If you’ve asked a genealogy question in the FamilySearch Community or commented on a FamilySearch blog article or press release, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Amy Archibald. If you haven’t, she’s someone you would want to know.
Amy Archibald has been the official moderator for the FamilySearch blog and newsroom for the past three years. Before that, she served as a family history consultant in almost every place she has lived.
Amy has even spent time as a RootsTech blogger, an influencer and ambassador for RootsTech, and even a coordinator for RootsTech ambassadors, promoting FamilySearch and family history in her various volunteer roles. In whatever capacity she serves in, Amy has been a positive influence on anyone seeking help in their family history research.
Amy's skills include her natural ability to organize, find timely answers, and be present almost everywhere when it comes to helping others with her family history know-how. These skills have put her at the center of what’s been happening with family history at FamilySearch for the past 30 years. Serving is what Amy does best, and her reach when it comes to family history expertise is phenomenal!
Kindling an Interest in Her Early Years
Amy’s genealogy interests began when she was a teenager—barely 13 and not even old enough to drive. One of the first family history facts she discovered was that her 4th-great-grandfather on her mother's side was an early colonizer in southern Utah, where she grew up.
Back then, Amy had found it incredible to learn that her own mother didn’t know very much about their ancestors. In time, her mother would learn about their family's pioneer heritage from her daughter's early forays into family history records. Learning from her mother's experience, Amy remembers at a tender age vowing that her future children would grow up knowing their ancestors.
A Deal with Dad
Amy really began taking off with her genealogy research around the time her father, a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, became interested in finding his family roots. In exchange for computer time to play games on the family’s Commodore, Amy agreed to help her father enter family names in the original PAF (Personal Ancestral File) 1.0 genealogy program.
Amy learned a lot about her family from this experience. It was fun entering names into PAF. What’s better, she could use the computer to do so, which was a lot more interesting than keying the latest program into their Commodore. It was a win-win proposition all around.
Amy's First Genealogy Conference
Amy remembers being dropped off by her mother for her first local genealogy conference. At the time, Amy noticed she was the youngest one in attendance—and the only one without gray hair!
Despite these observations, she marched in with her lunch bag, a sharp pencil, and a desire to learn all she could. Amy still has her handwritten notes, mimeographed handouts, and a recollection of wanting to figure out German so she could search in the records for her German ancestors.
Fast forward to the present, Amy is still trying to figure out German, but she is grateful for more and more records coming online for German research. How things have changed in the intervening years!
Family Bonding Moments at the Family History Library
While her teenage peers were involved in other extracurricular activities, Amy was a frequent visitor to the local family history center. Her mother would usually drop her off, although later, after learning to drive, Amy would eventually go on her own.
In those early days, combing through Ancestral File records—a database of user-submitted pedigree charts and family group sheets—was tedious. Despite the work, Amy still found the experience engaging, and frequent Saturday trips with her father to the Family History Library in Salt Lake would become bonding experiences.
Amy remembers the thrill of finding her great-grandmother—Emma Boldt, age 3— listed on a ship’s manifest along with Emma's parents and grandparents. Those records were digitized a few years ago. When Amy rediscovered the ship's manifest, online this time, she felt the same warm feelings about finding her ancestors in the records as she had all those years before.
Finding a Joy for Teaching Family History
Around age 18, Amy became one of the first family history consultants to serve in her congregation's young adult group. As a family history consultant, she had the opportunity to take a class on genealogy that was being offered as a pilot program at the local Institute of Religion.
Amy eventually became very good friends with the teacher, and the next year, she was asked to become a co-teacher. Amy discovered that she loved teaching family history! Those were the days of thinking she knew everything there was to know about family history, which she would soon discover was an early, naïve misperception on her part.
Discovering Her Gifts in College and Beyond
Amy started college thinking of becoming a teacher, with an emphasis on early childhood education. She was well into her coursework when that goal was frustrated by an experience with a well-meaning professor. The professor had called her out, in front of the other students, for spending time in class helping one of her peers with an assignment. The assignment had baffled her classmate, and Amy had truly just been trying to help, as was her nature.
