Check Out the New FamilySearch Africa Website

FamilySearch has just introduced a new website and app specifically built to assist in doing Family History work in Africa. Africa is one of the fastest growing areas of the Church, and the purpose of this site is to provide a simple way for new members to get started with their family history and to help people find information on their ancestors more easily.

One of the key features for members is “Prepare a Name for the Temple.” This part of the site walks a person who has never worked with FamilySearch through the steps of building the first three generations of their family tree: themselves, their parents, and their grandparents. Then for any of those family members that are deceased, it helps them prepare those names for the temple. This is a real help for new members to truly experience their role in God’s plan of salvation by allowing them to prepare and to go the temple to act as proxy for their personal ancestors by doing baptism and confirmation ordinances for them.

The “Create a Beautiful Family Tree” uses the information that was previously entered for “Prepare a Name for the Temple”, or it walks through a similar process to enter the first three generation of ancestors for people without a Church account. If you have pictures of ancestors, those can be entered as you work on entering each family member or photos can be added later. Once you have family entered, you can choose from one of several tree chart templates and build your own beautiful family tree.

One powerful help, even to people experienced with genealogy, is the “Find Ancestors in Africa” experience. Many countries in Africa have few historical written records available for research. In many African cultures, records were memorized and recited orally by a designated member of the tribe or village. Several years ago, FamilySearch started visiting villages and tribes and recording these oral records. Since then, separate teams have been transcribing the names and information from these oral histories, so they are searchable. This process is ongoing. For many of these tribes or villages, it has been difficult to find a young person interested in becoming the oral record keeper, so once the current record keeper dies, these records and family connections would be lost.

Previously, finding information from the oral histories was cumbersome and difficult. This tool makes it simple to select the African country you are interested in and then look for the tribe or village your ancestor came from to search further. You can also search by surname. It is amazing that some of these oral histories that were recorded contain hundreds of family names and relationships that were recited.

Once a record is found that you are interested in, you can see the information and family relationships available for that person. You can also click on and listen to the actual recording that was made in the native language of the person reciting it. These include languages such as Twi, Ga, Guan, Fante, Kibemba, Bamoun, Tshiluba and many, many more depending on the country. Pictures from the tribe or village and of the persons that were interviewed are also typically available to view. Recording oral records is continuing in countries noted. Additional African countries will be added as arrangements in those countries are able to be made to record and transcribe those histories.

The “Search Historical Records” tab provides the opportunity to search indexed written records. Currently these are only available for South Africa, but records from other countries will be added in the future as they become available.

Because the site is new, ongoing updates and improvements are being made to try and provide African researchers as many resources in as simple a manner as possible. Keep checking back for updates and availability of more records.

This site is accessed on the web at familysearch.org/africa and an app can be downloaded for android smart phones from the Google Play store.

“I was able to create a family tree chart. My family was so glad because the tree has helped them be connected to their unknown ancestors and their records.

“When I found my ancestor, it really makes me see a great joy and peace in heart. Because they are going to receive a saving ordinance in the temple for them to progress to spirit paradise.

“The interview recorded makes me feel that these records are authentic and are coming from a particular area or jurisdiction.

“My experience in working with new Africa site has really simplified the Family Tree records without your travelling to a long place to ask for ancestral records. By just clicking a button, you are there to see some records. Compared to the past, it is easier because I then found the spirit of Elijah burning in my heart by turning the hearts of the children to their fathers”.

Kofi Dadzie

“It was an honor being able to find my ancestors name through ‘Find Your Ancestors in Africa!’ I was so excited getting the information about him. I was able to search by surname and I’m grateful to know that my family information and hoping to find more and learn more.”

Grace Opoku