"...I shall endeavor to write some of these things upon this record, for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me". Abraham 1:31

THE PURPOSE FOR CREATING THIS BLOG IS TO PROVIDE A RESOURCE FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO WRITE AND CREATE THEIR OWN PERSONAL AND FAMILY HISTORY AS WELL AS TO HAVE GOOD RESOURCES FOR DOING GENEALOGY. THERE ARE SOURCES TO GET YOUR CHILDREN INVOLVED IN FAMIL HISTORY AND THEY WILL EVEN ENJOY DOING IT. THIS BLOG HAS LINKS TO LDS CHURCH LEADERS TALKS ON FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY RELATED SUBJECTS, INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS, PRINTABLE FORMS AND RECORD SHEETS, CLIPART, HERITAGE SCRAPBOOKING, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE. JUST SIT BACK AND ENJOY YOUR STAY, BUT BE SURE TO COME BACK OFTEN. Though I link, quote, etc. to many LDS materials, this is NOT an official blog of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Writing yourPersonal and Family History with focus on Blogging

April 18, 2009 - Katie's lesson on Ways to keep a Personal and Family History Journal with a focus on Blogging. I said that I would post on this blog all the hand and resources so that you could read or print them off as you needed. Because the information is way too much to put on this page, those things I cannot post here can be found on the storage blog located at http://tvwfhstorage.blogspot.com/outs This is the Ancestor Poem bookmark that was handed out as part of the lesson and you can find the larger size at this link http://tvwfhstorage.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunday-april-18th-2010.html

The Lesson on how to write your Personal or Family history can be found on the family search site, at this direct link http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp?page=home/welcome/site_resources.asp%3FwhichResourcePage=fhlessonseries There are 3 lessons that will be most helpful, so click on lessons 2,4 and 5 to read them.

LIVING IN THANKSGIVING DAILY

The following quotes seem pertinent to our neighborhood, as many of us live in Thanksgiving (Village) daily. Each one of these quotes were taken from the talk by JOSEPH B. WIRTHLIN, titled: "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" Joseph B. Wirthlin was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 31 October 2000. You can find the entire devotional talk by going to the following link: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1020

"Those who live in thanksgiving daily, have a way of opening their eyes and seeing the wonders and beauties of this world as though seeing them for the first time".

"We can live in thanksgiving daily by opening our arms to those around us".

"Choice blessings await those who live in thanksgiving daily. "He who receiveth all things with thankfulness," the Lord has promised, "shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more" (D&C 78:19).

Be grateful. Every day is a new canvas--a new opportunity. Our beloved President Gordon B. Hinckley has said: "My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we "accentuate the positive." I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort. [Standing for Something (New York: Times Books, 2000), 101]


How important is it that we keep a personal journal? How important are the words that come out of the mouth of the Prophets? President Spencer W. Kimbal said, "Every person should keep a journal and every person can keep a journal". One more time I will ask...."How important is it to keep a personal Journal?"


HERE ARE SOME EXCELLENT GENEALOGY SITES FOR RESEARCHERS

· http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
---------------------------------------------------------------· http://www.cyndislist.com/
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· http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp?
page=home/welcome/site_resources.asp%3FwhichResourcePage=fhlessonseries
(how to use the internet for Family History research)
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http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/websites/frameset_websites.asp?PAGE=browsekeysites.asp (a bunch of family history sites on the web)
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· http://www.familytreemagazine.com/101for2009/ (101 best genealogy websites for 2009)
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http://mtpleasantpioneer.blogspot.com/
and
http://mtpleasantpioneerrelief.blogspot.com/

WRITING YOUR OWN FAMILY HISTORY

INSTRUCTIONAL FAMILY HISTORY VIDEOS

· Family Hairstyles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRN1zn0AcxU
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· Get Original Genealogy and Family History Records with FamilySearch New Record Search Pilot site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb6amn_4frQ&feature=related
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· Searching on Google Scholar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWz_jBrxnBE
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· What is Genealogy Research? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEhnGff-HzM
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· The Genealogy Guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5osAppwAGFk
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· Part 1 of Online Genealogy Information Gathering Method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qO_RI4QnX4
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· Part 2 of Online Genealogy Information Gathering Method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ynoQX-djFw
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· Part 3 of Online Genealogy Information Gathering method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S38ev9Kl0kk
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FORMS & RECORD SHEETS (PRINTABLE & DOWNLOADABLE)

Oral History Record http://www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/pdf/oralhistory.pdf
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Family Traditions form http://www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/pdf/traditions.pdf
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Time Capsules http://www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/pdf/timecapsule.pdf
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Free downloadable & Printable forms needed to organize family history http://www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/
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BUILD A FAMILY TREE & HISTORY

