Family History Library

We just spent the past week in Salt Lake City at the Family History Library. It was interesting to see the new interactive center they have constructed on the first floor. One of the volunteers said they designed this center with a 14-year-old boy in mind: if this got him interested, it would work with anyone!

You can see the large screens in the background. First you sign into an iPad with your FamilySearch account and attach that iPad to one of the screens. The displays showed maps where your ancestors were born, migration patterns and conditions in the world during the year of your birth. Most interesting was the screen that showed your famous relatives.

Johanna Nielsen, LDS pioneer, my one famous relative

Above is the screen depicting my only famous ancestor; an LDS pioneer who has a connection through my Norwegian line.

Dick's cousins

Dick, on the other hand, had a screen full of presidents, founders of the Mormon church, and most interesting to him: Wilbur and Orville Wright!

When you click on one of the photos, pedigree charts appear that show the relationship. Dick and the Wright Brothers are 12th cousins, 2x removed. Now I know why he spent 45 summers volunteering at the EAA convention.