How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

It's an old expression but perhaps an apt analogy when it comes to embarking on a search for one's ancestors, what for the uninitiated can seem a formidable undertaking.Countless family history enthusiasts - who had to begin at some point - attest that once they took the plunge into searching out their ancestors, the endeavor became not only manageable but absorbing and exciting.

To be sure, the journey of discovery can lead through out-of-the-way cemeteries and musty courthouse archives. But today, more than ever before, much family information is already compiled and readily accessible at the Church Family History Library or any of the Church's local family history centers.

"Family history research in a way is like a type or shadow of accepting the gospel and joining the Church," said Kathy Reimers Cratty of the Slippery Rock Branch, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake. She speaks from experience, having joined the Church as a convert in 1967 and having become involved soon after that in family history.

"Like joining the Church, you can't experience the blessings of family history by just looking at it; you have to do it," she explained. "Once you do, the barriers go away. Nothing ever happens for you unless you open the door, and when you do, the Lord blesses you so incredibly."

Sister Cratty was introduced to the Church by her future husband, Donald. On learning he attended the "Mormon" Church in Butler, near Slippery Rock, she presented a condition to him: "If you go to church with me, I'll go to church with you."

"He said, `Great! You come to my church first.' I went to church with him, and I never went back to my own."

In 1968, there were only 13 operating temples in the Church, and the couple had to go to Manti, Utah, to be sealed. There she caught a glimmer of the hope in the concept that families can be sealed together for eternity.

But the seeds of her enthusiasm were sown long before that. Her grandmother had an avid interest in genealogy, and reunions and extensive family records were common on her mother's side of the family. Her husband's family gave each of them bound books of genealogy.

Thus armed with family records, the Crattys visited the Church family history center in Green Tree, Pa., and scoured area cemeteries and courthouses for further information. Meanwhile, four children were born to them in quick succession, and they would often pack the youngsters in the car for these family history excursions.

A high point of their endeavors came in 1974, when they attended a dedication session for the Washington D.C. Temple. In the solemn assembly room with President Spencer W. Kimball and his counselors in the First Presidency officiating, the Crattys sensed the presence of departed relatives.

Shortly thereafter, a breakthrough in research came, and Sister Cratty was able to find information on and do temple work for her grandfather from Germany. In World War I, he had been captured and brought on a ship to New York, where he had remained. Thus, records of him had been elusive.

"I had so many wonderful experiences," she recalled. "Some women from the Daughters of the American Revolution came and gave me volumes of history. One old gentleman came and gave me a volume cataloging every cemetery in the area. These things happened with alarming regularity."

She mused: "All you have to do is develop the desire and try. You come to realize that an important part of yourself is on the other side of the veil, that there are people on the other side who love you."

Sister Cratty said her patriarchal blessing makes it clear that she owes a debt of gratitude to those who came before and prepared the way for her to come to mortality. Eager to repay that debt, she has taught classes in family history, and as a seminary teacher for eight years, sought to instill the spirit of Elijah within the young people whom she taught.

The 20 years she spent with her husband were something of a window of opportunity, she said. He died in 1988, and since then her time has been limited as she has had to acquire training and begin a profession as an accountant to support her family. Still, she finds there are chunks of time when she can press forward in the work of redeeming the dead.

Like Sister Cratty, many have found this scriptural passage to be applicable to the task of seeking out their dead: "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." (Prov. 16:3.)