A friend of mine shared some thoughts that have gotten me thinking.

She talked about how much she loves nature. She and her husband love to take walks outside (when they were younger, they hiked a lot). As for so many of us, she finds being in nature soothing to her soul.

For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, He is found in nature. He is the Creator of the earth. He is the Creator and source of light in sun, moon, and stars. The peace we can find among His creations is His peace.

My friend built on this idea and made a spiritual connection to the notion of the tree of life. She explored the idea of staying at the tree — like the one mentioned in the Book of Mormon in Lehi’s vision of the tree of life.

The tree there represents Jesus Christ. To stay at the tree — to be a tree-hugger spiritually — is to stay by Jesus. That vision given to Lehi has many elements to it, and staying at the tree is one of the key protections against things like mocking voices and the shame that can come from listening to them. (I think about how easy it is to listen to shame from hamster-wheel thoughts in my own mind; I don’t need external mocking voices to feel toxic shame. Keeping Jesus close in my thoughts can help, especially when I remember that His voice is one of love and care and gentleness.)

Reflecting on my friend’s thoughts made me think of John 15 (see also Isaiah 27) about Jesus being the true vine. To truly stay by the tree is to be connected to Him as the Source of life (both now and forever). He is the Source of breath for our bodies. He is the One who makes resurrection possible for us all. His life as the True Vine showed us the Way, and His death (on a tree, as it is sometimes said) and resurrection made the Way for us to be forgiven and someday to return back to our Heavenly Parents.

My friend also talked about her love of family history. More trees to hug! I, too, love doing family history and discovering more about my family tree, and helping use the wonders of technology to build family trees in tools like FamilySearch and Ancestry. When I do family history, I feel like I sometimes can get a glimpse of how personally each of us is known to God. Even in a few records, I can learn more about a person — what they looked like, what their profession might have been, perhaps where they lived and how they died. When I find someone in the records who hasn’t yet been represented on a family tree, sometimes I stop and just say their name out loud. “I see you.” I sometimes wish I could give them a hug! But helping their stories be told feels like a way to show love for them. These people are not dead to God, and building family trees in records helps me remember that. Like in the Disney movie Coco (about el Día de los Muertos — a movie about family history!), they need not be dead to us. We benefit when we remember them and tell their stories (and let records help us do that).

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, building family trees in records also connects us to the temple. My friend talked about this, too — about the peace she finds in the rootedness of the temple. In the temple, sacred ordinances are performed to bind families together. The crowning ordinance performed therein is called the sealing ordinance — where husband and wife can be married for time and eternity — not just “until death do us part.” The authority to bind families together in this way was committed to Joseph Smith shortly after the dedication of the Kirtland temple when Elijah the prophet — the one who spoke anciently of hearts of fathers turning to children and children to fathers — came (just as other ancient leaders had done earlier to restore the power to baptize (John the Baptist) and to confirm the Holy Ghost (Peter, James, and John).

Once people receive temple ordinances for themselves (some of them symbolic of ordinances received in ancient times), then we can act as “proxies” for those who have passed on. In a favorite film of mine, called “The Mountain of the Lord,” President Wilford Woodruff is portrayed speaking to a newspaper reporter, who scoffed a bit at this idea of doing proxy work for the dead. I like how President Woodruff’s response to the reporter was represented.

“Many people believe in some form of vicarious work for the dead. The Atonement of Jesus Christ was a vicarious work. Whoever accepts Jesus as the Savior also accepts the principle of vicarious proxy.”

Since these ordinances require a physical body, we who have physical bodies act as proxy for those who do not have bodies anymore, as death separates body and spirit until the time of resurrection. And then those who have had ordinances performed on their behalf have the opportunity to choose to accept or reject them.

You can learn more about Jesus’ visit to the spirit world after His death (as referred to in 1 Peter 3:18-19), in Doctrine and Covenants 138.)

I love patterns and symbols, and appreciated my friend’s invitation to think about trees today, and all the many ways I can be a tree hugger.

