Genealogy

Last week at Stake Conference, a woman gave an amazing talk about genealogy that got Matthew and I all sorts of pumped. She said the usual - that as members of the Church, we all have the responsibility to do the work - but that wasn't what got me. When she told us that we may have been the ones that promised our family members that we would do their work, it really hit me hard. I know this is something I need to be doing. I have always had a great love for finding out about my relatives and I even did some of the work a few years ago, but I let it dwindle off. I struggled with a hard line, and after exhausting every avenue my 17 year old mind could think of, I let myself forget about it.

After this conference I decided it was time for me to get back in to things again, only to find out that I can't get to the files that I worked on before! But after today, I'm not really upset about it. Today I learned a lot about my father's father, stuff I somehow missed the first time around. I found out more than when Grandpa Morris was born, or when he died. I learned that he was a 1st Lieutenant in the Army during the Korean War and was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetary. This is a huge chunk of my Grandpa's life that I never knew about. I never got the chance to meet him, so learning even little details is a huge deal for me.

I really love this. I love learning about these people, and I hope that this time around, gathering these names and dates, that they become more than that. I hope I take the time to get to know my ancestors, because that is what this work is all about.