User:BensonML

User Bensonml can be contacted at [mailto:bensonml@familysearch.org bensonml@familysearch.org]

I have had a life-long interest in genealogy. I studied our sparse and simple family tree as a little boy and painted the tombstone of my great-great-grandfather Didymus Benson for a high school art class before I had even ever found his grave. My wife and I have five sons, each in progression named after a generation of Bensons, the youngest bearing as his middle name that of his g-g-g-grandfather Didymus! He is very proud of that name.

After graduating Bowling Green State University in 1977, I took up my historical research more seriously by writing distant relatives and building a pedigree with LDS forms, a black pen and a clip board. I started employment as a camera operator with the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch) in 1985. My first year was spent moving in and out of NW Iowa courthouses. The following year took me to Alabama where working together with the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), I moved in and out of most of the state's counties as well as microfilming collections at ADAH.

A promotion to field supervisor returned me to my home state of Ohio in 1991 where I continued to microfilm while also overseeing other camera operations in a multi-state area. After completing my first digital camera project in 2005, I accepted Family History Department position at Church headquarters in digital cataloging.

Today most FamilySearch camera operations are digital and I manage camera production operations for Canada/USA. I am privileged to be personally acquainted with many of the names you will see on the Canada/USA titleboards of the microfilm you use in the library. In the digital world, their names will fall by the wayside. Be aware as you use images online today and into the future that they are available due to the hard work, frequent travel and dedication of some extraordinary men and women who oft times labored under adverse conditions.