Family History For You

We had Enrichment on Thursday night and it turned out to be a great time. This month we combined with 6th Ward and essentially had a Family History Workshop. Family History has always been something that can seem overwhelming and you don't know where to start, so our goal of the evening was to make people feel like it was something definitely doable and that they could tackle it in some form or another.

First, we were all together and Sister Gulliver had a lesson on the FamilySearch and Indexing. It was very informative. I've never done any of that, so it made me want to try.

Next, we split into 3 different classes. Everyone got to pick their class.

1. Photography--This class was taught by her brother-in-law. Matt did a phenomenal job. He talked about how to take good pictures, how to get the best lighting, etc. He had a slide show to go along with it. Everyone loved it. One gal even mentioned how she wished she was back in high school so she could have a teacher like him.

2. Scrapbooking--This class was taught by this talented gal. Amy has been scrapbooking for 10+ years and I think knows everything under the sun about scrapbooking. Her class focused primarily on digital scrapbooking. I personally attended this class. Not only was it really informative, I LOVED her pages so much that it made me really want to try my hand at digital scrapbooking. I may very well have a new hobby. First up would be taking these classes.

3. Blogging--This class was taught by this exceptional woman. I've always so admired Debie and her wonderful family. She taught about the blogging basics, how to start one, how to keep it safe--along with why she blogs and how it's been wonderful at capturing her family history.

After the classes were over, we then met back together and talked briefly about the importance of us all writing our own life story. Nicole read a great quote from Boyd K. Packer, which stated: "There is a way that it can be done. And there is a place to begin. You can begin with you, with whom you are and what you have right now. It is a matter of getting started. If you don’t know where to start, start with yourself. If you don’t know what records to get, and how to get them, start with what you have got. It really won’t take you long to write the account of your life, and it will have an accuracy because you have collected these records." We then presented them with their very own book to write their story in. The books were made from cardstock, but it was our hope that they would go and get the mini-binder to put the pages in. Nicole and I worked very hard on those books the day before, so we were really happy that we had such a positive response with them.

Many people have asked us where they can print more copies of those "life story" pages. We got the idea off of Becky Higgins' blog, but for some reason you can't print them off anymore. If you want to print off extras {it would make a great Family Home Evening}, click HERE.