Family History Fair Held In M.V.

By CRAIG HIGGINS

The Progress

Local storyteller and personal historian Charlene Paul teaches a class at the Moapa Valley Family History Fair on Saturday, Feb. 26. PHOTO BY CRAIG HIGGINS/The Progress

Local residents had an opportunity to make a connection with their ancestors on Saturday, Feb. 26, at the annual Moapa Valley Family History Fair sponsored by the Logandale Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). The Fair kicked off with a series of events aimed at providing research tools and skills to everyone from amateurs to seasoned genealogists.

A sizable crowd adjourned into classrooms throughout the Stake Center building. Each room offered a revolving set of classes taught in one-hour blocs by distinguished experts in their respective fields.
One such tutorial occurred during the second hour focused on the use of DNA in family research.

Scherry Lesanto, a genealogy consultant from Henderson, gave a talk which concentrated on the use of the centimorgan (cM), a measure of how close the genetic ties are between differing generations.
This part of her presentation included a colorful chart which resembled a high-school periodic table.

But instead of metals and noble gasses, the table’s entries listed an average- and range of cMs.
Using this tool, among others, Lesanto had once assisted Flagstaff, Arizona law enforcement in locating a match for the remains of a woman who had been deceased for more than thirty years. The dedicated researcher also directed the class towards helpful DNA websites such as GEDmatch.

A trip down the hall led to another class whose teacher unraveled the finer points of tackling genealogical snags. Lee Mishimoto, a BYU graduate and world traveler, handed out tips on indexing, or vital records transcription. In one example, Mishimoto approached the difficulties in seeking out womens’ birth surnames by searching marriage records of the immediate previous generation – this approach often yields the desired information critical to discovering this important familial connection.
“Play with it (indexing),” she said. “(Take) something out and see what happens.”

She also emphasized, “the creative nature of research is figuring out” these threads through a variety of methods.

In a third-hour class on crafting personal history, local researcher Charlene Paul spun inspiring narratives regarding her own family’s journey as nineteenth-century Utah pioneers. With a storyteller’s flair, Paul highlighted the importance of making personal connections through humanizing people and events.

She connected the class to her own relatives, both passed on and those perhaps yet to come.
She related the story of her grandfather, an adventurer whose motto was, “Yonder will be better,” emphasizing his optimistic outlook on life.
“I wish I knew all those stories in (his) hands,” Paul said.

And Paul also introduced the class to “Lucy” her yet-to-be born great-great-granddaughter. In the researcher’s view this person – someone she will never meet – will someday require human emotions and intimate details to understand her ancestors.

To better interweave their own experiences through well-crafted life stories, Paul asked the class the question, “Who are you writing it (the personal history) for?”

Afterwards, a lunch of pasta salad and chicken-salad croissants provided attendees with the opportunity to sit down as friends and family, eagerly sharing the new information they’d gained that morning.

The Logandale Stake Family History Center is open Wednesdays from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and Thursdays, 9:00 am – 8:00 pm.

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