Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Niuean heritage are using FamilySearch.org to help young people connect with their ancestors.
Niue is a Pacific island country located near Tonga. Its inhabitants are citizens of New Zealand and many have emigrated to the Auckland area. A number of these are members of the Church and are part of the McKenzie Ward (congregation).
DOWNLOADThe congregation has no geographical boundaries and members come from north and south of Auckland. Meetings are conducted in the Niuean language. The leader of the congregation is Pulemoose Tiakia.
“By meeting together we can help preserve our language and our youth can be ready to be the Church leaders of tomorrow,” he said.
The lay leader recently invited the 12-to18-year-olds to find names of some of their ancestors.
Church members believe in the importance of genealogy, and in sacred ordinances that can be performed in temples on behalf of those who have passed on.
Andrew and Asena Lameko are both of Niuean heritage and serve as the family history consultants in the ward.
“We prayed earnestly that they would be able to help them find at least one new family name so that they would be able to feel the spirit of Elijah in this inspired work,” Asena said.
DOWNLOADThe teenagers came with their laptops, email addresses and pedigree charts so they could be set up to use FamilySearch, a powerful free online software tool developed by the Church.
Once they were all logged in to the FamilySearch website, they learned how to view their family pedigrees.
Siblings and cousins worked together to connect their family trees as others transferred written information on their paper “pedigree charts” into FamilySearch.
Some complained at the start, saying it would be hard, and that family names have all been done, but by the end of the evening they had a change of heart and were excited and happy with what they had archived. Between them all they found and printed nearly 150 names.
DOWNLOADA recent new member, Stylah Falemaka, was excited to log in and to do some family history.
He said, “I’m looking forward to doing my grandpa’s work who passed away, so my grandpa can feel just like I felt on my baptism day.”
The Lameko’s said, “To now know that there are several youth that will be able to go to the temple with their own family names is absolutely inspiring,”
“We love this calling with all our hearts, and we know it to be an inspired work of the Lord to help our ancestors. Family history and temple work make it possible for us to gather Israel one person at a time.”