Youth Engages in Family History with “Five Clicks to the Green Temple”
Contributed By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer
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Brittany Eldredge has found joy in her calling as a ward family history consultant and an appreciation for family history and temple work as a means of bringing souls to Heavenly Father.
Article Highlights
- At first Brittany used excuses when she was called as a ward family history consultant, but then she got to work.
- Her friend with the same calling told her about a game he made up called “five clicks to the green temple.”
- This game involves clicking through the descendancy view, viewing the fourth generation, and expanding back as far as possible.
“Just because I decided to start and give it a try, my family discovered that we do have work to do and there are names to find. There is always more work to be done.” —Brittany Eldredge, South Mountain 2nd Ward
Brittany Eldredge felt nervous a few months ago when she was called as a ward family history consultant.
“I’m not good with computers, I didn’t have any experience with family history—I didn’t even know my password,” said Sister Eldredge, a young member of the South Mountain 2nd Ward, as she gave a talk in a recent stake conference.
“My family had hired professional genealogists a long time ago, and we hadn’t been able to find names since then,” she said. “I remembered watching my dad sit for hours searching our records for names and finding nothing. I honestly didn’t think there was any more work to be done. In other words, I was every excuse the youth have been using to not get started.”
But the calling gave her a sense of duty, and she set to work learning what she could.
She contacted a friend who had been given the same calling in his ward and asked him to help her learn what to do.
“The first thing this friend taught me was a game he had made up called ‘five clicks to the green temple,’” she said.
The name of the game alludes to the small icon that a visitor to the Church’s FamilySearch website, FamilySearch.org, is apt to see on one or more names of ancestors in his pedigree chart. The green temple symbol indicates that vicarious temple ordinance work is yet to be performed for the ancestor and that information could thus be submitted for the temple work.
The game, Sister Eldredge said, is “a simple way of clicking on the descendency tab in FamilySearch, then the fourth generation, and you just scroll down and keep expanding it. With five clicks, and within 10 minutes, I had found three names with green temples.”
In the three or so months between the time of her call and the day of her stake conference talk, Sister Eldredge had taken nine ancestral names to the temple and, with her parents, performed 20 ordinances.
“Just because I decided to start and give it a try, my family discovered that we do have work to do and there are names to find,” she said. “There is always more work to be done. Not only did I receive the blessings of the temple, but I felt connected to my ancestors. I gained a new testimony of Heavenly Father’s plan for me, that I really will get to live with these members of my family one day.”
Brittany Eldredge has found joy in her calling as a ward family history consultant and an appreciation for family history and temple work as a means of bringing souls to Heavenly Father. Photo courtesy Brittany Eldredge.