That one negative encounter, in addition to Amy knowing she had several classes yet to take from this same professor, was enough to motivate her to get the course catalog and promptly switch her career focus. Amy eventually graduated in business and accounting. She forged ahead with new goals and continued to find other people to serve. After graduation, she found employment in university bookstores and at Deseret Book. Despite Amy's focus on her college career and employment, family history didn’t get pushed to the sidelines for long.
A Revelatory Moment at RootsTech
In 2014, a few years after RootsTech began, Amy attended her first RootsTech conference. The experience swept her off her feet. In a revelatory moment, she realized she didn’t know as much about family history as she thought! RootsTech offered classes on so many topics she had not even considered. Amy figured she would have to clone herself in order to attend all the classes that interested her.
In the year following her amazing experience at RootsTech, Amy made a big jump in her family history journey by joining a group of RootsTech bloggers. She created her own genealogy blog under the brand Revealing Roots and Branches and watched it acquire followers online right at a time when RootsTech was gaining momentum as a place for genealogy enthusiasts to collaborate.
New Opportunities at RootsTech 2016
From her newfound group of blogging companions, Amy found out about volunteering as an ambassador for RootsTech 2016. An ambassador's main role was to share family history content across social channels, reaching as many hearts as possible with messages from the conference.
In order for the ambassadors to do their jobs effectively, they needed almost instantaneous notifications of RootsTech-related events as soon as the events happened. Amy noticed that she and her associates weren't receiving that information from RootsTech and FamilySearch in a timely fashion.
In the months leading up to RootsTech 2016, Amy began watching for announcements, such as keynote speakers, press releases on RootsTech events, and even scheduling and price changes.
Coverage of RootsTech was able to come at opportune moments as she comfortably funneled information and questions to the appropriate teams. Amy became a seamless bridge of communication between the 120-plus ambassadors and the conference employees.
Amy's wholehearted service helped disseminate messages of family history and unity all over the world that year. She recalled later being invited to lunch by the RootsTech and FamilySearch staff, where they asked if she would continue working as a coordinator for the following conference! Amy had not been expecting any recognition for the role she had filled, but her love for genealogy and service was evident to all those who benefited from her work.
Amy's Not Slowing Down!
After 7 years of serving as the RootsTech ambassador coordinator, she passed the torch to a FamilySearch employee. But Amy isn't slowing down or taking a back seat! Now her role is such that she can still help where needed and answer questions without burning herself out.
Amy continues to find ways to learn more about genealogy, share her talents, and serve others. She has participated—and benefited from—using evolving technology and tools for family history. She is quick to acknowledge that having more records to search and more ways to connect to records online is a blessing.
Amy has met with young genealogists who had the same misperception she used to have—that there is nothing more to learn—and helped them find more to learn. Amy even refers to the people she has met throughout her genealogy journey as "her people."
Finding Balance in Serving Others
Amy says she devotes time every week to searching for cousins in her own family tree, sometimes connecting with living cousins online. She loves to learn and to share her knowledge with others.
If you want to know her secret, Amy says that staying involved in family history keeps her balanced. It’s a blessing she gets from searching for her ancestors, and she’s sure they are helping her find them in the records! A promise that Amy extends to anyone willing to get involved in family history is that time expands to meet needs and obligations.
With more and more young people getting involved as family history consultants, Amy also finds service opportunities with those of the next generation. Her children are involved in family history and are learning to know their ancestors. Amy helps motivate their peers by teaching them what she knows. She helps them learn while they are young the processes and promises that come with family history involvement.
One promise comes from Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who said, “I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.”
Get Set to Learn Something New from Amy
Amy says there are wonderful resources online to teach family history, from FamilySearch.org to websites galore, such as the Family History Guide.
FamilySearch Family History Resources
For Church Members with Family History Callings
Since few people can do genealogy full-time, Amy recommends that family history buffs keep good records of where to look for information and good logs when researching to help them avoid repetition as they research.
Amy's expertise with family history has come from years of experience. Today, she helps others discover their own family history by moderating the FamilySearch blog and newsroom, commenting in online forums, and contributing to several Facebook groups. Amy Archibald truly has a servant's heart!
At FamilySearch, we care about connecting you with your family, and we provide fun discovery experiences and family history services for free. Why? Because we cherish families and believe that connecting generations can improve our lives now and forever. We are a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To learn more about our beliefs, click here.
