Introduction

If you're like me, you've spent a good many General Conferences cringing whenever "Family History" was brought up. 

Home teaching? Check.

Generous Fast Offering? Check. 

Family History? Dang...well... you know...I'm busy...really busy....

It's not that we wouldn't gladly rush to the aid of our forgotten ancestors, trailing glad tidings of salvation in our wake. It's just that the process of Family History work bewilders us. Ought we rappel down into a dusty vault, Indiana Jones style, casting our flashlight beam along endless tomes marked Anderson, Andersen, Andorsen, etc, etc? 

Or perhaps you are like my dear 12-year old sister, Rachel. Having treasured up the words of the prophets in her heart like a good little Beehive, she went onto familysearch.org and starting clicking buttons. Two hours later, my parents bore the brunt of a very angry phone call from Aunt So-and-So in Connecticut, complaining that Rachel had deleted Great-Grandpa Vernon from the tree, and would you please leave the family history work to the octogenarians of the family who know what they are doing, thank you very much. (Poor Rachel.) 

This blog is designed to empower the willing of heart but the bewildered of mind. I assume that you have a basic understanding of why we do family history work in this church. I assume that you at least know the general goal. (If not, I invite you to read this article, which sums up the purpose and goal of family history work quite nicely.) 

The lessons will focus on very basic things, and I'm going to share all the tips that enabled me to make Family History work a very rewarding and daily habit. We won't talk much about traveling to Europe to chat with the record-keeping monks in your ancestral hometown. This blog will focus on very simple strategies to find your ancestors using free online resources, mainly FamilySearch and Ancestry. 

That's another thing. This blog is intended to be super-very-extra-uber practical. Probably due to the fact that I'm a college student right now, I cannot stand reading things that are one word longer than they need to be. So, here's my promise to you: no one lesson will take longer than 5 minutes to read. 

Well! That's about it. Let me bear my testimony:

In the course of one year, I have gone from a nice little mormon boy who had never so much as logged onto FamilySearch, to becoming an archive-scouring, microfilm-reading Family History junkie. I now do Family History work for 30 minutes every day, finding literally dozens and dozens of previously unknown ancestors, and have had the privilege to sit in temple sessions and know that somebody way out yonder in the spirit world was receiving their ordinances thanks to my efforts. 

It's worth it. It's simple. It just takes 5 minutes to start. What are you waiting for? Lesson #1.