Trace your family tree

Website has 3.3 billion records and 12 billion names on its search database.

Keen to trace your family tree? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has sponsored an online family search website that boasts the largest collection of genealogical and historical records in the world.

Since 1894, FamilySearch and its predecessors have gathered, preserved and shared genealogical records worldwide.

“Originally these records were stored on microfilm, but in 1999 FamilySearch went digital and is now available online,” said Elder Devon Gonzales, who originally hails from Idaho.

“The church has been involved from the beginning and the website is available to the public to use for free,” said Elder Ty Grant, whose home state is Utah. “Over one million people use it worldwide every day.”

Both elders are church missionaries, who are based at their temple in Len Nicol Road in Toti for a few months.

The website has an incredible 3.3 billion records and 12 billion names on its search database. The main FamilySearch library is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Elder Gonzales can trace his ancestors on his mother’s side to the 15th century, while Elder Gant has reached the 11th century.

“The church now has over 4,600 family history centres in over 70 countries, where people have access to computers to search for their family history,” said the elders. “Toti will soon have its own centre, where eight computers will be available at our temple. We encourage the community to contact us to help them set up a profile, although the website is very user-friendly.”

To publicise the project, a stand has been set up at Toti library with information on the website.

“It’s important to know where we come from. The website is designed to have lots of people contributing and the more information put onto the website, the better it will work.”

Visit https://familysearch.org or contact the elders on 083-281-5537.

Exit mobile version