News Release

Chorley members host Family History Fair

In preparation for the Chorley Family History Fair, held on Saturday 17 May 2014, Bishop Jason Carruthers organised a stand in the centre of Chorley town’s market. The town centre was very busy and with the help of members, including four missionaries, a few hundred flyers were handed out to members of the public and dozens of conversations were had with people on helping them with their family history.

Groups of people were happily sharing stories of their ancestors.  One gentleman told a member how he had just returned from a trip to Australia to learn about his ancestry and told how one of his ancestors had 24 children!

As part of the fair, experts from Germany, Italy and America joined those from across Great Britain to provide advice and help for both novices and experts in Family History at an all day Family History Fair which was held on Saturday 17th May from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

The event included  workshops covering aspects such as:

·         Testing your DNA - where do you come from?

·         Starting to search your ancestors - where to begin?

·         What to do when you get stuck? Ask the experts.

·         Members of the public could assist with Indexing historical records - this can be done at home.  Last year volunteers of the Church in this area indexed over one million names which means these are more easily accessed by those searching on line databases.

Many were personally invited to the Family History Fair at the stall and for those who could not attend, they were invited to visit the Family History Centre on the Temple site or have someone visit them at home.

Style Guide Note:When reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please use the complete name of the Church in the first reference. For more information on the use of the name of the Church, go to our online Style Guide.