Tapping Into Family Roots

The heroes and villains in your family lineage may be closer than you think.

Bob Hough found his colorful Indianian ancestors at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Coeur d’Alene. Joan Patterson found her Midwestern and Italian kin in the same church.

“I scare people when I find something,” she says with a giggle. “I jump up and yell, ‘Yes!’ I do a lot of crying too, out of sheer joy.”

Her relatives were in the Family History Center the church operates for anyone who wants to dabble in genealogy.

“We believe families are meant to be together forever,” says Joan, an expert family detective who’s traced her bloodlines back to 1630.

“It’s a uniting link over the generations.”

The church’s dedication to total family unity doesn’t end with its members.

Its computers, hardware, microfiche and film machines, books, volunteers and genealogical database with 500 million entries are open to the public, regardless of religious affiliation, at no cost.

The work is addicting and entertaining. Bob, a volunteer at the Coeur d’Alene center, was so captivated with genealogy that he traveled to the church’s huge Salt Lake City center in 1995 and spent 19 months there.

He learned all about computer genealogy programs and how to correct computer problems. People throughout the world know where to find help when their data disappears.

“I got calls from Norway, England, Florida,” he says.

Now, he and Joan guide neophytes through the search process. They start beginners with a booklet that includes a family tree to fill in, a list of sources of family information, a time line, directions and sample letters to send to possible relatives.

Then they watch the thrill of discovery take over. Amateur genealogists study the center’s books on colonial families or passenger lists from 19th century ships. They pop disks into the computer and fly from screen to screen in the hunt for a blood connection.

When the trail dead-ends, Joan and Bob call Salt Lake City, where they find experts in medieval times and filmed records and documents unavailable anywhere else in the world.

“I love it,” Joan says, as she helps a woman who just discovered that one of her relatives rode with Jesse James. ‘It’s my life. I pray I’ll never be released from this calling.”

Star power

John Travolta made his annual appearance at the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre last Saturday and thrilled two dozen theater patrons.

He and his wife, Kelly Preston, signed autographs and chatted with the star-struck crowd outside North Idaho College following “Mame,” which starred his sister, Ellen Travolta.

Men swooned at Kelly’s glance and women went tongue-tied around John. One poor girl even fell in the mud in her rush to get his autograph.

John and Kelly represented the best of Tinseltown - friendly, down-to-earth glitter. They’re invited back any time.

Building blocks

Plenty of people have told me they’d help Habitat for Humanity if they only knew how. Habitat is the program that helps the working poor build and buy their own homes.

Construction depends on volunteers and donations of materials. Most sites attract professional builders who happily share their expertise. Volunteering is a great way to pick up construction tips and help at the same time.

Go find out what you can do at Habitat’s orientation meeting at 7 p.m., Tuesday, at the Kootenai County Extension Office, 106 W. Dalton Ave., Coeur d’Alene.

This sidebar appeared with the story: MORE INFORMATION Coeur d’Alene’s Family History Center has lists of every LDS church in the nation with a genealogical center. For information on the Coeur d’Alene center, call 765-0150.