Note: My intended audience for this story is a person of my religion.
One day I was sitting at a microfilm reader at the family history center at the G.O.D. U. Next to me was one of the volunteers who was apparently particularly knowledgeable because soon a different volunteer approached her with another patron. The patron then recounted the following story:
Over a year ago the spirit of a man came to her in the night and told her he was her great-great-uncle. He said he needed to have his ordinance work done. He gave her his information and left.
After some research she was able to verify what he told her. She tried to submit his name to the program that generates the appropriate paperwork to have his work done, his name had already been entered into the program.
The problem was, however, that while his name was submitted, the work had never actually been completed. So this great-great-uncle was still visiting her in the night asking for his work to be completed. And as cool as it may sound to have a friendly nightly visitor from the great beyond, she wanted to know if anything could be done so that he could have his peace and she could have a night's sleep.
The volunteer said (before they walked back toward the desk and out of my hearing range) that they could call headquarters either to find out who had his card so they could hurry up and finish it or to get permission to make a new card.
I regret that I didn't say to that patron: "I overheard your story, here's my email address, let me know how this all ends!" I certainly hope it got resolved and she still isn't haunted by this relative.
Moral of the story: Do your family history.
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5 comments:
Friendly or not, I'm not sure I want visitors from the other side. It's sort of like selling Dad's house--if I come close to giving it away I'm sure I will be visited. Probably more than once. Not a good idea.
At that point, I might have made a duplicate card and just gotten it over with!
My mother was in the family history center once at the stake center and the cardboard they had in the window to make it darker (and this easier to read microfilm) fell out and the other woman in there with her cried something along the lines of "I'm seeing an angel" and was very disappointed when my mother put the cardboard back.
As a sidenote, thanks to you, the Halloweener came to Germany and was my means of celebrating this year.
Friendly night visitors are a common tale in the FH world (cue the "Twilight Zone" theme). I have heard many such tales. Mutti
Old Cowboy: Agreed.
Jeff&Alisha: You have to admire her honesty in not doing that, but the thought had crossed my mind.
Annfred: That story is hilarious. And I'm glad the Halloweener made it Germany.
Mutti: Very true.
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