047- My Un-Birthday Gift

This is a little unconventional for a POTD but since this is MY blog I can do what I want... and on this, my Un-Birthday (my half-birthday), I want to give thanks for the Gifts of the Spirit as described in 1 Corinthians 12 (also Doctrine & Covenants 46). I love verse 31 where we are admonished to "covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."

Almost three years ago my sister Sue got me involved in the Family Search Indexing program. (I've always been a little research-challenged, which frustrates me, and I never felt like I was making any contribution to family history.) Indexing has just been up my alley. As I have work diligently to decipher the old handwriting I have felt that Gift of the Spirit helping me see what was written so many years ago (verse 10).

Tonight I was arbitrating this batch of Jamaican birth records from 1889. I knew that neither of the indexers had the mother's name correct, but I couldn't determine what it was. I used all the *tricks*: comparing the handwriting on other records, using the look-up helps within the program and Googling names. Then as has happened before, I looked at this 121 year old record and I knew that the name was Isidora! I know that this is a gift that is given to me from the Lord and I am grateful!