Filling out your family tree can be much easier than you think, thanks to the modern technologies that have revolutionized the way the work is done. Long gone are the days of hand-writing names and dates, or sifting through endless pages on microfilm slides, searching for the names of our beloved deceased. The work of finding our family history and story grows easier and easier every day, and many lives, both here on earth as well as those who have passed on are greatly blessed through this all important work.
It was not always as easy as logging onto your iPad app to index a few names in your spare time, or get on familysearch.org and type in names of your family members. Many years of arduous work have gone into making this process easier and more appealing to an even greater and ever more modern audience.
One must only look at the history of genealogy work to see how the process of collecting, indexing and organizing names has been influenced by God.
During the times of Adam, all up through Abraham and even Jesus Christ, many people kept meticulous records of their genealogy to prove their bloodlines, and to preserve their names and those of their ancestors. Before the time of first name- last name as we know it today, people often referred to themselves as “Mark, son of James” or “John, Joseph’s son”. (it is interesting how things have evolved into the names we know today, such as Anderson, Johnson, Thomson etc.)
People were obsessed with proving their bloodlines and lineage, and they kept great records using the best ways they knew how, which was in writing. We can see from the scriptures the importance of that. In 1 Nephi 3:2-3 it reads, “And it came to pass that he spake unto me, saying: Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy bretheren shall return to Jerusalem. 3- For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews, and also a genealogy of my forefathers, and they