• Opening Song: Family History - I Am Doing It, Children's Songbook #94- Download MP3 With words or Music only
  • Scripture: "For For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." 1 Peter 4:6

A year ago my grandfather passed away and only a year after his wife. They were not members of the church which is the case for all of the family members I know besides myself. I patiently waited a year to submit the names for temple ordinances and the process has seriously increased my testimony of temple work and searching for my family history.

Genealogy Record

So you are probably thinking "Where do I start?" Well your first goal should be to complete a 4 generation ancestral pedigree chart. You need a place to record your information and you can download several forms at FamilySearch.org. Here is a link directly to the pedigree chart. Another common form is the family group record. If you want to use a computer, you can download Personal Ancestral File for free and the program can also print out these forms for you.

Filling out your pedigree chart may be easier than you think for most people. Before you officially start researching, talk to every relative you know and try to verify information on names, dates, and places of births, marriages, and deaths. Be sure to ask for copies of any birth, marriage and death records. More than likely, someone has them for parents, grandparents or great grandparents that have passed away.

Once you have received as much information through people you know, it is time to start your research. Your local family history center will be a great source of information. You can find your closest Family History Center at FamilySearch.org. Here are some things you should be able to accomplish there:

  1. The family history center workers usually have a lot of experience and can provide answers to many questions on where and how to look for more information. Sometimes the really experienced workers only show up to the history center on specific days.
  2. They may have access to paysites like Ancestry Databases which have a wealth of different resources but normally require a fee to use.
  3. You can submit your work and create a temple ready file for the temple work to be done for your family

Just a tip, when I don't have have a lot of information, I usually start with the census.  When you know nothing else but family names, you will probably be able to positively identify the family in a census.  Different censuses provide different information but from about 1880 on, you will at least know age, relationship to each other in family, sex, race, birth state or country, and birth state or country of parents.  There is also other information usually available like whether they own or rent, if they have received any education, and what kind of work they do.

Eventually you will find identifying counties that individuals were born, lived or died will be important because then you can order vital records, search for newspaper articles or county history books, and search for grave sites.

I have to say Ancestry Databases is the most useful site I found yet.  It is a paysite, but the 14 Day Free trial will help you find out if it will be helpful to you.  They have almost every census completely indexed by peoples names and you can view and print out scanned in images of the census page.  This is just an example of the many things available at Ancestry, so check it out.

Some other great places to look online for information:

Some examples of records which contain useful information:

  • Census Reports (1880 Census available for free)
  • Birth, Marriage, and Death Records
  • Land Owner Records
  • Obituaries and other newspaper articles
  • County History books
  • Local church records
  • Activity:
    1. Print out a pedigree chart and attempt to fill it out as a family. Give a call to Grandma and Grandpa to get more information.
    2. If you can identify family names that were alive in 1880, go to http://www.FamilySearch.org and search for their names.
    3. Share a story of when you or your parents were young to your children.
    4. Show and share your vital records (birth certificates, etc) with your children so they see what they look like and what information is available on them.
Return to Lessons Page

Contact Us