The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ

I just read an interesting set of comments to this blog post at On Faith with the Washington Post. Michael Otterson wrote about the resurrection of Christ, and the comments to the blog post included praise and hope, and contention about whether or not Christ rose from the dead with a body or as a spirit.

Here is my comment I placed on that blog:

The question whether the resurrection of Christ was as a spirit or with a physical body might be perplexing. What does it matter? It certainly matters to others who have commented on this blog in different ways. Perhaps one view is easier to believe than the other. I'm not sure that is it. But I am also not sure as to why individual people feel answering this question is so important. Whatever your reasons, why not set aside the squabbles as to who is right? Why not share to help each other rather than argue over differences?

For myself, believing in a physical resurrection makes the whole idea more real. Maybe it does seem like science fiction to some. I say it’s true. I don’t have empirical evidence, but I believe it enough to live as if I did have that empirical evidence. This is why I find family history important, if we are going to be together in our life after death, then why not get to know those who have gone before—since we will one day meet them.

FamilyHistoryGeek
http://www.familyhistorygeek.com/

Consider Paul’s preaching of the resurrection of Christ:

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you,
which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have
believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he arose again the third day
according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve:
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some
are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all
the apostles.
8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one
born out of due time.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am
not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Therefore
whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
12 Now
if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have
testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that
the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ
raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are
yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ
are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are
of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead,
and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:1-23

I believe in the literal, physical resurrection of Christ. I believe we will all take up our physical bodies again, on some day. I do genealogy to prepare for that day. Because of this belief, my heart has been turned to my fathers (my ancestors).

In addition, doing family history has motivated me to connect with people. In realizing that what we can take with us when we die are not treasures like gold and silver, but treasures like what we learn while we are here, and the relationships we make along the way. We here on the Earth need to connect like the brothers and sisters we are rather than fighting … like the brothers and sisters we are.

Bring the Digital World Together

I purchased my Ancestry.com membership last week, and I have fallen in love with the site. It does the research for you! Sort of. The collaboration with other people's trees and the searching of historical records is automatic. You are given the opportunity to accept changes and additions. Some of my mentors have cautioned me though. It seems that there needs to be great caution in accepting information on the Internet, mostly because the great number of people involved. The chances for human error are great.

I also signed up for FamilySearch.org, using my LDS information so that I can see if Temple Work has been done for specific individuals. At the suggestion of more than one of my mentors, I have my own PAF (Personal Ancestral File) program which I consider my authority. Before putting information there, I will make sure I have a primary source citation.

This means I now have three versions of my family tree! So I asked around and read other's blogs and this is what I've come up with as a temporary strategy:

Use Ancestry.com to grow my family tree, do research, and find those ever-important primary sources (historical records).
Use PAF to store my family information that I am more (most?) sure of.
Use FamilySearch.org to check for temple work (LDS-specific-ask if you want to know more).

I still have three trees, but I am not trying to make all three complete, only my local PAF files.

Why is this temporary? Because there is a new service being released soon by the LDS Church that might make it all more simple. I won't know until I can use it, and it isn't available in my area yet. The New Family Search will combine several databases to simplify the process.

I think I will still use Ancestry.com because of the access to historical records, but the rest of the process should be easier because of a connection between PAF and New Family Search. Here is a video that introduces the new system.

http://www.learnpaf.com/newFamilySearch/newFamilySearch.html

This video is accessed via: http://www.masteringfamilyhistory.com/

Mastering Family History is a website that offers free training related to family history and genealogy. Take a look at it and see what you can learn. The only thing better would be to have someone beside you showing you the steps you need to know. My philosophy is this: what ever it takes. If reading online and viewing videos works for you, terrific! If you want someone to help you live as if they were next to you, take a look at this page: FamilyHistoryGeek's Phone Training

I'm creating some specific lessons I think people will want to learn. They are mostly the same as you can get elsewhere for free (see above). You choose. I would love to help and earn some money, but I will also provide the links to the free material.

Please in comments let me know the things you would want a Geek to teach you if you had one. I'll add them to my list of lessons (as long as I know the answers or after I learn them.)

Connecting With Child Laborers

Here is another example of how genealogy and family history will enrich our lives. I just read about the Lewis Hine Project. This project's goal is to research the descendants of children in photos taken by Lewis Hine in the early 1900's. Hine took pictures of children who were laborers for the National Child Labor Committee.

The project is lead by Joe Manning a retired freelance journalist who found that there were many of Hine's photos available via the US Library of Congress.

To share the connection and influence of this project, let me quote Mr. Manning from his website:

So far, I have located and contacted descendants of dozens of child and
adult laborers. It's been an emotional ride - none more emotional than the
search for Minnie Carpenter, the girl on the left in the photo above. Hine did
not identify the other girl.
This was Lewis Hine's description: "Oldest
girl, Minnie Carpenter, House 53 Loray Mill, Gastonia, N.C. Spinner. Makes fifty
cents a day for 10 hours. Works four sides. Younger girl works
irregularly."
After a month of painstaking research, I obtained a copy
of Minnie's obituary. She died more than 30 years ago, single, with no children.
A nephew, of Gastonia, was listed as one of the survivors. In the Internet white
pages, I found a man with the same name living in Gastonia. I called him,
and he was the right person. He expressed great surprise about the
photograph, and was very pleased when I told him I would send him a copy. I
thanked him, dropped the photo in the mail, and called him three weeks later. He
said excitedly: "I was hoping you would call me sooner. I've got some incredible
news for you. The other girl in the photo is my mother."