Build and create your own family tree and history. You can email it to those you want to share it with when you are done or print it off. Go to http://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/tree/
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Printable Family Trees http://www.wikitree.com/printable/family-tree-diagram.html
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Printable family Trees http://www.familytreetemplates.net/
Great site!!! http://www.earl.org.uk/family-tree-printable-pages.html
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Family Tree Template
http://www.uftree.com/family_tree_template.asp
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KEEPING A PERSONAL JOURNAL

Keeping a journal benefits us in many ways. It helps us to learn who we are, preserves our legacy for future generations, strengthens relationships with loved ones, Promotes healing as a therapy through journaling, and it lets you articulate your thoughts and feelings. Journaling helps you to remember blessings, spiritual experiences you encounter in life and the tender mercies we receive from the Lord. Journaling helps clarify goals, hopes and dreams, and also helps to overcome temptation through personal reflection. Journaling is used as a tool to help overcome addictions, challenges and help to better understand why we do what we do and think the way we think.
If you go to the following link, you can set up and use a free online journal or diary service. http://www.ldsjournal.com/

LDS Clip Art to help with journaling http://lds.about.com/library/clipart/myjournal1.pdf
http://lds.about.com/library/clipart/myjournal2.pdf
Personal experience with Journaling
http://lds.families.com/blog/tips-for-the-reluctant-journal-writer
Jumpstart to Journal Writing
http://lds.families.com/blog/jumpstarting-journal-writing
Spencer W. Kimball, “President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals,” New Era, Dec 1980, 26 http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=f5f3ba9ff599b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=024644f8f206c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
Why should we keep personal and family records?
“Lesson 19: Family and Personal Histories,” The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women, Part B, 152
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=dc09767978c20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=d6371b08f338c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
“My Personal Journal,” Aaronic Priesthood: Fulfilling Our Duty to God [Priest], 27 http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=efbf97a7c1d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=ed462ce2b446c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
“Journals,” Family Home Evening Resource Book, (1997),199
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=8e91a41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
Blogsite example of keeping a Journal
http://lorimuir.blogspot.com/

Story of "A Fathers Journal" - Mormon Times by Kevin Barney

1953August 17, 2009 — Kevin Barney
http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/08/17/1953/
My mother gave me a bag of presents to take home with me. As I sorted through the gifts to leave the ones for my son with him, I saw a real jewel. In the bag she had given me my father’s journal from 1953.
My father was not a journal keeper. But for that one year of his life he kept a journal. It was a requirement to obtain his Master M Man pin. (In the journal he comments on other requirements he was pursuing, such as reading a book–his choice was Talmage’s Jesus the Christ.) If Ardis sees this maybe she can tell us more about the Master M Man program.
Anyway, I read the small book on the plane coming home, and it was fascinating. It was an important transitional year in his life (five years before my own birth). At the beginning of the year he was still in the Air Force and finally he gets discharged after over four years of service. He had served in Korea, Japan and Mississippi, but by this point he hated the service and wanted out. He became engaged to my mother, and they got married in the Idaho Falls temple. He worked for an Idaho starch plant (and hated it), and then he started his college education (he was 22 turning 23 in this year) at Idaho State. And by the end of the year they were pregnant with a baby that would become my oldest sister.
It was interesting to see similarities between his experiences at that age and mine. I got married about a year before he did. While at his crappy job all he could think about was going to school; he had an intense intellectual curiousity and couldn’t stand the thoughtless tasks he was assigned as a laborer. I had a similar experience with my first post-mission job until I was able to go back to BYU.
He never went on a mission. The bishop talked to him about going, but by that time he was already engaged. He still thought about it, but money was a significant impediment. (This wasn’t like in my ward where if a young person wants to go you can count on the ward footing the bill.)
But I was completely flummoxed by the fact that he had been engaged for about a month before he mentioned the fact in his journal. And he first alludes obliquely to his wife’s “condition” at a time which, by my calculation, would have been at least a couple of months after they would have learned they were pregnant. Only a man would forget to mention in his journal that he was getting married or was going to have a baby!
There were interesting cultural things. He was an assistant scout master, but he was also earning merit badges himself; apparently back then you didn’t have to stop being a scout at 18. He lamented that there was nothing good on radio anymore, and TV had not yet come to the valley. Several times he pined for TV to come.
Once he was married, he really enjoyed going shopping with my mother on Saturdays. They worked hard to make their GI Bill money stretch and to build a food storage. As I was growing up, my family had an entire room in our basement devoted to food storage; that devotion to this principle was honed by necessity in the first months of my parents’ marriage.
He commented on lessons and talks that were good, and also those that were boring (more of the latter). He showed especial disdain for talks that were simply read over the pulpit–a sentiment I share.
Anyway, I only knew my father as a highly educated professor of education. To see his innermost thoughts from a time before he had ever set foot in any college classroom, struggling with life decisions, and reflecting attitudes very similar to my own really fleshed him out for me as a human being.
This is the only journal I have from him, and it is a treasure I shall cherish