The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is well known for its extensive genealogy research in many countries and it can help anyone in the local community who wants to uncover more about their ancestors.
The local ward’s Fenton Cres chapel is undergoing earthquake strengthening and major renovations which are expected to take up to two years to complete.
While those renovations are taking place, the Dunedin LDS Church is operating from a temporary location in Jutland St.
As part of that move, the church’s Family Research Centre has been relocated into the new space.
The centre includes four computers and is available to church members and the wider community.
Director Geoff Mitchell said a key benefit was the centre provided free access to genealogy organisations such as Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage, sites that otherwise required paid subscriptions.
Volunteers, both members and non-members of the church, are available to help families uncover their ancestry.
They can help people create family trees on FamilySearch, a site provided to everyone for free by the church.
The site allowed many different people within an extended kinship grouping to contribute to the same family tree.
This enabled a rich ancestral history to emerge, aided by distant relatives who could live on the other side of the world.
Thanks to this assistance, Mr Mitchell was able to trace his ancestry back to an astonishing degree.
One of his most distant ancestors was Dond O Duibhne, known as "The Brown Hair", who was born in 460AD in Sligo, Ireland.
"He must have been a warrior. [He was] lost at war according to findagrave.com."
A remote cousin was instrumental in conducting the research that helped take the family tree so far back.
"She lives in the United States and she is my 11th cousin."
While not all families would be able to research that far back, the main aim was to simply help people discover more about their past.
• The LDS Family Research Centre is open at 8 Jutland St on Tuesday nights from 6.30pm to 9pm, and on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
For further information or to schedule an appointment people can email NZ-Dunedin@familyhistorymail.org