This quote comes from this URL: http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/aboutlewishine.html

The address to the website is: http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/index.html

I applaud Mr. Manning's efforts. Maybe in your research you might find and ancestor that was photographed by Lewis Hine.

In addition, can you imagine meeting someone in the next life, a relative or no, and hearing them tell of being a kid who had to work 17 hours a day? Can you imagine being able to express gratitude in person to the people who changed and enacted laws that prohibit child labor today? I look forward to that.

Here is a link to the photo blog that helpe me find Joe Manning's website: http://www.shorpy.com/

I plan on meeting Shorpy one day. Reading about the children whose photos are part of the Lewis Hine project, and reading about Shorpy motivates me to get involved in my children's schools today. To make a difference, because there are children today that need help just as much as there were in the 1900's.

See how it works? How has reading histories influenced you?

Resource For Genealogical Research

While this blog is mostly about reading family history and how it influences our lives, once in awhile I find a resource I want to share. Here is there link:

Post your Genealogy Research on FamilyTreeCircles.com

This site is free to become a member, and what you do is list the surnames you are searching. Their system provides you with links to other people who are searching the same surnames. Pretty cool. I'm going to be journaling the research on my own lines there, while I will continue to blog here about family history.

Across the Globe and Across Cultures

I just read a review of a book about to be published on March 11th:From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island. I'm looking forward to learning about culture both Canadian and Jamaican. You can read the review here: Bright Stitches of Family History

Here is another must read: Get your parents to reveal their stories, not to you, but to your partner: Passing on a Family History

Financial Advice From the Dead

A couple of years ago, I had an occasion to spend two hours uninterrupted with my father-in-law. We were to drive from his house to the town where I live, a two hour drive. I can't remember the reason, but I decided to pass the time by asking him a question that had been plaguing me.

I was 40 years old at the time, my wife (his daughter) and I had six children, a mortgage, two cars that needed work, and a stack of bills. Sounds pretty average I suppose. Over the 18 years I had been married to his daughter, we had been helped by her parents many times with loans and gifts of money. I had decided that somehow I was going to do the same for my children. As I looked back on how I had managed our money, I realized that I hadn't listened to the financial advice I had been given when I was first married. Iwas finally mature enough to listen to advice at this point, so that was the nature of our two hour conversation.

Orval, my father-in-law, told me about six principles that he says he has lived by most of his life. He doesn't have a lot of money, in fact, he is known for living just fine on very little. I'll list the six principles here it a bit, but I want to get to the reason for my post first. I asked Orval when he started living these principles and he couldn't really say. When I asked him whom he learned them from, he said it was one of his ancestors: Charles Negus Carroll.

Charles Negus Carroll was a businessman known for fair dealing. He was part of the history of Park City, Utah and eventually moved south to Orderville Utah. Orval said to me that he had read these principles in Charles' journal, or in a family history book or story written by one of Charles' family.

So this is what struck me: As a young man Orval was touched by advice written in a journal of an ancestor. Charles Carroll died in 1902, and Orval wasn't born until about 30 years later. Somehow the combination of the man's know expertise with money, his reputation for integrity, and the fact that he was related struck Orval enough to take the advie to heart.

That experience was the beginning for me. I have not yet found the journal or story of Charles that lists these principles, but here they are:

1. Pay an honest tithe.
2. Don't buy something just because you can.
3. Pay cash whenever you can.
4. Buy used equipment (Orval translated this to cars for our day.) and keep it working.
5. Save a regular portion of your earnings.
6. Barter whenever possible.

Now I have to say that I suppose these principles may not have come from Charles Carroll, or may only some of them. My point is to show an example from my life where a connection of relation made a difference in advice taken. Somehow this was the beginning for me and my fasination with personal and family histories.

If any of the family of Charles Negus Carroll has insight to what Charles wrote, please let me know.

Motivation From the History of Others

What is it about reading family history that is so enthralling?

Let's consider the powerful influence of personal histories, some famous ones. The Diary of Anne Frank is a book commonly read by Language Arts students in high school. Why? Because educators know of it's influence on teens. After all, it's a novel about a Jewish teen in hiding during World War II. Take a look at this post by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on her blog, Helene Berr: France's Anne Frank for a discussion of how Anne's diary and Helen Berr's journal have impacted youth around the world. Here is a quote from Helene Berr's publication on Schelly's post:

"We are living hour by hour, not even week by week," she writes. Instead of fleeing she works as a volunteer at a holding camp for children whose parents have already been deported. "They play in the yard ... repugnant, covered in sores and lice. Poor little kids," Berr confides to her diary, recounting how her co-workers beseech her to flee France while there is still time.

Now, if I were today struggling with something, say I was newly homeless due to a hurricane (Katrina wasn't that long ago), and I had read this sometime before. I hope I would remember it, and it would give me strength. I would say to myself, "If this young girl can live hour by hour, can tend poor little kids who's parents have been deported away from them, surely I can handle my adversity." Recently I became seriously ill. I had to live each day one at a time, and it was the words of one of my ancestors that kept me going, little bit by little bit.

Now take this one step further: For a moving example of how The Diary of Anne Frank has changed lives, get yourself a copy of Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition). This movie is the true story of a high school teacher who reaches across racial and social barriers to connect with her students.

This is the essence of connecting with other people by reading their stories. Their true life stories. This essence is the power to make us better people, and that connection is even more powerful when it is your own relatives you connect with. In my next blog, I'll share an example of how an ancestor of mine helped me. In the mean time, share in comments how you've been moved by reading the history of someone, a relative or not.