Temple Work and Sharing Stories of Honorable People

I would like to express gratitude to those involved in Indexing at FamilySearch. Your quiet service often goes unrecognized, but it makes such a difference!

Recently I was working to identify the members of a devout Catholic family. The family had 10 children, but not much was known about what became of most of them. I ran across a newspaper photo of the mother with all six of her daughters. All of the daughters had become nuns and were assigned to fields of labor all around the Midwest. Part of the process of becoming a nun involves choosing a new religious name and so this is why they seemed to vanish from records. The caption under the photo identified the daughters only as Sister Laura or Sister Madeline, but it also noted the hospital, orphanage or care center where they were assigned. The new challenge became trying to match each daughters’ birth name with their Sister name. With the help of an index to social security claims, and using the parents’ names as my search criteria, I was able to see a list of the daughters’ religious names with their respective birth dates and then match the birth dates to the birth names to make the connection. Having that index was such a timesaver! It paved the way for me to go on and find the daughters in census records, also because of indexing. It’s a happy thought to know that the legacy of these devoted Sisters, who spent their lives in service to the poor and needy, can now be shared in the Family Tree and their temple work completed.

--Diane Demars
Stake Family History Consultant

Youth Perspective on The Importance of Family, Journals and Recording Your History

All growing up, I remember going to visit my Great Grandma Lewis. We would usually go to her house at least every other week and when we walked in, my brother Carson and I would walk towards a huge cookie tin she had on her counter.  We’d grab our regular box of animal crackers and sit down by her coffee table while she talked to us and our mom.  

Even after her being gone for a little over six years, I still remember laughing at all of her stories and opinions that she told. She was a very outspoken woman and was not afraid to share embarrassing stories about herself or others and I often benefited from that. When my grandmother died, the thing that made me the most sad was the fact that I couldn’t remember all of the stories she told me. I was lucky enough to remember her smile and the way we laughed together but those stories were a part of her memory and I had already forgotten them.  I told my mom why I was so upset and she lit up knowing that she could fix it.  She went and got my grandma’s autobiography that I hadn’t known about.  Her book is about 900 pages long and she died at the age of 90. 

As I began reading it, I started recognizing some stories she had told me as well as ones I had never heard about. I got to know my grandmother on a more personal level as I read about how her ancestors arrived in Utah and some stories from their lives and her testimony about them. I felt a deeper connection to her as I read about her childhood and her years in the young women’s program that I had recently become a part of. Soon, I started reading about her mission that she served with her second husband who died while they were serving in London.  

She spoke about how she felt encouraged by the Spirit to begin recording her and her late husband’s history as well as doing much of their genealogy work. Reading about the warmth and peace she felt while doing this work inspired me to begin working on genealogy and start keeping a journal.  

Although I’m not as persistent, detailed, and well spoken as she is, I have set a goal for myself to write about my week each Sunday night.  This goal has helped me to remember the Lord every Sabbath as I see how he touched my life every week.  I am so grateful for the example my grandmother set for me and often ponder about the differences in my life had she not followed her promptings from the Lord.

-Madison Sickler, Stake Family History Youth Consultant, Smithfield 6th Ward