Latter-day Saint volunteers Larry and Lynda Bennett from Boise, Idaho in the USA have been serving as Area Family History Support Missionaries throughout the South Pacific region for the past 20 months.
- Lynda Bennett teaches young women in New Zealand how to index genealogical records online.
- Larry Bennett helps people in Fiji to use FamilySearch.org.
- Porirua family history training.
- Larry Bennett teaches a woman how to use FamilySearch.org.
- Family History Training in Tonga.
- Lynda Bennett with Fiji children 2015
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Their role has been to teach people how to use the free on-line genealogy program FamilySearch.org to build family trees and discover new information about deceased ancestors. This program is available to all who have an internet connection and can be used on either computer or mobile devices.
The Bennetts will be presenting a seminar on how to use FamilySearch.org at the Auckland Family History Expo on Saturday, 13 August. They will also lead a hands-on computer workshop to show participants ways to combine FamilySearch with other partner websites for greater success in finding new information about deceased ancestors.
That event, which is free to the public, will be held at the Fickling Centre in Three Kings. The Expo will last throughout the weekend, bringing together many local experts on various family history topics. For more information, see here.
The Bennetts have travelled throughout New Zealand and several island countries (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Niue) to offer technical assistance and present seminars encouraging people to gather family stories and pictures to share on this website. By posting these in FamilySearch.org the information and images can easily be shared with others and will be preserved for future generations.
“We love helping people capture the stories of their families,” Lynda says. “Many of the places where we go do not have official government records to document information about their ancestors. The only information available is living memory. If those people don't record the information they know, once they are gone, that information is lost forever.”
She continued, “By putting the details they know about their parents and grandparents or others in their family into FamilySearch it creates a treasured legacy for all who come after. There is something powerful about learning how people in previous generations of our family dealt with challenges of life they had to face. It gives us courage to know that we, too, can find solutions to our problems or strength to endure by tapping in to characteristics we have inherited from them.”
The Bennetts are scheduled to return home to the United States the first week of October. While they look forward to getting back to their own home and spending time with family, they both say they will miss New Zealand and the many friends they have made throughout the Pacific.
“This has been a remarkable experience,” Larry says. “Some people think retirement is a time for taking it easy. For us, this mission gave us a chance to do something worthwhile. We wanted to make a contribution.”
“In some ways it was a sacrifice to leave behind all that we knew and not see our family for such a long time, but we know there are families here that will now have records to last for generations because of the skills we taught them. That is something we will always feel good about."
Lynda says their faith “teaches us that strong families are very important. By encouraging people to preserve the stories of their culture and their family it helps them to have a stronger sense of connection and identity.”
“We are so grateful we had an opportunity to be part of that. We truly learned to love the people we were teaching and will always feel that the people of the Pacific are part of our extended family."