I recently helped with a neighboring stake’s Family Discovery Day. I was delighted to be contacted about it. We came up with family history ideas to keep the children busy for 3 hours while their parents attended the classes. I was just one of the people who helped, and each person who did had unique and wonderful ideas. The kids all had a great time! My friend who was teaching an adult class heard a girl tell her mother, “I thought it was going to be boring, but it was so fun!” Let me tell you about it. The stake...
The Easter initiative hosted at Mormon.org this year is #PrinceofPeace – following the Savior helps us find peace. I wanted to create something for this initiative that would reflect the peace that comes from temples and being sealed together as families. I found a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook that beautifully illustrates how families can find peace as they follow Christ to to higher ground: We Follow Jesus Christ, Quentin L. Cook, April 2010 General Conference. Following the Prince of Peace to Higher Ground Easter Family Home Evening Lesson Song I Love to See the Temple or Families Can Be Together Forever Lesson...
How can you find out if your female ancestors helped build the early Relief Society organization? I happened upon this FamilySearch campaign and it really changed my view of Relief Society and womanhood in general. Learning about my early Relief Society ancestors helped me with many of my own concerns about being a woman in today’s society. Read about that here: What I learned about feminism from my remarkable Relief Society ancestors. Step 1: FamilySearch Campaign Go to FamilySearch.org/ReliefSociety. When you sign in, you’ll see a list of women in your family tree who participated in early Relief Society meetings....
At RootsTech today, leaders of the family history department of the LDS church announced changes to the names of family history consultants. They will now be known as “temple and family history consultants.” The primary objective of temple and family history consultants will be “to assist members with a personalized one-on-one family history experience” which will enable them to perform temple ordinances (Temple and Family History Callings at LDS.org). See also Feb 9, 2017 Letter to Priesthood Leaders. President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “All of our vast family history endeavor is directed to temple work. There is no other purpose...
Tamra Stansfield, director of the Family History Library, spoke at RootsTech today about helping LDS church members turn their hearts to their ancestors with one-on-one guidance at the family history center. She encouraged the family history center directors and consultants present to use the Spirit and their experience (or lack thereof) to help people accomplish what they want to do. Her class was titled, “Family at the Center: Making the Family History Center a Sacred Place.” Tamra started by sharing that most members of the church know that it’s important that they do family history work. They know they need...
Today I’m introducing Alana McCormack, my newly discovered cousin from London, England. Actually, Alana discovered me! FamilySearch sent her an email that she had Mormon pioneer relatives, something she never thought possible since she and her mum were the only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in her direct line. Harriet Huggett Kelsey Alana found our connection through our ancestress Mary Holloway, born 1753 in Sussex, England who married James Coomber and had a passel of children. My line comes through Jane Coomber and Alana’s line through her younger sister, Elizabeth Coomber. Jane married Thomas Huggett...
Have you ever read the childhood diary of a parent or grandparent? If only I could have the pleasure of finding such a gem! Information about what our ancestors were like as children is hard to come by. Childhood journals, if written in the first place, often did not last through the decades. When Nan Hunter discovered one such little treasure, her family gained delightful insight into the mind of a ten-year-old boy who would become president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She shared his diary with the world in her book, “The Diary of Howard Hunter.”...
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’m introducing two young genealogists, Elisse and Robert Brady. They are sharing how they became interested in genealogy and family history and what they like about it. For more information about the LDS topics they discuss, see Why Family History is Important at Mormon.org. Elisse My name is Elisse Brady. I live in Idaho Falls, ID with my husband and my daughter. I love riding my bike, eating black licorice, reading books, teaching junior high English, and watching period piece shows on Netflix. Every time I heard a talk in church about family history I would squirm a bit because I...
In celebration of Utah’s Pioneer Day on July 24, I’ve been studying my Mormon pioneer ancestors and sharing their stories on Instagram tagged with #MyPioneerAncestor. It has been a fascinating study. For some, their travels were extremely difficult and required many sacrifices. For others, it was a joyous journey and they became so skilled that they traveled the route again and again to help other emigrants. I began by checking out the FamilySearch Pioneer campaign, FamilySearch.org/Pioneers. It scans your family tree against the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel database (created by the Church History Library) and creates a list of your ancestors who came to Utah from 1847-1868. (In May...
