no-brainer: copy my data into a new database with him as person number 1; grab his ancestry from the Ancestral File; do some match merging and Viola!: a "complete" genealogical file. He's a Mission President, surely his stuff would all be easily accessible.
Not quite.
He's not in the Ancestral File. Neither are his parents. My genealogical juices began to flow. I began searching for bits and pieces to put together. The process took me back. Wonderfully, with computers, the process is much quicker than it has been in the past. A few hours later I have the file put together. I'll burn them a CD and deliver it next week.
There's nothing better to help you forget an empty stomach than a fun genealogical problem. (In this case, fun means questions that get answered after some warped thought and deliberation.)
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