It's All About the Collaboration!

“There are millions across the world who are working on family history records. Why? Why are they doing it? I believe it is because they have been touched by the spirit of this work, a thing which we call the spirit of Elijah. It is a turning of the hearts of the children to their fathers. Most of them do not understand any real purpose in this, other than perhaps a strong and motivating curiosity.”

(Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Century of Family History Service,” Ensign, Mar 1995, 61).

This week I read and learned a lot about how technology can help me pull my family together in the work. I was asked to make a couple of research documents for myself and one that is specifically for sharing research with my other family members. What an idea!

Just in case you are interested in what I have been up to, here are the links to those two documents.

The first is a research log example in GoogleDocs. Having this will allow my family to communicate with each other on what their family history projects are, what questions they have and where we could all be helping. This group document will ensure that we have no unnecessary overlap. It will also help us avoid time being wasted while we are all circling around the same thing.

The second one is an example of a homemade family group sheet. It will serve as a document that I can keep up so that I have tabs on all of the people I am working on. It will benefit me when I need to have a quick reference off a family layout. It will also be something that I can access to write down information when I am not able to get to my FamilySearch or RootsMagic accounts. It can also serve as a sort of scratchpad for all my research before I post it permanently. This document is very exciting for me!

I cannot wait to talk to my family and get everyone involved. It will be so awesome to focus our research and be able to see what everyone is working on. What an exciting thing!