😍 Family History: It's About Love  💞 

ctr sweetie

Dear Engaging Youth in Family History Friends,

Please accept my apologies for not posting in some time. I had a family member pass away from cancer so it's been a really challenging time. But, I know and have personally experienced the healing that doing family history activities and discovering more about your ancestors can bring.

In fact, there is a powerful class that will be sharing more about how family history heals at RootsTech. (Are you signed up? If not click here.) If you are attending RootsTech in person, you can add the class to your schedule here. For those unable to attend in person, I'll reach out and see if the presenter can share a guest post here in our group after RootsTech. Stay tuned!

Now time for some fun family history ideas you can do with the kids in your life for 💗Valentine's Day!💌

• 💟You've heard of a family tree, but what about a Valentine's Family Tree?
  • Gather photos of your ancestors and living family members.
  • Cut and paste the photos (or printed copies) on different colored heart cutouts.
  • Add their name on the front of the heart.
  • Write a couple reasons why you love them on the back of the heart.
  • Use a hole punch to make an opening, and string a ribbon or jute through the hole.
  • Hang on a small artificial tree, or paint a tree on a posterboard and tape the hearts on the tree.
  • This can be done as a family or in a small group. Share family stories about the people as you hang the hearts on the tree.
  • Here are some varied examples here and here.

• 💘February Seek-and-Find
  • Use FamilySearch's Family Tree or other online genealogy site that includes birth, marriage, and death date information. (Note: You could also use printed records or a box of documents for a low-tech option, but might be harder to find information.)
  • Find ancestors that have February birth, marriage, and death dates.
  • Celebrate them by printing out their photos, writing a few facts about them, or looking for what you have in common with them.
  • You can add the information you find to a "February Family History Finds" poster, create a 3x5" card for each ancestor with their photo and information, or even use different colorful post-its on your personal "wall" grouped by family lines
  • Lots of adaptability with this activity based on age, interest, and creativity.

• 💕Family History "Heart Attack
  • Have you or someone you know been "heart attacked" (where someone covers your front or room door cut-out hearts that have nice things on them)? This is similar but with a family history twist.
  • Cut out lots of hearts in various colors and sizes. You can also use a heart punch-out tool to cut them faster.
  • Gather markers, crayons, stickers, glitter, adhesive gems or letters, and any other crafty notions for decorating the hearts.
  • Print family photos of people, memorable events, vacations, and fun times. Cut them to fit on the hearts.
  • Glue the photos on the hearts, and decorate as you wish. Write the relative or ancestor's name on the heart and what you love about the person or what you loved about the event or activity.
  • Compile the decorated hearts, grab some tape, and "heart attack" a family member. (You could do this for a friend with photos of your friend and activities you've done together.)

What family history activities do you have for February or Valentine's day? Reply with your ideas below. ❤️

Chris Schmink

Sadly, I note that the session involving family history and healing is only available to those attending RootsTech in person. It states that it will neither be broadcast nor recorded. Perhaps there are other issues involved of which I'm not aware, but on the surface that seems to be a very short-sighted decision.

I'm hoping someone might consider rethinking that decision so it can be available to a far wider audience (those registered for RootsTech, but not traveling to Salt Lake for physical attendance). The alternative suggested above would be a good 2nd choice for those unable to attend the in-person presentation. But since far more people that just this group would benefit from the session, anything posted here in this group after RootsTech would need to be made available to a far wider audience as well. 🤞

--Chris

ctr sweetie

@Chris Schmink, some of the content that will be shared in the "Building Resilience: 3 Science-backed Ways to Find Healing" comes from information shared here. There is some incredible research and findings being discovered about how family history activities, stories, etc. help with healing. I'll do a post about this topic in the future.