The post Be a tree hugger! On earth and for heaven’s sake appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

We realized we had a draft buried about the “world’s largest family celebration” (for genealogists, family history hobbyist, and anyone interested in learning more about connecting more to your roots). It’s called RootsTech and it’s going on free right now.

Learning about our roots can help us as humans.

“We can find peace and understanding by learning from our ancestors. The resilience our forbears developed can inspire us to overcome challenges and avoid mistakes that others have made. Everyone has scoundrels and heroes in their family tree. Discovering information about ancestors can bring understanding and compassion for them and ourselves.” (Robin Olsen Worthlin)

I really don’t like COVID-19, but I do appreciate the way it’s inviting people to think about how to make amazing resources more freely available.

You can register for RootsTech here.

Here’s the RootsTech Mainstage schedule. And a schedule of sessions.

Many RootsTech sessions exist in a wide variety of languages. Instructions also exist within the content about how to translate content.

Find RootsTech session archives here.

You can also see highlights from the conference using the hashtag #RootsTechConnect or on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

The post RootsTech is FREE and happening right now! appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Wendy Watson Nelson, the wife of the prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a big fan of family history. She talks about doing family history as one way to open the heavens.

I was impressed as I listened to some of her experiences that she has recorded specific family history miracles.

So I wanted to record a recent experience.

Elmer C. Mathews and his wife, Addie Ostrander Mathews, distant relatives of mine, had a child listed in FamilySearch, but the program flagged this child as being born before the mother was able to have children (birth years were only 8 years apart). Also, the last name of the child was different (Rae). So I dug deeper.

I love looking for the original records (not indexes, if possible). There was a census record available. I looked at it and at first, couldn’t make sense of it. I asked questions in my mind about what could have been possible. Could this be a child from another marriage? Could the dates have been recorded incorrectly? Then I noticed that James Rae’s name was not indented in the census as children usually are. His name was recorded as though he was a head of a new household.

That led me to look at the address section of the census record. It said “See page 8A4.” I was on page 13 of the census. So I went back a few pages…and sure enough, on page 8A, line 4, there were James M. Rae and Harriet P. Rae.

I was so excited to be able to update the records in FamilySearch (each record represents real people!).

I worked then on merging the records that already existed for this family (and finding more original records to verify that James Rae is indeed James N (not James F as originally indexed…hard-to-read handwriting sometimes means errors in indexing).

With more of this work, I discovered that James’ middle name is Nathaniel (as per a typed directory that shows him living with his father, James M…at the very same address that was listed on page 8A, line 4: 367 Pennsylvania Avenue in Elmira, NY)!

After a couple of hours working on cleaning up the records, I was also able to create a new record for a different James and Harriett. I also found James Nathaniel’s baby brother who died at age 1. The census that was so strange had indicated that James and Harriett had had 4 children, 3 living. Now Charles D. Rae can be sealed to his parents, once temples are once again opened for what is called proxy ordinance work.

Family history is a true love of mine, both because it’s just such a fun challenge (a kind of data science) and because of my deep belief in the eternal nature of life, and God’s desire for families to be connected through priesthood authority beyond death’s door.

I love bringing families together through family history. Bringing their records together. Using records to tell more of their stories. Mourning with them as I learn more of their stories, as many of them had very hard lives. Rejoicing with them, too. I feel the power of family woven throughout their stories…seeing widowed parents living with their children, or siblings taking in single siblings, for example.

The power of family is as old as time (and older). I feel like these people know that I’m here trying to help them, and sometimes I feel their desire to help me do that. It usually takes a while for me to find a groove each time I open up FamilySearch, but almost every time I do family history work, something like this happens. There’s a ZING of energy as pieces of a family’s puzzle come together. I feel a little like we’re having a little bit of a family reunion through the veil.

The post Family History Miracles appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

A key doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that families can be together forever through priesthood covenants and ordinances. When we invite people to come to Christ through baptism, we are also inviting them to begin the work of connecting their family through family history and temple work.

