United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May was presented her personal family history by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a Member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (21 November). During a meeting at the UK Parliament in London, Elder Holland was joined by his wife Sister Patricia T. Holland and Elder Alan T. Phillips, a senior leader within the Church’s Europe Area.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
The event in Parliament was attended by Stephen Kerr MP and his wife Yvonne Kerr, and David Rutley MP, who are members of the Church.
Rt. Hon. Theresa May received two bound volumes of family history covering five generations of her ancestry. Book one is dedicated to her paternal ancestry, the other volume focusses on her maternal line. The personal history also contains genealogical summaries, family and historical time lines, and copies of selected historic documents.
Elder Holland said, “I was so very pleased to be able to meet Prime Minister May in the United Kingdom Parliament and to have the opportunity of sharing our gift, the rich history of her family roots. Learning about families is of such enormous value to us and to her.”
The family history books were completed over the course of seven months by a team of research specialists and designers based at FamilySearch, a non-profit family history organisation supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over 2500 hours were spent in researching, compiling, and producing these books.
Theresa May is one of several distinguished world leaders who have been given personalised copies of their family history archive. Government heads to be honoured include previous UK Prime Minister David Cameron; former US President Barack Obama; New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; previous Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard; and former President of Germany, Johannes Rau.
The Church runs 126 family history centres in the United Kingdom which are open to the public at no charge. FamilySearch.org is a free online resource for those interested in learning more about their ancestors.