How Do You Eat An Elephant?

For several years now I've felt like it's my season to work on Family History. I was working with the youth a few years ago when Elder Bednar gave his talk about the youth of this generation being prepared for these days and their ability to use technology to do great things with Family History. Br. Keith and I started taking the youth in our ward through the Family History Course during our combined mutual activities. We moved shortly after we got started and I was called to work in Relief Society in Chambersburg. Season's change and I was fairly busy and had a hard time getting Family History done.

I've gotten file boxes full of files from both Oma and my dad, visited my local family history center a few times, and not accomplished much. I seemed to get lost and frustrated by the simplest things. I heard all this talk about how much easier it is now yada yada yada. I seemed to be doing a good job of duplicating what had already been done, but not making much progress or adding new information.

I gathered all my files and put them near the desk. Occasionally I would sit down, decide this is the day I'd really get started, go to familysearch.org, choose a file, spread it's information out on my desk, attempt to do something, get lost and frustrated, pick another file, get more frustrated and overwhelmed, and give up, telling myself I'd try again another day.

My dad's Uncle Chuck passed away a little over a year ago and Oma has been having dreams about her cousin Joyce that leads us to believe she's ready to have her temple work done. At times the veil seems to thin and Oma has had similar dreams about people in the past. Again I've felt that it's time to get serious about doing Family History.

I've been trying to prayerfully ask for guidance on how to proceed. The thought crossed my mind, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" I've begun going through the files I have, page by page, line by line. Much of what I've reviewed so far is already on the computer, but I've been able to fill in some holes, "find my cousins" as Elder Neil Andersen has recommended and things are happening bit by bit. Minutes turn into hours and I'm beginning to see how easy it is to get lost in Family History.

The other day I decided it was time to get Uncle Chuck temple ready. I opened my file box and was surprised when my blue binder that contained much of the information I have for my side of the family was missing. I looked through each of my family history file boxes several times, growing more anxious each time I looked. I was afraid I had lost this important information. I had been so sure that blue binder would be in that box. I decided it would be better to pray to panic. i felt impressed to think back on when I had last used the binder. I wasn't sure, but I knew if I had used it while we lived in Pittsburgh I would have used it in the room we used as an office where the computer was located. I let things work in the back of my mind for a few hours and had the thought that it was probably packed in one of the boxes with Matt's office stuff. I began to feel better, but realized there were several boxes of office things. Some were in the guest room closet and some were buried down stairs. I continued to have a prayer in my heart and decided it was time to go see if I could find it. I was blessed that of all the boxes marked "Matt's Office", I found the binder in the first box I looked in.

I'm grateful for that experience. It reinforced my testimony of prayer and the blessing of divine help when working on Family History. It was a team effort. I was allowed to think and reason, then Heavenly Father was able to lead and guide.

Working to get Uncle Chuck's information temple ready led me to his brother, my great uncle Jack Remmy. I enjoyed finding the find a grave source that let me see his grave marker and obituary from the paper. It reminded me of the visits we made to the fire station where Uncle Jack worked when I was a child and other memories. Going up the stairs at the firehouse there was a nail in the floor
that looked like a nickel or quarter. Year after year I tried to pick up that coin when I went up those stairs.

I have been able to see old documents and records such as census records, marriage and death certificates, draft cards, obituaries etc. My family is becoming more and more real to me. (I was able to look at the 1920 United States Census that listed my Grandpa Gates and his family when he was a child. He had been entered as Bryle Gates so I looked at the image and could see how the handwriting looked like BrylE, but was really Bruce E)

I learned that my grandfather's grandfather died in a wounded soldier's home in Kansas and that he was paralysed to some degree. My family has a long history of valiant military service.

I have been trying to get information on Oma's cousin Joyce, but hadn't been making much progress. I learned that sometimes asking the right questions makes all the difference. As I talked to Oma the other day and  began to ask a few questions, I discovered that her cousin Joyce was actually her cousin Alice Joyce. I was better able to determine the range of dates I was needing to search. With the additional information I received I was able to find Joyce and get her temple ready. I was able to add her husband and her sisters to our family tree.

This past week I was able to merge several people and find several others. I now have a batch of about 30 temple ready files we'll be able to take with us when we have our youth temple trip on the 28th of this month. I was also able to find a few individuals who we began temple work for, but need to finish. I'm sorry that we didn't finish sooner, but grateful I discovered them now so we can finish their work.

I can still get a bit overwhelmed when I look at those boxes of family history files, but I find peace in knowing I can eat this elephant in the room, one bite at a time. Each bite represents a tie to the past and an individual who needs to be remembered and united. Thanks to technology and the information now available these individuals are becoming real to me. I can get a sense of who they are, where they lived and what they did.

I still hope that I can get Hannah on board with the Youth Temple Challenge to take as many names to the temple as she does baptisms for. Many promises of strength and protection that come as a result of participating in Family History are given by prophets and apostles. These blessings are what I want for her, what parent wouldn’t. My challenge is to help her discover it for herself.

This past week was the RootTech Conference and Family Discovery Day in Salt Lake City. The timing was perfect for me. It is good for me to hear so many wonderful testimonies of Family History right now as I’m trying to make this my season and purpose.