This is A Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman and our guest today is Jim Dahl. Now Jim is a supervisor at the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.
Q: And Jim, you see tens of thousands of visitors every year. People from all faiths and walks of life who are looking to trace their family history using the resources and the support that you provide. It’s the New Year; do you anticipate that more people are going to make a goal this year to learn more about their own family history? Does that happen; do you have a surge at the beginning of each year?
A: We do. It’s like a New Year’s resolution where people say, “I have got to do my family history. So yes, we do see a surge of people coming in wanting to find out how they became who they are.
Q: And Jim, I guess for our own background, how did you become someone who not only works full time in the Family History area, but is also a genealogist on his own. I mean this is personally something you are passionate about. How did you get started?
A: Well it goes back twenty-five years when I first started working for the Church. I started in the vault, making copies of the microfiche for others to use, but I didn’t do any research until I moved downtown. As I got downtown it became very apparent that I needed to know: how did Jim become who Jim is and what got him here? And it is just great to be able to go back and find the information and be able to share that with family members of what you have been able to find that nobody knew about.
Q: And when you say, “Find out who Jim is,” is that what you are sensing that a lot of people come in and say, “I really want to know who I am, and I find that when I see the names and I see the faces of people who immigrated to this country or possibly who died and lived in countries abroad, we just get a greater sense of who we are from knowing about our past?”
A: We really do. It takes us through to know what they went through to give us the freedoms that we enjoy here in our great country. That they were willing to give up everything to give us the freedoms that we enjoy and the great things that allow us to move forward today.
Q: I know that you have endless; it seems to me almost endless, resources for people to use, but just give me an idea of somebody walking through the doors of the Family History Library. What kinds of resources are there that they can begin to look at and trace their genealogy?
A: Well today, Rebecca, let me just tell you the biggest thing is there is so much on the internet. And in a lot of cases a lot of people think the internet was created for family history to allow it to be spread and to find what is out there a whole lot faster. So what we try to do is try to find out what people want to know about their ancestors. So you have to kind of prime the pump and ask questions as to what they are looking for. Then you make the best decision as to where to go look for that information. We take them to a computer, we go through resources that are available; find out and see what is available there. Then we can actually take them to the library catalog and find books that maybe were written about their family and their ancestors by somebody else. Or records from where they were born and raised that were kept that the LDS Church has been able to collect, so then we can send them to other floors.
Q: And you have, I guess that would be called: almost first hand documentation.
A: Yes.
Q: When you have the physical books, the physical records, not just the copies of the records that have been scanned and held. You have those as well?
A: Well let me just tell you: a lot of what we have the LDS Church and the Genealogical Society of Utah goes out and microfilms the original records. And that is what we have on the microfilm. And the microfilm is now being scanned and made digital so hopefully it will come online here soon to allow other people, besides coming here to Salt Lake, to look at the records the Church has in their possession.
Q: Well and you said something interesting, Jim, and I appreciate that. That the work of these volunteers from different parts of the world, their work is congregated and I guess brought together to downtown Salt Lake where you can take a look at those records now on the microfiche. You said something that I find interesting. You said, “A lot of people believe that the internet may be divinely inspired because it is through that, that we can find so many records. So many more people have their family history at their fingertips because of the internet. So I guess the years of twenty-five or thirty years ago, those days are gone, where you had to be somewhat of an expert to trace your family history. Now with a few keystrokes you can start to learn?
A: Very much so. Very much so. And the Church is trying to make things more accessible to everyone. That is the biggest thing, to allow us to find out and see what is out there, because like you said, “Twenty-five, thirty years ago where did you have to go?” You had to come to Salt Lake to go through the records—go through the books and the microfilms. Now you can sit at home in front of your computer with the internet and do some searches to find names that you have heard about in your family history over the years and learn more about them.
Q: I know that 2010 is a big year for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well because you are, or I guess the Church is, rolling out a new addition of Family Search—a website where a lot of this information is in. I guess at first it will be rolled out to members of the Church where they can enter membership numbers. What type of information will be there on that website?
