Tracing your roots

CEBU, Philippines - We Filipinos are very family-oriented. Look at how we still live with our parents despite having been married already! Take note, too, of the many family gatherings and reunions we have throughout the year. And, we are so good at pamaryente to the point that as long as we have the same family names, we already consider a stranger a relative.

There is actually nothing wrong about this Filipino trait, according to Elder J. Mclean and Sister Judy Durfey of the Public Affairs Office of The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church). The family, they said, is ordained by God and since we come from the same heavenly Father, we are all related. “The family is the best place people can get proper values to be positive human beings,” said the Durfeys.

The importance of the family as the fundamental unit of society is the reason why the Mormon Church established their Family History Library in Salt Lake City in Utah. The library, founded in 1894, was tasked to gather genealogical records and assist members of the church with their family history and genealogical research. Genealogy is a family tree or a record or table of the descendants of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors.

The Family History Library is the largest library of its kind in the world and houses 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 727,000 microfiche; 356,000 books, serials and other formats; over 4,500 periodicals; and 3,725 electronic resources. The records in the library are from the US, Canada, the British Isles, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa and majority of the records contain information about persons who lived before 1930. The building that houses all the records is so designed that the humidity, temperature and lighting protects the records from deterioration. Leni Pilobello of the LDS Public Affairs Office said that all records that have been microfilmed are stored in the Granite Mountain Record Vault, which is so designed that it can withstand storms, floods, and even a nuclear blast.

Ms. Pilobello shared that the LDS is preserving the family records of its members, as well as of non-members. “In fact the LDS is collaborating with record keepers all over the world to centralize information. Since we already have the facility and technology, we are extending it to the world so we can preserve our records,” she said.

Although the Family History Library is open to everyone, even to non-church members, not everyone has the means and resources to go to Salt Lake City to trace one’s genealogy. So the LDS established family history centers, which are branches of the Family History Library. There are over 4,500 family history centers in more than 100 countries and, in the Philippines, there are 165 family history centers that can help those who want to trace their roots, according to Sister Ronaida Javaluyas or simply Sister Jay, who is considered the “Indexing Queen” in the country for having indexed the most number of records from the country. Indexing is the LDS worldwide project wherein all records from different countries are arranged in alphabetical order.

In Cebu, we have at least 7 family history centers and these are usually located in LDS Churches. However, for those who have access to computers and the internet, one can also log on to www.familysearch.org to trace your roots. Don’t worry though if you cannot find family members online. The indexing of Philippine records has not been completed yet. You may have more luck in looking for family if you go to the family history centers.

“Tracing one’s roots is one of the popular hobbies of people nowadays. The LDS website even gets 3 million hits a month,” said Ms. Pilobello.