Gleaning records
For nearly 50 years, my wife and I have worked on our family records, on and off. We were unable to extend any of our ancestral lines and find names for which we could do temple work.But technological advancements in recent years have helped us extend our lines as well as glean names of persons for whom temple work had not yet been completed.
Most of my great-grandparents and those of my wife were active members of the Church; thus, much work had already been done in research and temple work for our ancestors.
In 1987, we purchased a computer. Using the Personal Ancestral File, the Church's family history software for home computers, we laboriously typed the many records we had obtained from our parents and relatives into the computer.
From the Ancestral File at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, we downloaded some information onto a diskette and put the information into our computer. That helped us extend some of our family lines. Thus, we saved much time and effort, even though it was necessary to eliminate some duplications.
We found that the temple work for some of these ancestors had been missed, so we submitted their names to be cleared for temple ordinances. We then had the privilege of acting as proxies to provide the temples blessings for them. This was a thrill we hadn't experienced before.
In 1991, we decided to check, using the Personal Ancestral File computer program, all of the families beyond our four generations. We found that in nearly every family there were one or two individuals for whom some of the temple ordinances had been missed. There were 514 individuals in this category.
At the Family History Library we prepared TempleReady diskettes so the temple work could be completed for these persons. The diskettes were divided among six temples located near where members of our family and extended family live so those family members could participate in the proxy work.
This had been a great blessing to our children, grandchildren and extended family members. - H. Eugene Nielsen, Bountiful 37th Ward, Bountiful Utah North Stake
