I’ve already told you several times that I have a strong testimony of eternal families, and of the need to do genealogical work. Now I have a confession to make – despite having completed a great deal of my family history, I have yet to take a single name to the temple. The reason is quite foolish – I just haven’t taken the time to offload the names I need to a disk and take it to the family history center. I very rarely do any research at the FHCs, and so I just have not yet made the time in my busy schedule.
I have been greatly anticipating doing the work for my great-grandmother, the one of the only two ancestors that I knew very well. She passed away in 1999, and her husband in 1997. In fact, I have been excited about doing the work for both of them, but of course, my husband would be the proxy for my great-grandfather, so I wasn’t looking towards that quite as much.
Since 2007 marks ten years as a member of the church, my plan was to do baptisms this year and get started on doing work for my family. I began searching the IGI online (at www.familysearch.org, the church’s genealogical website) to see if the work had been done for any of the ten names I planned to submit. To my dismay, I learned last night that the work for my great-grandmother was done within the last six months.
I sat staring at the screen in shock. I really felt as though my heart was breaking. I know I should be happy that the work was done, and theoretically, I am. I mean, I’m glad for Nannie, that she had at least one non-slacker in her family tree. But I do feel a sense of disappointment at not being the one to do her work.
But I’m trying for a positive spin on this. Although the work was also done for her first husband, who died when my grandfather was ten, it has yet to be completed for her second husband of over fifty years. I am now bound and determined to get to the temple and celebrate doing his work.
In the meantime, somewhere in my family tree, there is another Latter-day Saint. I have a feeling this is a crossover, since my mom knows her aunts and uncles fairly well, and there are no Mormons around. Next on my list – just after completing all of my family’s temple work – is to find this elusive person and celebrate the fact that I am not the only member in my family!
But I may have some cross words at them doing the temple work first. 😉
Related Articles:
Family History – Are You Doing It?
Teaching Your Children About the Temple