Reaching Out to the Elderly and the Lonely—A Story from a Family History Consultant

For more than 10 years, Maribel Medina has been serving as a family history consultant in her ward in San Diego, California. After feeling discouraged in her calling and then following inspiration to reach out to the elderly sisters in her ward, she has seen first-hand how working with people one by one can help lift the lonely and inspire others—even an entire ward.

Inspiration to Focus on the Elderly

Maribel’s ward had just merged with another, and everyone seemed too busy to spend time researching and learning about their ancestors. After thinking about what she could do to help ward members be more involved in their family history, Maribel felt strongly that she needed to help the senior members of the ward. Many of them had limitations that made it hard to get to church every week. She decided to visit just a few older sisters to start with—planning to ask if she could interview them, help them create a FamilySearch account, and help them research their family.

Asking these sisters simple questions resulted in a flood of stories and information. Initially just looking for details like names, dates, and places, Maribel also patiently listened to and recorded the stories they shared. The elderly sisters were surprisingly able to recall things like birthdays of siblings, parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Even those who could not initially remember details benefited from talking about their memories. Several called later with additional information, after that first dig into their memories helped them recall more over time.

Overcoming Challenges

Maribel was starting to make real progress with these members and recording their family history when the Covid-19 pandemic began. Although there was a lot of uncertainty at the time, it did not stop her from helping them build their family trees. Even if elderly members didn’t know how to do something technical like open a pdf, Maribel remarked, they could at least take a phone call. Some didn’t have internet or a computer at home—or didn’t know how to read well. Others could screen share, take photos, or more.

No matter the method she used to reach them, Maribel continued interacting with her senior ward members. She would gather information and then do simple research for them, like finding birth certificates, marriage licenses, and so on. If the members didn’t have the ability to see the records online, she would drop them off or share them through mail so they could discover the information in the record for themselves.

A Deep Impact on Each Person and Their Families

Maribel said, “I was doing the research, but they were doing the discovery and finding, and they loved that.” These members felt so excited about what they learned through the records that they shared this with their children. Then their children and grandchildren began joining in on the calls to learn stories about their family history.

Others felt an even more personal impact. One elderly sister had never researched her own ancestors because of her family’s history. She was born out of wedlock, and her father had had another family with children at the time. After some time working with Maribel, this sister decided to share more about her parents. Maribel was able to find more of her father’s and mother’s history for her. This sister gained more insight into the decisions her parents had made, and this helped her to heal. She told Maribel that she felt gratitude as she brought them back into her life and realized she couldn’t blame herself for the decisions her parents made. She began to believe that she was of infinite worth and let go of the shame she had carried for years.

One younger sister from Guatemala that lived in the ward wanted to get involved in family history too, and she started working with Maribel. She began to build her family tree, but she could only perform the proxy baptisms, giving the other ordinances to members of the ward to take to the temple. In building her tree, she found her great-grandmother’s information and felt strongly about being the one to complete all of the ordinances for her. She worked toward receiving her temple recommend so that she could. Through this process, she also was able to be sealed to her husband and children. Maribel expressed how special it was to watch this conversion process that came from doing family history.

Helping One Person at a Time Had an Impact on Others

One of the women that Maribel was serving, Catalina Gomez, lives in a senior living center. During their calls, Catalina’s friends at the center would excitedly listen in and ask if they could also share their story and get help with family history. Maribel said, “It wasn’t only uniting these members’ families, but also their immediate friends. They came together to share and learn from each other. It was beautiful!”

After one of the sisters working with Maribel realized she could be sealed to her parents in the temple, several ward members were excited to be able to attend the temple with her—and many realized they too could be sealed to their parents or other relatives.

Senior ward members also began sharing their testimonies at church, including simple stories about their ancestors and how they felt doing their family history. This inspired other ward members to want to learn more, and more than just the senior members began reaching out to the ward family history consultants for help.

Through her work with others, Maribel was even able to get past blockages in her own family research. While helping another woman, Sandra Corona, Maribel discovered her and Sandra’s ancestors were from the same town in Mexico. This discovery was made from a marriage certificate for her own family line, with Sandra’s ancestors acting as witnesses to the event. Maribel and Sandra felt so much joy over this. Maribel said, “The connection between our families had gone beyond time, generations, countries, and even religions. I found [Sandra] in a different country, speaking a different language, professing a different religion than our ancestors did, but [our families’] relationship throughout generations has remained. I just love that.”

Finding and Helping the “One”

“I recognize that there are many members who know that genealogy is important to our religion and for the plan of salvation, but they don’t have the tools or resources to do it on their own,” Maribel says. “That’s why I decided to reach out to them because they do have the time, they love to share stories, and they know that this work is important…. I am making this accessible to them so that they can enjoy the blessings of this work.”

Maribel further shared that she feels this is how the gospel is meant to be. To serve, we need to “look around and see what needs are there and what we can do to help alleviate them.”

President Russell M. Nelson has said, “What a beautiful example the Savior has shown us—that through each of us ministering to just one within our reach, we can spread the love of Jesus Christ throughout the world.”

Just like Maribel found a way to reach out and minister to “the one” in her ward, we can all reach out and find “the one” who has felt forgotten or lost. One by one, working within our means, we can help them gain a greater connection to their family and find themselves while spreading the love of Jesus Christ.