July 25th, 2025, 7am MDT
Two gatherings in Italy this May – one in the shadow of an Italian temple in Rome, and the other highlighted the community’s commitment to family history as a spiritual, emotional and unified pursuit of the saints and communities of Verona.
From expert-led seminars to missionary reflection, participants from both the Family Search Service Missionary National Conference and the public event, Family History Study in the Digital Age, explored the past with clicks. It’s about memory, belongings, and faith.
42,000 hours of service
The May 12-16 Service Missionary Conference brought together 72 volunteers from across Italy, dedicated over 42,000 hours from April to May 2024, to help others discover their roots.
The Italian newsroom in the church indexes documents, translates records, supports users online, and assists family search center visitors.
Family History Study in the Digital Age
A week after the Roman Conference, the church held a public genealogy event in Verona. The May 24th gathering depicting speakers and attendees from five Italian regions showed how digital tools are transforming the way families connect with the past.
Professors and archivists have shared tools such as the Cisei online archive and the Ancestors portal, demonstrating how FamilySearch software can help people build and manage family trees, the Italian newsroom of the Church reported.
Ezio Recinelli, speaker at the event, said, “It’s not enough to have a name. We want to honor our ancestors, strengthen our spiritual bonds and leave behind a spiritual legacy.”
For Resinelli, genealogy is not merely historical research, it is a sacred work.
“FamilySearch is a container of family history, genealogy data and research,” he says, “it’s not just research. Family history touches us.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivwvifjan70
Matteo Borelli, professor of genealogy and family history at the University of Bologna, provided interfaith insights during his remarks.
In a world often divided by belief, he said family history has the power to unite.
Psychology of Attribution
Cristian Mannino, Country Experience Manager at FamilySearch, has closed the Verona event by framing genealogy as emotional exercises as well as academic or religious exercises.
“When we talk about genealogy, family history, we actually talk about the psychology of belongings and the important connections that help us balance out a greater mentally and emotional balance,” Mannino said.
He explained that in an age of isolation and mutilation, where they came from, and the act of learning to honor those who came before, can help them feel the whole once more.
“Family history belongs to all of us,” Mannino emphasized. “It’s about acting as a neighbor in our family history. So it’s about acting as a neighbor, not asking yourself who is a neighbor, but acting as a neighbor, as a good Samaritan did in our family history.”
He urged individuals to preserve their own personal history.
“Each of us is a unique and inexplicable being with a story that is worthy of being preserved and told,” he said.
A story of resilience and survival
In one session, the guest recounted how the war destroyed his home. However, they uploaded stories and images to FamilySearch, so those memories survived.
“Family history is a story of resilience and survival,” Mannino said. “Let’s save our memories.”
From scanning records in local archives to teaching newcomers on digital platforms, their efforts maintain dignity and identity as well as documentation.
Mannino said it was an important task, bringing generations together and people closer to God and each other.
Mannino invited us to “save our memories.”
