Have you thought about doing the "thirty day challenge?" For thirty days straight work for thirty minutes a day on family history? It sounds interesting, but can you really accomplish much in just thirty minutes a day? Blog reader and my personal friend, Nancy Brown, decided to take the challenge. Her experience surprised her. Read on to see just how Nancy prepared, what she discovered, and what she's going to do next. My Thirty Day Challenge by Nancy Brown I had been intrigued by the “Thirty Day Challenge” ever since reading about it on the Family Locket blog. I’d added...
Would you like to multiply your genealogy research and preservation efforts? As a parent, do you need tips in bringing out the best in your children? Could you improve your interactions with colleagues? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you'll want to discover the world of multipliers and diminishers and how it relates to family history work. Liz Wiseman, researcher, executive adviser, and author set out to discover why some leaders in the business world get so much out of their employees, while others squash talent and initiative. Her team's findings became Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone...
Memories are fleeting. Why do we remember some things in vivid detail and others not at all? As I've been writing stories based on my dad's memories, I've realized that the stories he recorded were those that made an impact on him. Enough of an impact that 70 years after the event, he still recalled them vividly. Seeing the wonder of snow through my Arizona grandchildren's eyes, I gained insight into my dad's memory of a big snowstorm. Here is my fictionalized telling of that event. The Big Snowstorm By Diana Elder, based on an account by Bobby Gene Shults....
At the recent LDS General Conference, general authorities of the LDS church spoke about worship, Jesus Christ, faith, and family. Like last time, I listened specifically for guidance relating to family history. Here are six talks that give nuggets of inspiration to help us go forward in our family history efforts. 1 - No Greater Joy Than to Know That They Know By Elder K. Brett Nattress Of the Seventy Elder Nattress asked us to ponder about the greatest gift we can give our children. There are many things I would like to give my children - an upbringing full of love and learning, a financial inheritance,...
I'm happy to introduce our spotlight today, Clarissa Baxter. She and I met online when she read one of my blog posts about Margaret Ann McCleve, my husband's 2nd great grandmother and Clarissa's 3rd great grandmother. We had visited Margaret's log cabin in Taylor, Arizona which is now a museum. Clarissa tells about a discovery in her family history that brought meaning to her current education goals. Thank you for sharing, Clarissa! To read more about the LDS topics Clarissa addresses, go here: Why Family History is Important in the LDS Church (Mormons) Tell us about yourself. Hey! I’m Clarissa Baxter. My sweet...
Today I'd like to introduce you to my second cousin, Teresa L. Thyden. Although our grandfathers were brothers, we had never met, corresponded, or even known about each other's existence. Teresa found our blog when she happened to come across my post: The Search for William Henry Kelsey's Journal. Also a Kelsey descendant, she shares my love of researching family. She inherited photos and documents of the family I had never seen and has been uploading them to FamilySearch for all to enjoy. She has graciously agreed to share her genealogy journey. How did you get started in family history?...
Family History Is For Everyone At the Brigham Young University Family History and Genealogy Conference today, FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood spoke about the FamilySearch mission to make family history exciting for everyone. He said we need to "bring more emotion" to the work and get all ages involved by adding more technologies, photos, and memories. Rockwood wants the family history center to be the most fun, exciting place for people to visit. Family history work is so emotional and full of incredible doctrine. He said, "Yes, we want to honor the genealogical standards - but we want it to be...
When is the last time you looked at your family tree chart and thought about the dash? The dash as in: Edward Raymond Kelsey 1886-1972 or Rachel Cox 1827-1870. The dash represents everything between birth and death. You might know a lot about your ancestor's life or you might know a little. Your family tree chart doesn't know or care how much you know, all it provides is the dash. It's up to us as family historians to discover the rest of the story. I mentioned this concept of "the dash" in my family history class a few weeks ago and a...
by Nancy Kirkpatrick I've been thinking about a few things that I believe have helped people get started in family history. I have done these things at different times through the many years I have served as a consultant (or friend) to try and help people feel inspired to do family history work. First is bearing testimony. When I last served as a consultant a couple of years ago for our ward family history class, the member of the bishopric who was over our Sunday School family history class, advised that we should spend time in the first lesson...
by Ana Maria Cannon Stories That Bind Us One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting outside at night on the front porch, listening to my father tell jungle stories. Dad worked as a geologist, drilling for oil and water in countries around the world. As a young geologist right out of college, he landed his first job in the Amazon jungle. It was there that his daily experiences evolved into some of the most thrilling jungle stories. He told of the dangers of jungle life, such as wrestling a giant boa constrictor. He even owned a 20-foot...