A: Well what the Church has done is they have taken all the years where they have asked us to submit our family history over the years, the many years, the old as four generation sheets, the ancestral file, pedigree resource file, and they have taken all of those files and combined them into one file and allowed us to go in and look in one central place to find our family and see those who we want to help progress on the other side to move farther in our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. So they are trying to get rid of a lot of the duplication and this New Family Search is just a wonderful, wonderful program. I have been with it since its inception three years ago when it was an infant, and now it is here in the Salt Lake Valley for all the members to enjoy which is just a marvelous thing when you can log in, find you and your family and then find those who need the blessings of our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom and you can help them move forward.
Q: And members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they use that information that is on that website or they can go and double check records. I know that I had an opportunity to go into that New Family Search website and found that multiple people have been doing family history on my family line, but some had errors, some had mistakes, and it provided me an opportunity to take a look at all of the records that have been submitted and say, “This is accurate, this is the most accurate. Then it appears that it combines those files and then the most accurate record was now on the internet so that the next person who comes in to check family history has an opportunity to continue to move that work forward.
A: Correct.
Q: Is that part of the goal of the New Family Search?
A: It very much is. What they are hoping is that we can, as all family members, because we all have family we know nothing about. Generations that go through, and they want us to talk to each other and find out where did you get your information? Where did I get my information? Find out who has the most correct information and make that available to everyone.
Q: And when you say, “Make that available to everyone,” you said that the program was in its infancy three years ago so it has been tested and now it is being opened up regionally first?
A: Well basically what it did is it started in the smaller temple districts around the world so it could get stronger before it came here to the Salt Lake Valley where the bulk of the LDS Church is. And so it could be nice and strong before it came here to handle the influx. It has been around the world and now it has come back to the Salt Lake Valley, and it is doing very, very well.
Q: I know Jim, that I introduced you first as a supervisor within the Family History, but you take a lot of your time as well to go through your community and train people on the New Family Search. As you do so are you getting feedback from people that this is something that simplifies their family history so it makes it easier rather than feeling like, “Oh my goodness,” when you say the word ‘pedigree chart’ it seems daunting. But does this seem to open the door and make it seem more accessible and easier to use for the general public?
A: Very much so. I have taught these Firesides introducing the New Family Search program. People just go, “This is so simple now to be able to find what I need and what I can do to find my family history.” So it is. It has made it much easier for everyone to go out and see what previous research has been done and they put it in the forefront for everyone to see.
Q: And Jim, as someone who gets to see that light in people’s eyes once they have found a family member or once they have found that missing ancestor; does that further your own personal testimony in family history when you watch someone walk or you hear the story of someone who is on the internet and they found that person—to see what a connection we really truly feel towards our ancestors?
A: You really do. It is one of the neatest things when all of a sudden they find, you hear someone say, “I found them!” They have been looking for them; they haven’t been able to find them. All of a sudden they find them and they learn the characteristics of this person and what they went through. You see the spark in their eyes like, “This is what brought me to where I am at.” And it is not just you alone. There are other family members who have been going through researching and trying to probably find us as well.
Q: And that is in one of the situations in our family. My husband whose family is spread out all over North America—to find distant cousins and to make the connection. It is interesting because family history is often referred to as: what are your roots? Where do you come from? Where are your roots? And yet we all know that a tree with strong roots is the most stable and grows the most fertile and there is something very grounding about finding who we are.
I appreciate, Jim, all your efforts helping so many of us make those connections and feel that security of knowing who we are, and learning a little bit more about ourselves from the people who came before us.
Jim Dahl, thank you so much for joining us on A Personal Touch.
Thank you. And we want to thank you for joining us and encourage you to join us next week to find out who else like Jim Dahl is making a difference in our world with ‘a personal touch.’ I’m Rebecca Cressman, and thank you for joining us.
End of interview.
