I caught the ‘genealogy bug’ a few years ago.  My grandmother, who converted me to the Church, was zealous in getting her family history work done.  Together with our ward family history consultant, she got hundreds of names prepared and submitted to the temple.  Finding out that I am a descendant of William the Conqueror, I do admit, was quite a push to do my own research.

With so much of my father’s line done (my grandmother, brother and I are the only members of our family to have joined the Church on the Earth), I set about looking into my mother’s line.  After much procrastination, I submitted my maternal grandparents to the temple and had the privilege of being confirmed for my grandfather.  As I am unendowed still, I am now relying on other people to get the further ordinances completed.  Anyway, after my grandparents’ baptisms and confirmation, I had the distinct impression, which has remained with me since, that my grandmother accepted or embraced her baptism.  After she was endowed (my other grandmother was proxy!), I again received the same impression.  I think that was one of the reasons why the Spirit of Elijah has touched me so much: I was spiritually enthralled by those promptings.

Since then, I really got into genealogy.  My mother’s family is South African.  Finding information for the South African deceased is somewhat of a challenge.  After finding that our National Archives has conveniently indexed a considerable amount of their records, I searched the website.  South African death notices contain a wealth of information, including the deceased’s parents, children, spouse or spouses, et cetera.  I found one of my great-grandparents and felt that first ‘kick’ that only finding an ancestor can bring.

Since then, I’ve expanded on my father’s line as well, making use of Ancestry.co.uk, whose databases are truly invaluable.  I have thus become so into genealogy that I am certain it will be a life-long hobby.

Naturally, upon hearing about New FamilySearch, I was caught into the snare!  I think that I am now obsessed with it, despite the fact that the Johannesburg temple is only going live sometime next month.  I am so captivated by the concept and to hear that President Hinckley asked for it gives the project that divine stamp of approval.

Earlier this year, I discovered that FamilySearch has been commandeering a massive indexing project and that they invite volunteers to assist in digitising the entire vault in Salt Lake City.  I naturally volunteered and eventually got my grandmother into doing it.  She does at least one batch every day.  I haven’t the time to do that, but I nevertheless do do as much as possible.

Having recently assisted in transcribing Irish marriage indices, I am most excited for the advent of the Irish birth, marriage and death indices to be made available on the pilot FamilySearch record search.  I Irish lines and since they decided to burn down their census records and make access to the BMD indices to difficult, I will be able break down many brick walls I have encountered.  Obviously, NFS will also be able to assist me in this regard as I am hopeful that I have long-lost family somewhere out there who have contributed to those lines I cannot find.

I often think of counsel I received from my ward family history consultant.  She said that since redeeming the dead is a third of the mission of the Church, a third of our time should be spent doing it.