Can The Church Move From 2.5% to 10% Using New Family Search?

San Diego Mormon Temple

The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are taught that it is their responsibility to do family history work. Currently only about 2.5% of the members use new family search in it's full capacity.

Our software developers have been given the mission to make FamilyTree more user friendly, knowing that some people find new.familysearch.org too difficult.

I personally find the features of FamilyTree extremely motivating and am anxious to see it move from it's current beta mode to full live.

So besides the software being a positive, what else can get people inspired to take a part of their life for genealogy research?

One area is with our kids. The Salt Lake Family History Library had a recent cool story this last week. They have come up with some genealogy computer games for kids. One lady recently came to do research and had 3 of her children with her. The hosts asked if they could put her children on the computer with the games. She of course agreed. To eveyones delight, one of those children found a missing ancestor she had been researching for years.

In the 1940 census project, some of the biggest producers, and most accurate are teen agers.

I really believe genealogy research is much more interesting for kids, if they knew it, than a game. It is in this spirit that I created the Family Crossword Puzzle I posted a couple of days ago. Let's hope my children and grandchildren like it. It will help them learn about our name and ancestors.

I think many don't think they have the time. My personal experience is that I went from believing I was too busy to discovering it was a matter of priority and desire. Once I got going I scheduled part of every Sunday to do genealogy. I had the time, I always had the time.

Once you get going, you get into genealogy it becomes a labor of love.

I know just not knowing where to start holds some back. The church website http://familysearch.org/ is a fabulous place to start. Tremendous resources have been developed to help the beginner. Follow the learn tabs.

Our Church Priesthood leaders could help. I know a Bishop I put family history on the back burner. We did do some good things here, thanks to my having a committee on the topic that were pro-active and pushing me to be supportive. But the bottom line, I could have done so much more. It would have been a blessing to our Ward for me to have seen it in a more important light. I am certain today, there are many Priesthood Leaders that could have a big influence on the work of family history.