THE NEW FAMILY SEARCH

Don and Lou came over today to teach me some new tricks about family history. In my BK (before kids) days, I did quite a lot of genealogical work and really enjoyed it. Since it appears that I may never reach the AK (after kids) stage of life, I figured I'd better gear up now to continue my family history work.

Boy, have things changed since the '70s! I did know about http://www.familysearch.org/, so I thought I was all cool and prepared when Don and Lou showed up and I was already logged in, ready to learn. The first thing I learned was that I was working at an already obsolete site and that I should be at http://www.new.familysearch.org/.

They were right. What a cool site! As the only LDS member of my family, I have always presumed it was all up to me to complete the work for my family. So I did not expect to find any of my people in the church genealogical database other than those that I myself had submitted. And at the old site, the obsolete familysearch site, that seemed to be true. But not here! Once I got far enough back in time, I did find some of my family THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAD SUBMITTED. I suddenly felt far less alone. And though I still have tons to learn about how to work the site, it seems easy to use.

Of course, the new family search site is not just for Mormon genealogists. It's for anyone interested in family history. You may be as surprised as I was today to find some of your own people there. Living people do not appear, so only look for your dead ancestors.

I have been hankering to get back to family history work for quite some time. I knew that all it would take would be one little push, someone to teach me just enough to get started again. Thanks to Don and Lou, I foresee many happy hours ahead unraveling family history mysteries, piecing people together, forging family links that span the eternities.