Ward Family History Activity Ideas

(Ideas by Ruth Liddell)  You could give each family a poster board or paper and have them design/color a family crest (there is a cute example of a blank coat of arms in the Oct. 1995 Friend Sharing Time), then have a contest for the best ones. You could collect childhood photos from the adults in the ward and do a slide show and have people guess who the photos are - maybe a prize for the one who gets the most. You could have a couple of people share exciting stories of ancestors. You could have everyone bring a family heirloom to display as decorations. You could have some kind of contest of who's related to the most famous person. You could have different tables set up with hand outs covering each aspect of personal/family history (i.e. scrap booking, home videos, family newsletters, journal keeping, 4 generation pedigree charts, etc.)

(Ideas by Donna Cuillard) Select several people to come first-person as one of their ancestors. Have them each take a few minutes and tell about "their life."  Or.... you could do an evening in Nauvoo and have people dress and speak as the pioneers and tell about how they feel "now that the Prophet has introduced the doctrine of Temple work for the Dead" and how they feel about building the Nauvoo Temple.  There are great quotes from those who were there and especially from those who participated in the Nauvoo Baptisms for the Dead in the River.

(Ideas by Debbie) We did a Family Heritage Night and had people bring in heirlooms, pictures of relatives, their family tree and a dish that was their "family" dish to share. Some families brought dishes from the country they were from and some brought their families favorite treat or snack. Then we had some brief 5 minute talks by a few volunteers who shared with us how knowing about their family history has been a blessing in their lives. I had contacted some of the people who work in the Family History Center and has them bring family group sheets and some other information to display and explain to people. It was a good turnout and we were encouraged to do it as a yearly thing in the hopes of getting more people involved with their family history.

(Ideas by Lee Slichter) You could tie it in with a family title of liberty (family flag) that has them commit to what their family is about and make a cool banner to post in their home-sort of a family mission statement wall hanging. You could start them with a bunch of question to answer that lead to writing a personal and nuclear family history. As they say in family history centers-you need to begin with YOU. So maybe you want them to focus on being the people who can be understood and connected to by future generations. We know a lot about Nephi because he kept a record. We don't know much about some other very righteous people (who would have probably been really good examples) because they didn't keep a record.