In the second video below, President Henry B. Eyring talks about how the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ included the fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Malachi about the hearts of the children turning to their fathers and the fathers to the children.

Expanded resources at Family Search are available to help people do family history work, including the new Family Tree program. You can also now share photos and stories as part of creating your Family Tree. This service is available to anyone — you don’t have to be a Mormon to take advantage of the millions of free records and the resources that can help you create your own family history.

The post Mormon Doctrine of the Eternal Family appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

An unprecedented genealogy/family history project is being launched today, in a joint effort between Archives.com, FamilySearch, findmypast.com, and other leading genealogy organizations. The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project involves indexing free digital images from the 1940 census that will be made available today. The indexing work will make these census records available for online searching.

You can be part of this community genealogical project. Find out more about how to get started here.

The video below explains more about the National Archives work put into digitizing the 1940 census, and how you can find people you may know in this census.

Do you know someone who is in it? Those people who were part of what has been called the “greatest generation” (those who experienced the Great Depression, World War II, and other significant historical events and developments) are in it. Find more

Find out more about the 1940 Census Community Project

The post The 1940 U.S. Census Community Genealogy Project – Launches Today! appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Are you interested in family history or genealogy, but aren’t quite sure where or how to start? There are new — and free — family history training videos available online. The Church’s FamilySearch program has partnered with other experts in the field to provide excellent training.

There are dozens of courses available, including research courses as well as accreditation, certification, and professional presentations.

See a complete list of the online family history courses available and/or access the courses. (What courses sound interesting to you?) We’d love to hear feedback from anyone who has used these courses.

Here is more information on what kinds of classes are available (or that will soon be available):

Currently, there are classes on family history research in England, Ireland, Germany, Mexico, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Poland and Russia. Most of the classes are available only in English, but there are three classes available in Spanish. There are also topic-specific classes, such as U.S. courthouse research, military records and using maps in genealogy.

Not all of the classes are exclusive to genealogy. For example, there is one class that talks about symbolism and art in cemeteries. There are also courses that help students understand different languages, such as Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and even Scandinavian Gothic.

Some of the offerings coming in the next couple of months include interactive beginning research classes for Germany and the U.S. Midwest, as well as a new videocast called “5-Minute Genealogy” that offers quick tips on learning about your ancestors.

In addition to these online resources, FamilySearch continues to offer in-person help through classes at the Family History Library and at local family history centers around the world.

Find out more about services available at local family history centers.

Find a local family history center near you (available in many countries).

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We may joke and roll our eyes but at some point in everyone’s life it is really worth taking a peek into your family’s past. I tried it, and guess what? It was fun! It’s family reunion and private investigation all rolled into one. But you provide your own watermelon and take it at your own pace.

It’s easy to start. Print out a simple family tree, also called a pedigree chart. Start with yourself and see how much you can fill in without asking anyone else. Then ask a relative for help – Mother, Grandmother, Aunt or Uncle. Or look at a family Bible or other such book. The first time I tried this it amazed me what I didn’t know. How could I not know my own grandmother’s maiden name? And dates, well I didn’t know any of those!

Most likely by the time you fill out a pedigree chart you will be curious about some aspect of your family. Where did they come from? Why is their name different? That person was adopted? Hm…that birth date is awfully close to the parents’ wedding date…. You just never know what you’re going to find!

As you may have heard, the Mormon Church is very excited about genealogy, sometimes called family history. We just love families! Many LDS meetinghouses include a family history center. They have computers, microfilm readers, books, and most important of all – knowledgeable staff to help guide your research. Check out this link for the family history center near you. The centers are a service to the community, free of charge. No proselytizing goes on in family history centers so there is no need to feel uncomfortable going there. (You can also find much information online at Family Search — a free database of millions of digitally indexed records. You can even help index records here.)

There is a bit of urgency to family history work. My husband’s energetic Grandma now has dementia. Somehow the fibers of her mind have let those stories she held so dear slip away. But because of her previous family history efforts the records of her family are secure for generations to come.

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