Why—Teach your Kids Family History

Why do you think it’s important to share family history with children?

Admittedly, I struggled with this post. Not because I don’t believe that it’s important to share family history with my kids, but it’s hard to put my finger on WHY.

In preparation for this post the following video kept coming to mind, so I dug it up to share with you.


If just the simple concept of the importance of family to kids can be so powerful  (all for a food commercial, might I add), how powerful then can family be if you include generations of them? Generations of ancestors who came before, who sacrificed, who worked hard, who both succeeded and failed…generations of love and of hurt…generations of pressing on, and generations of families.

It's been my personal experience that Mulan isn't too far off.

 I say that with a bit of a tease, but there is something true about drawing on your ancestors' power, their strengths, and their help; and if you don't know them, and you don't know their stories, how can you draw on those strengths?  I've experienced it and even my young kids have experienced it.  In fact, my 8 year old daughter recently made up her own family history game. I recommend trying it with your young kiddos.

Grab a pedigree chart and a set of dice.  Gather the family or friends around and start rolling.  For each number that you roll, add that many items to the pedigree chart.  Sounds simple, but my husband and I, our two older kids, and my in-laws had a great time exploring our tree together.  The first one to complete their full pedigree chart wins.

Truth be told I couldn't pull the hubs and the grandpa away once they got going. They're the ones who usually pooh pooh it. ;)

The point is, try it.  Try it with your kids.  It doesn't need to be intricate or a well thought out approach--just start exploring your family tree and see how it feels.  There are so many resources out there--go tap into just one.  Then share your experience and help someone else to catch the same fire.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas about sharing family history with kids and teens. Use #FHforChildren to help keep the conversation going, and go visit our blog link up for more great insights: http://familylocket.com/why-share-family-history-with-children-blog-link-up/

Happy parenting, until next time!

Untangling the Knots in Your FamilySearch Family Tree

So...this class was born from my recognition that I really do have a very distinct process for managing the messes that I find when doing my family history in FamilySearch. I learned it through picking several peoples brains about their process then adapting it to be my own.  That said, consider this all a guideline then adapt it to fit your brain. I have a very strong conviction that it's important, as a member of the LDS church, to help contribute to the clean up and improvement of the great big tree known as FamilySearch Family Tree.  I've honestly spent most of my time as a genealogist cleaning up messes and have learned nearly all of my researching skills from working through those messes.  It wasn't until recently that I realized that even some who have been doing genealogy for years are just avoiding the so called "messes" because they don't really know how to tackle them.

And so this class was born.

First of all lets define "knots" from the title, or what I've referred to as "messes".  If you've ever worked on FamilySearch you've noticed that you'll often come to families who have A LOT of data problems! Yikes! How did that come to be? Years and years of duplicate work, followed by great attempts to merge, and lots of contributors.  I complain about none of this, because it's the process FamilySearch had to go through since the first declaration that members of the church were given to do their own 4 generation pedigree charts.  In fact, I praise the church and FamilySearch for all that they contribute to the world of genealogy.  Let's face it, without them genealogy couldn't possibly be where it is today, they got a head start by at least 60 years given that the Genealogical Society of Utah (FamilySearch's former name) began microfilming record in 1938 and Ancestry wasn't even thought of until 1990.  So the point is, I'm grateful for every leap forward that FamilySearch makes, which happens often. Thank you FamilySearch!

Sidenote: I think a fascinating class would be the history of Family History!

Okay so let's get to the content.
Here are my slides for the class: