1. Temple and Family History Work
Bob's Overview Of
Member's Guide To
Temple and Family History Work

2. The Primary Purpose of...
Family History work is to find ancestor's names and perform temple ordinances for them.
A simple process:
Gather information to identify your ancestors.
Record information about your ancestors to link them into families.
Perform temple ordinances for your ancestors who have not yet received them.

3. Those who will not read
have No Advantage over
Those who cannot read!
This booklet will teach you, in simple steps, how to do the family history you have always wanted to do. As you read and study it, you will become excited about how the Lord has provided a way for you to do research and temple ordinances for your ancestors whether you have a little time or lots of time. This is the blessing of living in the last days.
Which slide will motivate you – this one or the next one? 3

4. It is a “no charge” item – will you not read it?
Those who will not read
have No Advantage over
Those who cannot read!
Hopefully we will never have to answer a question like this:
“Did I not have my servants prepare a Guide for you that you might accomplish that which I have commanded you to do that you might partake of the greatest happiness?”
It is a “no charge” item – will you not read it?

5. Ch. 1-The Great Plan of Happiness
This life's journey would be impossible without the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.
The Atonement enables us to repent and be forgiven of our sins and to be resurrected.
An ordinance is a sacred act or ceremony performed by authority of the priesthood.
Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into God's presence.

6. Eternal Families are part of the Plan
God is the designer of the family. He intended that the greatest of happiness,...should come in our associations together and our concerns one for another..
President Gordon B. Hinckley
You have a knowledge of...and have received ...ordinances of the gospel.
Many of your ancestors...have died without hearing the gospel or without receiving saving ordinances.

7. Your Privilege …
And responsibility is to give your ancestors this gift by identifying them and ensuring their ordinances are performed … in the temple.
Your effort in behalf of your ancestors is patterned after the work of the Savior, although on a much smaller scale.
You do a saving work for them that they cannot do for themselves.

8. The Blessings of This Work
“Today is a day of temple building. Temples will bless all who attend them and who sacrifice for their completion.”
President Thomas S. Monson
“The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work... Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs. We will be eligible to have the Lord take an interest in our affairs both spiritual and temporal.”
President Boyd K. Packer

9. Ch. 2 - Getting Started Where to Get Help
Follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost
Family History Consultants
Family History Centers
Begin with the FamilySearch internet site
To Register you will need your church membership number and your date of birth
Go to new.familysearch.org
Add information or change incorrect information
Prepare ancestor's names for temple work
Note: Clicking on the address will take you to NFS

10. Ch.3 – Gathering Info. From Home
Search both: familysearch.org
and new.familysearch.org
They may already contain information. Review this information at the beginning...to avoid duplicating work that may already have been done.
Record information from your memory.
Be sure to verify your info by comparing it ...with other sources. Memories fade and are not always accurate.
This should be done in a personal family history record program, such as PAF, RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest etc.
It should not be entered into new.familysearch.org until verified.

11. Gather Information from Home Sources
Family group records, pedigree charts, books of remembrance or ancestral tablets.
Family Bibles
Journals, diaries and letters
Personal histories and life sketches
Family histories
Old photographs
Obituaries and newspaper clippings
Birth, marriage and death certificates
Household registers and tribal registration papers

12. Boxes!
Get a cardboard box. Any kind of box will do. Put it someplace where it will be in the way.
...everything that you can find pertaining to your life; anything that is written or registered or recorded that testifies that you are alive and what you have done.
Put everything you can find about yourself into one box ...parents or grandparents into separate boxes.
Put info about each individual into three categories: Childhood - Adolescence - Adulthood

13. Ch. 4 – Recording FH Information
Before temple ordinances can be done for your ancestors, their data must be entered into new.familysearch.org The system will then show:
What info. has already been gathered about your family
Which ordinances have been completed
Which ordinances need to be done
Provide a way to print a Family Ordinance Request that can be taken to the temple
Allow others to use your information to help them
Help you coordinate with others who are also searching for your ancestors

14. Working with a FH Consultant
If you do not have access to the internet, do not have a computer or do not know how to use a computer, you can record your information on paper forms.
Then you can work with your FH consultant to get the information entered into FamilySearch.
It is best to use a computer from the beginning if possible to avoid transcribing errors and to save work and time
You only have to type and verify it's correct one time!

