Mormon Youth Asked to Find Ancestors through Genealogy

Salt Lake City, UT – Mormon children and teenagers were asked to get involved in family history research and genealogy during the world-wide conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the Saturday session.

Genealogy has been a rapidly growing hobby for many years, and includes many people who are not Latter-day Saints. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides free resources to people of all beliefs who wish to find their family history. Information about these resources, as well as tips for research can be found at www.FamilySearch.org, and more than 700,000 people visit the Family History Library to do research in person each year.

“Many of you may think family history work is to be performed primarily by older people. But I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines announced by Church leaders restricting this important service to mature adults,” advised Elder David A. Bednar, a members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

Elder Bednar was addressing more than 20,000 members of the Church gathered in the Conference Center on Temple Square, and millions more gathered in thousands of local congregations in more than 100 countries around the world watching the 181st Semi-annual General Conference by satellite broadcast. He spoke of resources that make genealogy research much easier than it was in the recent past, including www.FamilySearch.org that makes it easy and fun for children and teenagers to get involved.

“Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord – not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation,” said Elder Bednar.

“I encourage you to study, to search out your ancestors, and to prepare yourselves to perform proxy baptisms in the house of the Lord for your kindred dead. And I urge you to help other people identify their family histories,” he added.

Mormon teenagers, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often attend temples to be proxies for their own ancestors. They believe that when they perform a baptism by proxy for their ancestors they are giving those ancestors the opportunity in the next life to make the choice to accept the baptism or not.

Almost all Mormon boys are Boy Scouts, and many have been involved in doing family history research while getting the Genealogy merit badge. The most recent version of the Boy Scout merit badge book for Genealogy includes updates involving the use of technology, computers, and the Internet for research.

Latter-day Saint youth attending the weekend conference were encouraged to visit a new web site where they can get help at www.lds.org/familyhistoryyouth where they can learn on their own. The main web site for genealogical research and instruction is at www.FamilySearch.org

“Parents and leaders, you will stand all amazed at how rapidly your children and the youth of the Church become highly skilled with these tools. In fact, you will learn valuable lessons from these young people about effectively using these resources,” said Elder Bednar.

The new web site for Latter-day Saint youth at www.lds.org/familyhistoryyouth provides video help and instruction on how to find genealogical records, hosted by Elder Bednar and some youth as well. The web site also provides suggestions on how the youth can help others with their genealogy research, as videos by Latter-day Saint youth telling of their personal experiences.

“My dear young brothers and sisters, family history is not simply an interesting program or activity sponsored by the Church. Rather, it is a vital part of the work of salvation and exaltation. You have been prepared for this day and to build up the kingdom of God. You are here upon the earth now to assist in this glorious work.