TRACING ONE'S ROOTS. Mark Espedilla of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church Educational System demonstrates to journalists how to trace your genealogy through FamilySearch inside the church facility in Tacloban City on Wednesday (Sept. 25, 2019). The LDS encouraged the public to learn more about their family history as the country celebrated National Family Week. (PNA photo by Sarwell Meniano)
TACLOBAN CITY -- A Christian sect has encouraged the public to learn more about their family history as the country celebrates National Family Week.
Facilities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in this city have opened their doors to demonstrate how to research their ancestors through digitized copies of birth, marriage, and death records available online at familysearch.org.
“This is our commitment to helping people connect with their ancestors as we believe that families are meant to be central to our lives and that family relationships are intended to continue beyond this life,” Jhumer Operio, one of the key leaders of LDS Church Tacloban Stake (diocese), said on Wednesday.
Operio said the church’s online resources are available to all regardless of their ethnicity or religious affiliation for as long as they want to discover more about their family and their heritage.
“For decades, the LDS church took photographs of local copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from local civil registry offices and Roman Catholic churches throughout the Philippines and make these records accessible online,” he told reporters in a press briefing here.
On September 18, LDS church leaders in the Philippines turned over to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) the digital records, which contain about 14 million images. CBCP President Archbishop Romulo Valles accepted the records that span more than 400 years of history.
Felvir Ordinario, FamilySearch Area Manager, explained that FamilySearch is not only into record acquisition and records preservation but also digitization of microfilmed images. This makes it easier for parishes and dioceses to request for copies of historical records for their use.
Mark Espedilla of the LDS Church Educational System said their family history center on Burgos Street and in Fatima village in this city, opened this week for those interested to learn about FamilySearch.
The facility has volunteers to help index records, provide personal assistance, and share their knowledge about genealogy research.
“You can log on through familysearch.org and connect with people who did family history. The church sent people all throughout the world to take photographs of all records. This information has been indexed to make it searchable online. You just have to type the name of your dead ancestors and his date of birth and death. Our goal is to trace our family history as far as we can,” Espedilla explained.
FamilySearch’s historical records database contains billions of digital images, including digitized books, digitized microfilm, and other digital records. As of last August, the organization had 7.42 billion searchable names in historical records.
The LDS church has been emphasizing the value of family history as this year’s celebration is anchored on the theme, “#BFF: Building Forever Families”.
On September 23, Malacañang Palace issued Memorandum Circular 65 declaring work and class suspension on Monday afternoon for families to spend quality time. (PNA)