15. Information Needed for Temple Work
Must be deceased for at least one year
Given name or surname
Gender
And enough info to uniquely identify the person
May include dates, places, names & relationships
For a sealing to a spouse – given name or surname
For a sealing to parents – given name or surname of at least the father

16. Ch. 5 – Gathering Info from Family
Your relatives may remember important events and dates that have not been recorded
They may have family heirlooms, records, mementos, photographs and other items
They may have interesting stories to tell
Can sometimes direct you to others who knew your ancestors or to other relatives you may not know

17. Interviewing Family Members
Conduct the interview in person if possible.
If not, then contact by phone,
By letter or By
Chapter 5 contains info on how to:
Contact the family member
Prepare for the interview
Conduct the interview
Use the information

18. Ch. 6 – Gathering Info from Public Records
Public Records to Search
Vital Records – Birth – Marriage – Death
Census Records
Immigration Records
Newspapers
Church Records
Cemetery Records
There are many more that can help you

19. Pray for Guidance Choose an Ancestor
Use Record Selection Table in Appendix C
Find the record
Useful records can be stored in:
Family History Centers
Libraries
Archives
Churches
Courthouses
Internet sites

20. Appendix C – page 45

21. Keeping Notes on What You Find
A research log is a record of where you have looked for family history information and what you have found.
A sample research log is included in Appendix A
Research logs help you organize your work and keep you and others (if you share) from repeating research that has already been done.

22. Ch. 7 – Providing Temple Ordinances
Policies for Preparing Names for Temple Work
One year after date of death without regard to the person's worthiness or cause of death
Within the last 95 years, obtain permission from the closest living relative. Relatives may not want the ordinances performed or may want to perform the ordinances themselves. The closest living relatives are, in this order:
Spouse (un-divorced)
Children (Adult)
Parents
Siblings

23. Determining which names to submit
Immediate family members
Direct-line ancestors (parents, Grandparents and so on and their families)
You may also submit:
Biological, adoptive and foster family lines connected to your family
Collateral family lines (uncles, aunts, cousins and their families
Your own descendants
Possible ancestors ...who have same last name and resided in same area as your ancestors

24. Submitting names to the Temple
After finding and entering all required information into New FamilySearch, you are ready to prepare a
Family Ordinance Request
(FOR)
form to the temple
Select only as many ordinances as can be done in a reasonable amount of time
Then print a Family Ordinance Request form
Take the FOR to the temple where they will print ordinance cards for you to use to do the ordinance work
You can verify that the work has been done by looking up that person's name on New FamilySearch

25. Blessings of Temple Work
“Family history work has the power to do something for the dead. It has an equal power to do something to the living. Family history work of Church members has a refining, spiritualizing, tempering influence on those who are engaged in it.”
Pres. Boyd K. Packer

26. Continuing Your Efforts
“Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your heart rejoice and be exceedingly glad...let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.”
D&C 128:22
Prophet Joseph Smith

27. We need your help Today
The New FamilySearch website allows you to do your family history work at home.
One Stake President has asked: “Are they doing it at home or are they just not doing it?”
Your family history consultants are tracking this work to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to receive help to find names of their ancestors to take to the temple.
Without names the temples will cease to operate

28. Ward FH Progress Chart

29. Please stop by one of the tables after this program
to update your family's progress
in this sacred work.
Thank you very much
for your cooperation.
May the Lord bless you!

30. Where to obtain FREE copies
Of this program
plus
Bob's Ward Family History Progress Chart with a Quarterly Report
Bob's Overview of Family History
Bob's Duties of Family History Consultants
Indexing Flyer
And more!
Please share freely with others