Making Family History Fun for Families and Youth,
The other day, my son came and told me that since he had a Family Search account, he was asked to doing their Family History activity for the Teachers quorum. His leader later asked me if I could help. So, our thought was to show his quorum that Family History Work can be fun!!
For me just thinking about Family History work, causes me to get filled with excitement! I believe with all of my heart that those keys from Elijah have been restored to this earth. The keys to bind on heaven and earth, and to turn our hearts to our fathers.
We know that Family History work is important! Our Prophet, President Nelson in his General Conference talk, Hear Him, said,
"I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and indexing. I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him."
It's important and we will reap the spiritual benefits from it, but we can also make it fun for our children and youth. In this post, we will share some ways that we can make Family History fun, so our children, youth and any one else we interact with can catch that excitement, the spirit of Elijah.
First thing, is to sign up for an account with Family Search. If you have your membership ID, you can set up an account that way. If you do not, then no worries you can still set up an account. Just go to Family Search or download the Family Tree app.
Next, start to connect yourself to your family members. Connect yourself to your parents, grandparents and great grandparents. I'm not going to go into the specifics of this for this post. If you would like me to do a post like that, let me know.
Now the fun begins... Below, we will share some fun activities you can do:
Draw an Ancestor's Name
At Christmas time we did an activity we call Draw an Ancestor's Name. We went through our kid's fifth generation and we typed up all of our ancestors names on both of our sides of our family. Then, we cut them out, folded each one and placed them in a bowl. Each of our children took turns drawing out a name. We then, went to Family Tree (Family Search) and found that ancestor on our tree chart.
We looked at pictures of that ancestor and read a story about them, if there was one available. The fun part was learning about them and finding a connection. We would look at their pictures and see if they looked like any of us. I loved learning about how they became members of the church and what life was like for them.
Family Match Game
Choose some ancestors that you have pictures of and make a memory game with their pictures. Print out two of each picture onto cardstock, if you'd like you could paste them onto scrapbook paper or even laminate them to make them more durable. Then with your family play the Family Ancestor Matching Game. Have the first player, turn over two cards. If they don't match then they would turn them back over and it would be another persons turn. If they do match then, you can read a story about that person and share how they are related to your family. Continue until you have matched all of the cards.
Compare a Face
Do you want an activity that will keep everyone interested and entertained for hours?! We did this with my brothers and their kids and the kids loved it! We spent so much time seeing who they look the most like. I think the closest match were me and my mom, at 84 percent! That is a pretty high match rate! One of my cute nieces looks like me just as much as my own kids. To do Compare a Face, click this link: Compare a Face. You will need to sign into your Family Search account (you can use your membership log in to do so). You can also get to it once you have signed in by clicking the Activities label at the top of the screen on a PC or by clicking the More Button at the bottom of the page on a mobile device, then click Family History Activities.
Once you are in it, you can take or upload pictures. I like to use my phone for this this activity, because it is really easy to just take a photo or upload I already have have on my phone. You can compare faces with ancestors, or you can compare faces with other family members, extended family members or even friends by uploading or taking a picture. It is the funnest activity!
Famous Family Members
This is another one that is pretty fun for the kids! My kids loved seeing who they were related to who was famous. There are seven topics: Leaders, Inventors and Scientists, Entertainers and Artists, Church Leaders, Church Pioneers, Trailblazers, and Athletes. This would be a great activity for someone looking for a name to take on trek. You could find one under Church Pioneers.
To get to the activity click here: Famous Relatives You can also get to it after you have signed in, on a PC you just click Activities at the top of the page and then, All Activites, then the Famous Relatives. On your mobile device you just click the More button, then Family History Activities, then Famous Relatives.
Once you click on one of the pictures it will show you how you are related. My closest Famous Relative would be the prophet, Spencer W Kimball who is my second cousin three times removed. Meaning his Great Grandpa is my fourth great grandpa.
Ancestors and Recipes
Do you have a family recipe handed down? Do you know the story behind it? For this activity you could do one of two things. First, if you have a family recipe, find where that recipe came from and share a story about those ancestors, as well as make that treat or food item with your family. For example, my grandma's mom and dad were from Denmark. We have an aebleskiver recipe that has been handed down to us throughout the years. My mom for our weddings gave each of us an aebleskiver pan. So for this activity we would make yummy aebleskiversand talk about my grandma's mom and dad who came from Denmark.
Another option if you do not have a family recipe, would be to choose an ancestor and make an item of food from that country, then you could talk about that ancestor. An easy way to find where your ancestors are from is to Map My Ancestors, this can be found on the Mobile app, by going to More and then Map My Ancestors. It will show you where all of your ancestors are from. Mine are Denmark and the United Kingdom. It also shows a huge amount in the United States.
How Far Back Does our Line Go?
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