Family Ties

Families illicit stronger emotions than any other group. Whether they be happiness and admiration or frustration and anger, feelings seemed to be magnified in a family setting. Proximity and love are, in my estimation, the root of this. Nature and nurture, both, cause us to love our families and want to be around them. It is this same closeness and desire for welfare that can bring strong negative emotions. When families are apart for a time, at least in my experience, the problems that come from so much familiarity depart and only love remains.

If we define family as those who are related to us by blood and marriage, then our family extends back to the Creation of the Earth, and will extend to its end (and beyond in both directions actually). Thus, we have never met in this life even a small fraction of our entire family. Yet that strong love that binds families together still exists. This love is, I would like to believe, part of what inspires people to do family history.

I am glad to be living in a time in the world's history where family history work is simplified by technology. I can only imagine the frustration of trying to contact distant locations to obtain information and records, only to find out some one else has taken the exact same steps before. While finding records and duplication of effort still exist, they are greatly reduced by the collaboration made possible through computers and the Internet. Technology also facilitates indexing of records, making them far more accessible.

Last week I was called to be an extractor for the ward in which I reside. That means I will get to help make indexes that family history researches can use to find their relatives. I look forward to strong positive emotions as two of my greatest loves are combined: family and technology.

Inspiration for post:
http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1991.htm/ensign%20may%201991%20.htm/linking%20the%20family%20of%20man.htm
http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1998.htm/ensign%20may%201998.htm/a%20new%20harvest%20time.htm
http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/2000.htm/ensign%20july%202000.htm/family%20history%20via%20the%20internet.htm