Very few people write their personal and family histories. “Your grandchildren,” Purves says, “have a right to know about you.”
A personal history is about the only way grandchildren will know you well.
Purves’ own search into his roots would have been made a lot easier had his predecessors written their histories. Still, his findings have been exciting.
One ancestor, a sheep thief on the Isle of Mann was saved from the gallows only because she was pregnant. Instead she was transported to the West Indies.
Purves is descended from the Barr colony that settled around Lloydminster, Alberta.
His wife, Clare, has German/Russian roots. They searched for many years for leads to her family, says Purves. Then, by happenstance, they were led to a man who had done generations of research right in the area where she came from.
The man was an outside worker for the city of Edmonton. Because he was from the old country, he never would have made direct contact with the former city mayor. “We feel we were greatly blessed to have been led to this man who had so much information pertaining to my wife’s family,” says Purves.
Purves’ interest in genealogy comes partly from his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church has the largest holdings of genealogical records in the world in its Salt Lake City library. In addition, granite vaults outside Salt Lake City protect copies of the records for generations to come.
Satellite family history centres are located throughout the world, including a branch library in Edmonton. Most patrons who use the libraries are not LDS Church members. Researchers can borrow filmstrips from the Salt Lake City library for the cost of mailing.
Last year the Church put many of its records on the Internet at http://www.familysearch.com. These records and genealogical software are available at no cost on the site. In its first year of operation the site has had three billion hits. More information about the Church's purpose for genealogy is available at http://www.lds.org.
Excellent commercial sites, not operated by the Church, include http://www.ancestry.com
and http://www.familytreemaker.com.
Links to other family history sites are available at http://www.ldsworld.com.