Bless My Bloomer's: Canete Family History Workshop

CANETE, PERU

Several months ago the Member Support Missionaries from Canete Stake requested help with Family History. This is part of the Lima South Mission, which covers a very large area. Yesterday, Saturday Oct 13, we traveled two hours south from Lima on the Pan American Highway to Canete.

Canete is a small farming community nestled in a broad river valley about six miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Green irrigated field cover the landscape with corn, bananas, mangos, grapes and many other crops in various stages of growth. As I looked at the lush green fields, the Support Missionaries said that gangs of thieves would often plunder a ten acre field of all the produce during a single night.

On the way we stopped to see an old Colonial Hacienda built about 1824. I am sure at one point the estate was impressive, but during the 1940s it was confiscated by the government and has since deteriorated badly. A six-mile underground tunnel runs to the beach where African Slaves once disembarked and then walked the tunnel to the Hacienda courtyard where they were sold. There were many other points of interest as we traveled along the Pacific shoreline, but the ever-present dripping coastal Peruvian fog hampered our view.

The ward and stake buildings are all just about the same in Peru and very easy to recognize. Everything is built of concrete and steel painted a light tan with a tall perimeter wall. It was great to work with members, but many had suffered the loss of family members during an earthquake in 2007 where Canete was the epicenter. I did not realize this until after I had entered the names of several people whom I noticed died at young ages during the same year.

All the church buildings have Internet service, but it is very fickle and slow. We worked about 4 hours with members helping them enter information on New Family Search. Few had ever opened a member account. And if they ever had an account, the passwords had long been forgotten. I think we were able to accomplish a lot with eight of us working with about 20 members. Access to computers is still limited in Canete. Canete has a few Internet cafes, but not much else. We took our personal computer and used it. But the members are very interested in family history and anxious to get names ready for the temple.