Today I want to share one of my favorite apps from the FamilySearch app gallery – Puzzilla! Puzzilla.org reads the data on your family tree and creates a compact, bird’s eye view of your pedigree. This is interesting for viewing your ancestors, but it’s incredible for viewing descendants. There is no better way to visualize your cousins than to see them plotted out in a Puzzilla descendancy chart. As you view cousins in this new way, it’s simpler to spot gaps in the research and find new places to work. For those who want to find names for temple work,...
Today is Veteran’s Day. This is a simple holiday where all we need to do is honor and remember those who sacrificed to preserve our freedoms. So to celebrate, I am honoring and remembering six of the many men in my life who joined the massive effort known as World War II. Each had unique experiences and each deserves to have their story told. All of them came home from the war and all of them have since passed away. Do I know enough about their experiences to fully tell their stories? Not by any means. But I do know enough to...
We all have them – ancestor stories that tend to be hushed up: illegitimate children, desertion, abuse, mental illness, etc. We call these life details “skeletons in the closet” because we like to imagine our ancestor’s lives as near perfect and may be tempted to bury these skeletons. What do we do when our family history research uncovers something unexpected? Recording these kind of details can be difficult. How do we tell our ancestor’s story with integrity and kindness? When we first stumble upon a skeleton in the closet we may feel many different emotions: disbelief, anger, sorrow, and denial to name a few....
Do you have pioneer ancestors who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in the 1800’s and came west to join the saints in Zion? The LDS church began emphasizing family history about 1890, so you may think that those branches of your family tree are complete and accurate. Just looking at your fan chart on FamilySearch’s Family Tree, it might seem that there are no more family members to discover. In reality, our pioneer lines may be reasonably accurate up to a point, but the dates, places, and relationships are often based on family knowledge and...
Our stake has been focused on teaching the primary children ages 8-11 how to do family history, and our youth consultants are taking charge of teaching them. So I created a lesson plan for our youth family history consultants to use as they teach at the children’s homes. The lesson invites the children to become explorers and discover their family’s past. Four tools from an “explorer’s backpack” are used to explain family history concepts. The compass teaches the children to get started in the right direction by creating an account on FamilySearch.org. The map is used to teach children about...
Our ward is working on a temple challenge to find a family name for temple work by the end of November. I think it’s important to talk about the difference between searching for a name and surfing for a name. Searching: Finding records that reveal relatives not yet in Family Tree. Adding them to the tree, checking for duplicates, and reserving their ordinances. Surfing: Clicking around family tree until you find a relative with a green temple icon, then reserving their temple ordinances. When I really search for records about my ancestors, instead of just surfing for green temple icons, these ancestors start to...
This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and purchase the item, we receive a small commission. This doesn’t change the price of the item. Homeplace by Anne Shelby, 1995 A Grandmother tells her granddaughter the story of the home she lives in, starting 100 years before with the girl’s 4th great grandfather who built the house. The Jan Brett-like illustrations with lots of farm imagery invoke a very homey, country feeling. Each generation builds onto the “homeplace” and improves the property. Each generation is introduced by saying “ONE of the babies was your…” This book is filled with planting...
Do you know of a diary or journal of a pioneer ancestor that used to be in the family and no one knows what happened to it? Would you like to hold the original and see your ancestor’s actual handwriting? If you suspect you might have an ancestor who left a diary or journal you can follow the same steps I did to locate, view, and share it. My ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1843 in England. During the 1850’s he traveled the area as a missionary. He kept a detailed journal...
So you want to teach your children about great aunts, first cousins once removed, and great-grandfathers? Here is a list of books that will help you explain the sometimes tricky concept of family trees. This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase, we receive a small commission, but it doesn’t change the price of the item. Thank you! What a Family by Rachel Isadora, 2006 What a Family highlights characteristics and physical traits that people have in common with their family members. It shows a large descendancy family tree chart with cousins names and birth...
I’ve been gathering up all the children’s books about family history that I can find. There are lots about family trees, and some about family heirlooms! My Mother’s Pearls Story and art by Catherine Myler Fruisen My Mother’s Pearls was originally published in 1999. It’s out of print now but you can still find used copies on amazon. I got a copy from the library. The inside flap reads, “A young girl’s love of an heirloom opens a door of discovery to her rich and wonderful heritage. … My Mother’s Pearls beautifully evokes the special bond between mothers and daughters,...
