A Family History Mission: Looking Back

Reading Room, Maryland State Archives

No. 90

Note: You can do a Google search for "A Family History Mission James Tanner" to see all the previous posts in this ongoing series. You can also search for "James Tanner genealogy" and find them or click back through all the posts.

In July 2017, my wife and I decided to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because of our age and possible future physical limitations, this looked like about the last time we would be able to serve somewhere besides our home. While attending a workshop for Area Temple and Family History Consultants in Salt Lake City, Utah, we heard about an opportunity to serve in the Washington, D.C. North Mission as FamilySearch Record Preservation Specialists, i.e. camera operators. After exploring this opportunity we began processing our application and after a few months of preparation, we received our mission call and were on our way down the hill from our home in Provo to the Missionary Training Center (MTC).

The year on our mission passed slowly and quickly at the same time. Once you are well into the "elderly" category, you find that time seems to flash by at breakneck speed. After spending two weeks in the MTC, including a week of camera training, we were on our way across the United States to our new home in Annapolis, Maryland. We knew almost nothing about what to expect so we were constantly surprised from the moment we arrived. We had never been to Annapolis but many years ago we lived in Dundalk, Maryland next to Baltimore while I was serving in the US Army.

Our first impressions were of the intense traffic and narrow winding roads. We found ourselves assigned to a nice apartment and soon found out that we were serving with five other couples. We overlapped the service of two couples whose missions were soon over. Although we arrived just before Christmas, we were immediately busy learning our task of digitizing the probate records in the Maryland State Archives.

One of the first learning experience was the fact that as Senior Missionaries working in a government office, we served as "volunteers" and did not wear missionary badges or missionary apparel. We also quickly learned that preparing and digitizing records is hard work. We were quickly into the middle of the work. Our lifestyle changed dramatically. We were up at 5:30 am and to work by 7:00 am, later changed to 8:00 am. We had a short lunch break and worked until 4:30 pm or so. This was our schedule five days a week except for state holidays.

As volunteers, we served as guests in the Archives. Over the year, we did make many good friends among the employees and were well treated and welcome. But we did have to be careful to observe the administration's rules about the security and operation of the Archives. As I noted above, because of security reasons, the Archives limited our access to between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm. We were encouraged to be out of the building by 4:30 at the latest. There were exceptions, but we tried to follow the rules.

In the last 89 installments of this series of posts, I have described our work in detail so there is no need to go into that topic. Outside of our work, we were on our own time. Before arriving, we were unsure about our involvement in the other missionary activities of the Mission, but we soon learned that there was enough to keep us busy and that our contact with the young full-time missionaries was limited. Essentially, since we worked every day during normal business hours anything else, such as buying food, washing clothes, etc. had to take place after work or on Saturdays.

We were encouraged to take advantage of local cultural activities on Saturdays. My wife and I spent many of our Saturdays exploring the beautiful city of Annapolis or riding the Metro to Washington, D.C. to see the museums and monuments. We did not attend missionary district or zone meetings but we did occasionally have some enjoyable activities with the other Senior Missionaries assigned to the Washington, D.C. North Mission.

We began by attending the Annapolis Ward in the Annapolis Stake. At first, we were encouraged to help with the Military Relations Missionaries who served the Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. We became good friends with the Military Relations Missionaries but after a short time helping with the Academy, we began attending the Spa Creek Branch (Spanish Speaking). I have an extensive Spanish language background but Ann, my wife has very little Spanish language skills. That actually worked out perfectly because while I could work with the Spanish speaking members, Ann could work with those who spoke English and we found out that the Primary was conducted and taught principally in English because almost all the children spoke English fluently.

Since we both have extensive family history/genealogy backgrounds and since we were serving as FamilySearch missionaries, we took every opportunity to help people discover their ancestors. The Branch President and Elders Quorum President for the Branch set a goal to have trips to the Philadelphia Temple, because of the closure of the Washington, D.C. Temple for renovation,  during the year we were there and encouraged the members of the Branch to let us help them find their own family names to take to the Temple. The Branch President and Elders Quorum President recruited people almost every Sunday to work with us in the Annapolis Stake Family History Center which was located in the Stake building where we attended church. They made two very successful Temple trips while we were helping the Branch where many of the members were able to perform ordinances for their own ancestors and other relatives. I also volunteered in the Family History Center on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

During the year, we taught genealogy classes at various locations including a Lunch and Learn session at the Maryland State Archives and several classes at the Washington, D.C. Family History Center. We also joined the Anne Arundel County Genealogical Society and attended their meetings. I also did some extensive research for people who contacted me during the year. Ann helped one of the Archive volunteers publish a three-volume book about the cemeteries in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Listing all our activities and experiences would be impossible. I did keep writing on a reduced schedule however and also managed to present a few webinars for the BYU Family History Library.

What are our plans for the future? Mainly survival. We are visiting some of our children's families on our way home and then we will be plunging back into our activities in Provo. I will be offering to serve again at the BYU Family History Library. We will also be attending genealogy conferences and teaching again. I will be serving again as an Ambassador at the upcoming RootsTech Conference. I will be returning to help teach and write for Family History Expos. We will both we serving on the Board of Directors of The Family History Guide Association and will be helping at The Family History Guide booth at RootsTech. Other than that we will have to see what other opportunities that might come our way.