Family Search Sponsors KARMA - Kenya Association of Records Management Conference

For over 100 years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been collecting and archiving genealogical records.  Billions of birth, death, and marriage records have been obtained and stored and made available to the public.  With the advent of advanced computer technology and the internet, these records which were originally saved and managed on millions of rolls of microfilm are now available digitally and are a vital component of the word’s rapidly growing interest in Family History.  As a result of years of family records capture and management, the Church’s family history department known as FamilySearch, has developed world class expertise in records management. 

The billions of records which can be accessed by any interested genealogist through FamilySearch are a key part of FamilySearch’s encouragement for all people to find their family and tell their stories. 

Recently, FamilySearch sponsored contributed content to the 8^th Conference of the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (KARMA) at the Lake Naivasha Lodge on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya.  The principal focus of the Conference is the digitization of records including skills, policy, standards, and technology.  Hundreds of records management equipment and software vendors and records management professionals attended KARMA.  During the Conference, multiple panels and breakout sessions were held.  Members of FamilySearch presented various topics of FamilySearch expertise.   

Wayne Van, Africa South Area Manager and Content Strategist, Michael Grey, Director of Global Oral Genealogies, and Nicholas Akello, Field Relations Manager for Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, of FamilySearch spoke on the subject, Supporting Driving Digital Transformation, 130 Years of Records Preservation.  In this session, the three FamilySearch professionals shared the leading practices and processes that are used by this worldwide leader in records preservation.  Later in the Conference, Wayne, Michael, and Nicholas addressed the topic, Building African Resiliency through Technology Innovation, Family History and Records Preservation. 

The three representatives of FamilySearch continued to share organizational expertise by holding a workshop called Strategies for Implementing Records Digitalization, Preservation, and Access Projects in Africa. 

In recent years, FamilySearch has been capturing oral family histories of many Africans.  These oral family histories, with the permission of the families, are made available to people in the country from which the interview subject lived.  In providing public access to these oral family histories FamilySearch provides no confidential personal information to the public.  The access to the oral histories is consistent with country and county laws.

Michael closed one session with a parable of Africa saying, “When an old man or woman dies in a village, a library effectively burns down. It doesn’t have to be that way. When you think about your culture, your history, etc., you need to ask what will be your legacy to your community as a records manager. Just take one step in the right direction. Leave a legacy with smart methodology and approach. End the ‘burning down of libraries,’ with the death of a person who has histories memorialized.”

FamilySearch attended the conference as a partner, sponsor, and exhibitor and supports the theme of the conference “From Digitization to Digital Transformation.”  This conference brought together records custodians and Archivists that FamilySearch seeks to work with to digitize and preserve their records. By sharing its significant expertise with the KARMA participants, FamilySearch created brand awareness of FamilySearch as it seeks to encourage utilization of modern technologies in the preservation of both genealogical records and oral history genealogy, globally.