When Erma Rosenhan received her patriarchal blessing, she was told that her ancestors needed the work that she could perform in order for them to be saved in the kingdom of God. Sister Rosenhan is now 98, and has done the work for over 300,000 names in her family line.
As a young woman, Sister Rosenhan served a mission in the West German Mission just before the onset of World War II. Her parents were both from Germany, and Sister Rosenhan had always wants to serve a mission in Germany to be able to find her genealogical records there.
When the time came to serve a mission, there was so much political turmoil in Europe that it seemed unlikely she would be able to serve there. But, miraculously, the call came and she was able to serve in Germany for 10 months. While there, Sister Rosenhan had a German member help her to find and copy her family records. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and Sister Rosenhan and the other American missionaries were evacuated from Europe.
Sister Rosenhan worked for the Church in Salt Lake City for 41 years. When she retired at age 65, she devoted her time to her family history work. For more than 30 years, she has come in every week to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to find her German ancestors who need the gospel.
Willard Greene, a Church-service missionary at the Family History Library, said Sister Rosenhan comes in three days a week to work on her family history. Everyone at the library knows her and even threw her a party for her 98th birthday.
"She tells me all the time, 'They're waiting for me, I'm the only one that can do it for my family,' " said Trudy Schenk, another service missionary and a professional researcher at the Family History Library. "She feels like her work has to be done and she prays that she can live long enough because she has so much more to do."
Sister Schenk said Sister Rosenhan has done some of her lines back to the 1500s and has also done the work for many of her cousins, because she considers them her family too.
"Her determination to get this work done definitely is amazing," Sister Schenk said. — Michelle Garrett
