I had the opportunity the other day to help someone find a person for LDS Temple work. This meant using New FamilySearch, combined with Ancestry.com, USGenWeb and other sites to see who in her long LDS Family History had never had their work done. We had to go back to some of the earliest LDS members and then go sideways to some of the siblings and in-laws. But we were successful.
It just goes to show that there is still a lot of work to do. I would have thought that someone would have put that family together by now but apparently no one had done anything. There was some extraction of records on the birth of one son but not much else in any database except for Census records. Once we had that confirmation, we could move forward and find more information.
It was also very gratifying to teach someone how to use the Internet to do real research. She is very excited and has made more progress on her own.
As a genealogy hobbiest in general with a decent background in professional research, I have always been interested in the story behind people. I can't look at a name and a date without thinking about what was going on at the time, how this person may have been affected, and what could I do to find out more. I enjoy nothing more than fleshing out the story of a person. If something doesn't seem right, I pursue it until I know more.
