Journaling and Family History

Ask anyone near and dear to me and you'll be told, "She's doesn't do genealogy." It's certainly not because I don't think it's valuable. I fully recognize the vast need to tie our family lines as far up as they can possibly go. There is this niggling part of me that's also extremely jealous of those to whom digging up ancient family members seems to come as naturally as breathing.

I am simply not one of these people.

I do, however, have a great love for discovering the story behind the names and dates. Before you start cyber-yelling at me, I am fully aware this is another important part of genealogy. It's just not the first thing I think of when the word is mentioned.

Whether we've thought about it or not, we are the ancestors to be of some budding genealogist down the family line. More than ever before we have untold resources to help us in the effort of providing an accurate picture of who we are. I have found one of the coolest resources in an online site called LDSJournal.com.

I saw an ad for the site on the way down to one of my in-laws. The name jumped out at me in such a way I knew I needed to write it down. My darling hubby was deep into reading a book at the time so I nonchalantly reached down to grab a pen and scribbled the name on the back of my hand. Having done this before I figured it would be washed off before the end of the night and all thoughts on seeing what the site was all about would vanish with the inky lettering. This time it didn't happen.

For those of you who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nicknamed the Mormon Church, don't turn away just because this was put together by Church members. If you are an enthusiast of putting together a personal history, this is still a great site to join.

Some of the features I've explored so far:

1. They have preset questions you can click and comment on in many different areas such as: "All about me," "Education," "The world around me," "Spiritual," "Family," and others. If any of these questions don't apply to you, just skip them.
2. You can go back in and change or add to the answers any time you want.
3. You can put in regular journaling posts, which are then saved by date, title, and will give you a little snippet of the beginning of the post in case you want to revisit one.
4. If you forget to journal for a week or so, they'll send out an e-mail reminder to start up again.
5. One of the coolest things...when you feel you're ready, you can actually pay to print your journal into a book.
6. Best of all, keeping this online journal is free!

They have recently added a footnotes section, but I have yet to explore it. So, for anyone who loves to journal, or who wants to add to their family history, or is looking to start either one, this is a fantastic place to go.