Monday, March 29, 2010

Finding the Information is Incredible

"It's wild. It's challenging. It's heartbreaking. But just finding the information is incredible."
Emmitt Smith (from Who Do You Think You Are?)

Monday, March 22, 2010

Immigration Family History Expo

On Thursday March 18, 2010 I attended the Imigration Family History Expo at the historic Masonic Temple at 650 East South Temple in Salt Lake City. It was a very interesting and very full day.
I heard keynote addresses by Lew Cramer and Elizabeth Goryunova from the World Trade Center about the importance of immigration to our nation's economy. Holly T. Hansen told us the fascinating history of her ancestor Matthew McBlain Thompson who was a Mason. I got many research ideas from Kory L. Meyerink and Arlene H. Eakle. I was fascinated by the research results now available online MormonMigration.byu.edu about Mormon immigrant ships presented by Fred Woods. I have ordered the book When the Saints Went Marching In by Fred Woods and Tom Farmer about the history of Latter-day Saints in St. Louis. My ancestors William and Susannah Hurst and their family spent three years in St. Louis preparing to come west to Utah. I watched the documentary film Forgotten Ellis Island and heard its creator Lori Conway speak about it.
At the end of the day I had marvelous feelings of appreciation for all those who immigrated to our wonderful country. I am so thankful that my ancestors came here. I also am excited about pursuing their history.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

New Family Search Classes at Salt Lake City Family History Library

This week I completed the four-part series of classes on New Family Search at the Family History Libary. Sister Catherine Anderegg is an excellent teacher and I learned a lot. I will not fully know the software until I work with it more. But I feel confident enough now to keep working in it and to start teaching it to others. I hope I can motivate our ward members to sign up and start working in New Family Search as well as in Family Search Indexing.

My opinion of New Family Search is that it is a good thing. There are a lot of problems presently but after the problems are worked out we will have achieved three important things.

1. There will be a mostly accurate, evidence-based database of our ancestors on the Internet.
2.  Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be able to participate in Family History and perform temple ordinances for their ancestors without having to adopt the expensive time-consuming hobby of being genealogists.
3. Families will be able to learn about their ancestors and they will be able to co-ordinate their research and temple work with extended family members which will bring everyone closer together.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

National Genealogical Society Annual Conference

The National Genealogical Society Annual Conference will be held in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace Convention Center April 28 -- May 1. I have registered and am excited to attend. More information can be found here:  NGS Conference -- Follow Your Ancestral Trail

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Who Do You Think You Are? TV Series

And here’s the episode lineup for the NBC Series Who Do You Think You Are?:


March 5: Sarah Jessica Parker

March 12: Emmitt Smith

March 19: Lisa Kudrow

March 26: Matthew Broderick

April 2: Brooke Shields

April 9: Susan Sarandon

April 23: Spike Lee

It will be on NBC - KSL Channel 5 in Utah at 8:00 PM on Fridays

Monday, March 1, 2010

Rollins Family Research

On Saturday February 27, 2010 I went to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and started research on the Rollins Family lines. I focused on the family of Augustine Rollins/Rawlins and Elizabeth Wells. They were married 30 May 1776 in  Kirkby Green, Lincolnshire, England. I searched the parish register and bishop's transcripts for Kirkby Green and found records of the christenings of their children including Henry Rollins my  direct ancestor. The missionaries and the consultants at the library were very helpful.