Youth Involvement
Suggested Family History Activities for LDS Youth
"Instead of telling young people what they should be doing for family history, suggest activities they could do and then let them decide what they will do."
Find and take a name to the temple
Work on your family tree and put the information into FamilySearch
Interview and record the stores of your relatives
Visit the graves of your ancestors
Get your relatives to take a DNA test
Digitize and share old family photos
Visit someplace important to your family history
Plan a family meal with old recipes
Get other youth excited with fun activities
Document and source family history research and records
Hold an indexing challenge between individuals or family organizations
Use apps to photograph and upload gravestone photos of cemeteries not yet documented
Scan and digitize old family photos and documents and upload them to public databases
Start a history about a parent, grandparent or ancestor
Create a store or picture book containing several ancestors
Organize a volunteer effort at a local courthouse to index or digitize stored records
Hold a fund raising activity to support a family organization or genealogical association
Hold a video conference with others to share a family story about an ancestor
Youth Involvement in Family History Organizations
by Shane Brough, President of LDSAFA, 2017
Getting younger family members involved with genealogical and family history work will be key to the current and future success of any family organization. They still have energy and most of their lives still ahead of them. They understand technology and the Internet better than many of their parents and grandparents. Yet they still need to be trained, mentored, and prepared to step in and help with the work. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has recognized this need and has created a great website to help get youth interested, motivated, and energized in accomplishing this work:
Interestingly, on February 17, 2013, the Parade magazine (www.parade.com) that appeared as a supplement in the Deseret News newspaper of Salt Lake City, Utah, published an article entitled "One Big Happy Family" which stated the following: “When a team of psychologists measured children's resilience, they found that the kids who knew the most about their family's history were best able to handle stress [over those who played team sports or attended regular religious services]. The more children know about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. The reason: These children have a strong sense of intergenerational self--they understand that they belong to something bigger than themselves, and that families naturally experience both highs and lows.”
At first, young people may not like working on "history" and may shy away from it. But they likely would like to sit with a grandparent or great-grandparent to hear and record their life story (that is so easy to do now with modern technology). They would probably enjoy collecting, scanning (digitizing), labeling, and organizing old family pictures. Indexing could be fun with the right project that aligns with their interests. Youth love stories! Take the time to share family stories with them. They might like to participate in utilizing existing (and future) technologies that enable real-time virtual reunions and other family meetings. They might even like to set up a social network dedicated to family members. Youth love to visit new places so taking a family history vacation and letting them help find locations (using GPS navigation apps on their smart phones) where ancestors lived would be appealing to them. They could even use their smart phones to take pictures and document those places and what they learned there.
Pulling young people away from their mobile devices to do family history work is certainly a challenge but finding ways to get them involved using their mobile devices will pay big dividends and keep this work moving forward around the world.
Email inquiries about LDSAFA to:
officer.ldsafa@gmail.com