1. Anytime Activities
2. Plan-Ahead Activities
Individuals Activities
2. Plan-Ahead Activities
Nothing makes family history more meaningful than personal involvement. Your life (and the lives of those you love) can be enriched through family history activities. Check out the activities on this page for ideas to get started.
2. Plan-Ahead Activities
Overview: Planning family history activities ahead of time (and with a specific purpose) is a way to make sure we are celebrating both the past and the present. Priority planning helps us bring family history to the top of the list and enjoy activities with our loved ones that make a difference in their lives and in ours.
I2-01: Plan a Family History Learn and DineWith so many ideas and resources at your fingertips, you can plan a fun family history event for an evening, a day, or an entire week. Invite any combination of family and friends. Use information in the Projects in The Family History Guide as discussion items or workshops. Don’t forget to incorporate any number of great activities, such as Fun with Google Earth, and favorite foods (see Activity I2-05). You may also want to do indexing (see Activity I6-04). For help in planning a community event, refer to this article. Find a myriad of ideas for planning a Latter-day Saint event (ideas can be adapted to any faith) in this blog post.
I2-02: Family History Book ClubStudy on your own, or start a family history book club with family and friends. In this article, Lisa Louise Cooke shares ideas and inspiration, including book suggestions. Don’t forget personal, town/city, and family histories also. For fun, dress up like the characters in the book for the reviews!
I2-03: Celebrate Your LifeBegin a gratitude journal and record the great things that have happened in your life. Write, record, make a movie, or create a scrapbook. A fun idea is to plan a party to celebrate someone else’s life; see the It's a Wonderful Life Party blog post for ideas. Video-record the event as a gift to that person.
I2-04: Make Discoveries about Your FamilyThe Family History Discovery Center in Salt Lake City (and in Lehi, Utah) is open to everyone. You will need a FamilySearch account, and it is helpful to have your family tree filled in with at least four generations. This is a great family or group activity as well. See this blog post for more information.
I2-05: Preserve and Share RecipesSee this article and this FamilySearch blog post for inspiration on preserving and sharing recipes. Consider making a video (see the video example on the left). Plan an event to share recipes with family and friends to share food from travels, missions, and from your ancestors.
I2-06: Plan a Family History TripTravel with family members to lands from your past. Make a video of your trip. See Activity F2-04. Learn how to create videos in this article by Lisa Louise Cooke. Thanks to the Peterson family for sharing their video!
I2-07: Life as You Know ItTake the Home Movie Challenge (see Activity F1-08) to make a movie about life as you know it (see this blog post). Thanks to Nate and Nicole Anderson for creating and sharing this video.
Find more activities here: 1. Anytime Activities and Games 3. Making Family History 4. Documenting the Past 5. Social Media Activities 6. Service Activities 7. Activities for Research 8. Latter-day Saint Activities