Doing Family History At Home (in my pajamas!!) This handout assumes you have the internet in your home.

Remember to pray for guidance from our Heavenly Father each day you work on your Family History. Ask him to inspire you as to those individuals who are ready to receive their ordinances. Take it one step at a time and go at your own pace.

Steps One Gather records, photos, birth certificates, address books, etc. that you have around your home and organize them in one place. A box may work well at first.

Two Download Personal Ancestral File (PAF) from www..org. To do this, click on Software/Downloads on the bar at the top of the Home screen. To learn how to use PAF - try one or both of the following: 1. Online training for beginners - http://261.byu.edu 2. Under the Help menu in PAF, scroll to lessons or users guide.

Three Enter as much information as you know on your family. (Include a source even if it is your knowledge. Look at the users guide or the BYU lesson to see how to add a source.)

Four Determine what others have done. Do both of the following: 1. Find out if anyone in your extended family has a database and ask them for a copy. They could even email this to you. Import this into your PAF file or use their file and import your information into theirs. (Ask a Ward Consultant to come help.) 2. Search www.familysearch.org for a file that has been submitted to the church on your ancestors. These are called Ancestral Files or Pedigree Resource Files. If you find that there is an Ancestral File, you can download it from the Internet, but you will not get any dates. It is best to go to a Family History Center and have the worker get you a copy off the old DOS Family Search program. This will include temple dates. If you find a Pedigree Resource File, write down the Computer Disk number and file. Go to your Family History Center and have them download it for you. If you obtain a file, make sure to verify the information. Do not import it into your file until you have done so. Or you can keep it separate from yours if you like.

Five To update the temple ordinance dates in your file, you can download ($20) or order ($30) PAFInsight from www.ohanasoftware.com. This program will automatically compare your database to the Temple Ordinances online at

Copyright © 2005 , Women's Conference. All Rights Reserved. www.familysearch.org. These ordinance dates are current up to a couple of days ago. If you don’t want to pay for it, see if it is available at your nearest Family History Center. (You need to know your LDS Record Membership number and you confirmation date to be able to access the Temple Ordinances. Ask your ward clerk for a printout. Register at www.familysearch.org the first time you check for temple dates.)

Or, you can check for individuals one by one, by going to www.familysearch.org, signing on, clicking on the International Genealogical Index on the left hand side of the screen, and typing the individuals information. Ask your ward consultant for help.

Six Prayerfully ask Heavenly Father to help you know the person or family you need to find ordinance work for. Concentrate on your 3-5 generations first. You could also ask a relative if there is a certain line you could work on. Work on one family at a time. You may already have a name that you have been thinking about. This is a prompting. Be sure to listen to these promptings. You may even have a genealogy dream about an ancestor, write these promptings/dreams down.

If you are having a hard time knowing who needs their work done, do the following. Open your PAF file. Under the Edit menu, scroll down to Print Reports. Click on the Lists tab, select LDS incomplete individual ordinances, preview, and print. Do the same for LDS incomplete marriage sealings and print. These are the individuals in your file that need their ordinances done.

Seven At this point you should have one family or individual you want to find information on. Look at the family and make sure it is complete. Do you think there are children missing? Is there a big gap between children, more than 3 years? Are the children sealed to their spouses?

Eight Now the fun part begins, grab your spy glass and detective hat and start digging for information so you can get your ancestors ordinance work done. Remember you need an event and a date. Try and get complete dates before you estimate them. Refer to A Member’s Guide, page 10-12, for information needed to perform ordinances.

Nine Search various Internet Sites for each individual of the family who need temple ordinances. These are some of the best websites available, but there are many more. www.ancestry.com - search the entire database for an individual. This is a subscription website that can be accessed free at most Family History Centers, BYU, and . Sometimes they offer a free trial period, contact them to try it out. If the name is fairly common do an Advanced Search so you can narrow it down to a place, etc. If the name could be spelled differently,

Copyright © 2005 Brigham Young University, Women's Conference. All Rights Reserved. click on Soundex. Click on all the hits. There are US and UK census records which you can view online, marriage, death, birth records, Periodical entries, probate records, etc. They are also beginning to get many records from other countries. Just click on everything you think might be a match. Put a message on the message board to see if someone might be able to help you. Ancestry has US Census indexes and images for 1790 - 1930. If you find your ancestor on a census, you can estimate their age for temple if you can’t locate their birthdate. www.familysearch.org - search the entire database by searching for an individual with All Resources selected at the left to see if other records besides the IGI match the name. Click on all the hits that might be your individual. This site has US Census index and information for 1880 and various vital records and Social Security death index. www.usgenweb.com - this site is great if you know the state and/or county a person lived in. Go to the State page, see what is available on a state level, and then click on the county to see what is available. Sometimes there are vital records (birth, marriage, death), cemetery records, etc. Also, look for a volunteer look-up. These volunteers will go to the county building for you to find records and email or send them to you. They do this free of charge. www.worldgenweb.org - this site is great to find more information about an international country. Click on the on the world map you are interested in. www.godfrey.org this site requires a fee of $35.00 a year, but is well worth it. This site has a great US census record collection and access to PERSI (Periodical Source Index). www.genealogy.com - this site is a subscription site, contact your Family History Center to see if they have it. I have found immigration records, marriage records, US census records, etc. www.cyndislist.com - This is a categorized and cross-referenced index to genealogical resources on the Internet. If you are not sure where to find something, this site will point you to different internet sites. www.ellisislandrecords.org - Search this site if you believe an ancestor immigrated to the US between 1894 - 1924. www.google.com - or any other search engine. Search for your individual and see what turns up. You never know.

Ten If you need more information and you know the place where your ancestor lived,

Copyright © 2005 Brigham Young University, Women's Conference. All Rights Reserved. go to www.familysearch.org , click on the Library tab at the top, and then click on Catalog to see what is available at the FHL in Salt Lake. ( If you need help with this contact your ward consultant, and/or ask to borrow the Family History Library Catalog Video to see how to use the library). When you find a film/fiche you want to look at, write the number down, or print it out (scroll to the bottom of the page for a printable version of the page). Then you can do one of the following:

1. Go to the your Family History Center and order the microfilm or microfiche. (You can not order a book or census records.) Someone will call you in a few weeks, and you can go look at it. 2. BYU has some of the films, microfiche, U.S. census records, and books that Salt Lake does. Call them or look at HBLL library catalog online at www.byu.edu, select Libraries on the left hand side, then select Harold B. Lee library. In the middle of the page towards the bottom, click on Call no. and search for the call number. If they have it, you will go to the Family History Center at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU.

Eleven If you find the information you need, enter it into PAF and check the IGI on www.familysearch.org (remember to sign-in at the top right hand corner). If the work has not been done take a backup of your PAF file or a GEDCOM of those names you want to submit to the temple to the your Family History Center and tell the consultants you need to Submit names for the temple. They can help you with TempleReady. **Take two extra diskettes with you, or you can buy them there.

Twelve Take the diskettes to the temple and have them print out the cards for the family or individual. Have your family help do the ordinances.

Thirteen Prayerfully pick another family/individual that needs temple ordinances and go back to step nine.

As you search for names, you may become frustrated and want to give up. Don’t let Satan win. He will discourage you because, of course, he does not want you to find your ancestors. Ask someone for help if you get stuck and always have a prayer in your heart.

Remember as you do this work, you become a Savior on Mount Zion. As you meet those people on the other side, they will be so thankful for your faithfulness. Consecrate a few hours a week, and you will feel a peace in your life and your family will be blessed.

Copyright © 2005 Brigham Young University, Women's Conference. All Rights Reserved.