GENEALOGY, the study of one’s ancestors or family history, has become one of the most popular hobbies in the world. Trevor Gardiner, who is a volunteer at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s family history centre, gave a talk on the subject at the Umhlanga Library last week.
Since 1894 the church, with a strong belief in the afterlife, has dedicated a significant amount of resources to collecting records of genealogical significance.
With records on more than three billion deceased people, the church currently has the largest collection of genealogical records in the world, which they have made available to all residents.
Many of the records include microfilms of death records gathered from government archives, libraries and other churches, which date back to the 1830s. Other records include birth and marriage certificates.
Digitalisation has also made it easy to explore one’s roots, as an increasing amount of ancestral information is becoming available online, which means people can also do their own research at home.
One of these sites, familysearch.org, is sponsored by the church. The site enables users to create a family tree by searching through records from more than 100 countries.
Residents who are interested in the genealogy project but do not have internet access, or do not know how or where to begin, are encouraged to visit the church.
“We urge people to bring as much data with them as possible. Speak to the older generations and gather some information on your forefathers.
“It is critical that they have their parents’ names, the names of their grandparents as well as marriage and death dates or certificates. This will help us trace their ancestors,” said Gardiner.
