Genealogy is... Doable

{Preface}

It was the second time attending the Boston temple that I heard an off-hand remark that I will never forget. I had arrived early, earlier than the workers I had realized as I sat in the empty locker room. Finally, two workers appeared to attend to me and as they prepared for the day they made small talk- as usual they asked me where I was from, if I was married, if I had any little ones, how old Caleb was, the conversation de jour (actually l'année). Finally one sister took the conversation upon herself and talked about her gifted son, a piano prodigy since birth. I’m guessing this wasn’t the first time the other sister had heard this yarn, and she nodded methodically as she listened, and when the praise of her companion ceased she said, “Well, yes, that’s how it is for some, but the rest of us have to keep banging away.”

That, is a statement to live by. Music, is not a strength of mine (unless you count page-turning, I’m an excellent page-turner; I have credentials and come highly recommended).

We each have talents and gifts. I’m a firm believer that every talent given is linked to a perfecting attribute. If you are “intuned” with music, you may not only be the creator of peaceful sounding melodies, but be a patient person and serene in demeanor- you know how to create peace. The same goes with any talent.

But what if you don’t have that talent? Should you just assume it’s not meant for you? Should that talent along with its attribute fall by the wayside because we were not innate prodigies?

My seminary teacher gave me this quote and I read it quite often:

Genealogy, friends, is a talent. It will not come easy to everyone. It requires certain abilities and attributes that you may not be equipped with at this time, but if you keep banging away you’ll get it- and you’ll acquire qualities that will make you more perfect. I promise.

Just as there is a season for perfect scripture study, well-rounded food storage, and cultivating a family, there is a season for genealogy in your life. Take your time.

{To work on genealogy

for at least 35 minutes

for one week.}

(That’s at least five minutes a day!)

PART ONE: PRAY AND DO IT.

Here are some ideas for activities:

Interview, call up a family member and ask them some questions and record them!

Journal, answer one question a day or freelance!

Baby books, you know you have been meaning to get around to it!

Scrapbook your family tree or about ancestors

Create a family history activity book

Have spotlight on a relative for Family Home Evening

Tell your child a story about your childhood or a spiritual experience you’ve had.

Play a family history-related game, like memory with photographs and names

Teach your child family relation terms, like grandma and cousin, etc

Take a fieldtrip to a genealogical landmark

Take pictures of your house and label them with the full address and date

Research your four generations

Try to find your ancestor’s graves

Organize your genealogical materials

Learn about your full name and record your findings

Offer to help someone research their four generations

Learn and cook a family recipe, record a memory about it

Create a four generation display for your home

Join RAOGK, and help someone out

If you are a member of the Church and it is available in your area, please sign up for New Family Search

PART TWO: SHARE IT.

After one week, please write about your experience, what you have learned or how your testimony has grown and share it with others. Especially me! Please e-mail me, send me a message via facebook, leave a comment on the blog- whatever!

PLEASE IF YOU HAVE A BLOG make a post about it, entitle your post “Genealogy is…” and insert your own phrase and let me know you have done so, so I can read it! Challenge others if you want, you can even link back here!

Blessings

Five more days until my parents arrive!

Genealogy is... Romantic

The December before we headed East, we planned a trip up to Blackfoot, Idaho. The purpose of our trip was to see some of Mike’s family members and to take pictures of some genealogical landmarks, like the Blackfoot tabernacle (which is now a mortuary, yikes, that’s a story for another day) and a few graves in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately it dumped snow the entire time we are in Salt Lake, so the graves were covered and we never got the pictures.
Last month I asked my friend Marné to do me a favor while in Salt Lake, to take a few snapshots of the graves we couldn’t during our trip. Marné was successful, and it was a delightful surprise when I informed Michael that Marné had pictures of his ancestors’ resting place.
Yeah, yeah. I know, your husband wouldn’t find it very romantic to receive a cemetery plot map and photographs of tombstones, but there is something more to this, I promise, and I’m getting to it!

Through genealogy I’m beginning to understand the word ALL.
And how it pertains to time and eternity, and the love I have for my husband.
As I trace my lineage and the lineage of my husband, I begin to understand the eternal nature of our being, and how it is possible that we have always existed.
Have you ever heard the expression

“I love you to pieces”?
I love all my husband’s abilities, and inabilities, his features, his mannerisms, just everything. The sum of who my husband is and what he will become is due, a great deal, to his family, both eternal and earthly. How can I not want to be with ALL of him, any part of him that has ever existed? How could I not love him to “pieces” even the pieces of his pedigree?

My marriage to my husband is for all time and eternity. Just as my husband’s time on earth did not begin at the wedding alter, neither does eternity begin at our demise.
Through genealogy, my love grows for my husband and the people who made his mortality possible, just as my love for him perpetually cultivates as I watch our son mature. Family, now and then, past and present, is all about love.

It’s terribly romantic, really.

So, yeah, it’s “just" a plot map but what it represents is part of ALL my love for him.

So, until next week…
it’s ALL or nothing!

Next week... the challenge!