Family History 1-2-3

By Tina Dean

This is Great-Great-Great Grandmother Isabel. She lived 100 years ago.

But Grandmother Isabel was not baptized into the Church while she was alive.

She was not sealed to her family in the temple.

To live with Heavenly Father again, people must be baptized into the true Church. To live with their families forever, they must be sealed in the temple. Can Grandmother Isabel live with Heavenly Father and her family again?

Yes—if someone submits her name to the temple for baptism and other temple ordinances.

And you can help by doing family history work. It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

Step 1: Find Out What You Know.

• Ask your parents and grandparents to tell you about your ancestors.

• Write down the names, dates, and places they tell you about.

Step 2: Find Out Something New at friend.lds.org.

Have a parent or grandparent with you when you visit friend.lds.org and click on the Family History button. Together you will be able to:

• Sign into the FamilySearch program.

• See and add names to your family tree.

• Search for names your parents or grandparents told you about.

• Look for temple icons to find out which ancestors need to have temple work done for them.

• Find a family history center near you where you can do more research.

Step 3: Volunteer!

If you can read and type and are 12 or older, you can volunteer to do family history work called indexing. This means you will look at old records and type the names of other people’s ancestors. Remember to get your parent’s permission.

To sign up as a volunteer, go to friend.lds.org and click on Volunteer.

Would you like to work on indexing with a friend or family member? The “Share Batch” feature lets you and another person work on the same batch of records together. Find out more after you are registered for indexing.

Through family history work, you can help your ancestors return to live with Heavenly Father and with their families forever. What a great way to show our love for our ancestors.

Illustrations by Brad Teare