I recently had a genealogist write to me about a dilemma that many of us face. He was the organizer of a recent church-sponsored event and wondered how to make family history interesting to the community. He had suggested that maybe asking event participants to tell stories about their ancestors might help, but he wondered what other suggestions I had.

Good question. As the keepers of the family history, we are charged with not only remembering our ancestors but making their stories available and accessible. But this can be a challenging task. After all, not everyone likes history, let alone family history.

The idea of storytelling, which has been stressed in the last decade or so in the family history world, is good. After all, everyone likes a good story. Making family history less about words and numbers on a chart and more illustrative is vital.

I’ve had this issue of making family history interesting come up anytime I’ve been asked to teach family history to a non-family history group such as the Boy Scouts or church groups. How do you get people interested in family history? How do you get your family interested in their family history? (which can be just as challenging.) When I brainstorm how to do this, I think in terms of types of activities, games, art, interviews, food, and technology. Yes, giving a talk is an obvious way to teach family history to those not initiated into our pursuit, but what other ways can you interest people of all ages?

Some ideas I have are:

Games: Cards with an ancestor’s names/bio on them, Family history inspired bingo cards, scavenger hunts.

Art: Large family history wallcharts and markers to color branches, add information and drawings. Family history inspired decorations, photo albums, coloring books made from family photos.

Interviews: Offering the space and equipment to allow people to interview family. Include prepared questions to help get the conversation going. Also, encourage individuals (even children) to tell their stories and document their lives.

Food: Let's face it, we all eat, so sponsor a potluck, food contest, or a bakeoff using ancestral recipes. Teach participants how to create a family cookbook, pass out recipe cards, swap family recipes, and offer cooking lessons with grandma.

Tech Center: Have computers set up and teach how to find a relative in the 1940 census. Make available pedigree charts, family group records, and blank census forms. Hold contests for the most exciting occupation, the most family members in the same household, or the youngest/oldest family member in the 1940 census.

I believe that people like not just to hear stories; they want to see images, interact, and try something new. Engaging in only storytelling can be difficult, so having a variety of activities, whether a community event, a family reunion, or Thanksgiving, can be helpful.

So readers, what do you suggest? I want to hear your ideas about how do you make family history "fun" for the non-genealogist? 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

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David W. Jackson began genealogy in 1980 at age 11. He graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Historic Preservation from Southeast Missouri State University. He enjoyed a 20+year career as a local historian and archivist for nonprofit historical organizations (including Unity Archives at Unity School of Christianity’s World Headquarters and Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society). And, since 1996, he has been director of The Orderly Pack Rat (orderlypackrat.com), an independent research, consulting and publishing house.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

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Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
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We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of today's webinar by Michelle Chubenko, "Beginning Ukrainian Genealogy" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 22 minute recording of "Beginning Ukrainian Genealogy" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

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Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,607 classes of genealogy education)
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• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
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About the presenter

Michelle Tucker Chubenko is a Senior Researcher and Eastern European Specialist with Legacy Tree Genealogists. She is a founding member with the “Our Ancestors — Nashi Predky/Наші Предки” Family History Group at the Ukrainian History and Education Center in New Jersey. She has been researching her paternal ancestral roots in colonial America and the 20th century flair of her maternal Eastern European ancestry (Ukrainian and Hungarian) for over thirty years. She specializes in New Jersey and Eastern European research and presents regularly on Eastern European genealogical research. Learn more at http://www.jerseyrootsgenealogy.com/.

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

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The webinar will be live on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at:

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Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of today's webinar by Geoff Rasmussen, "The new and improved Legacy Family Tree Webinars website" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 5 minute recording of "The new and improved Legacy Family Tree Webinars website" is now available to view in our webinar library for free. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,606 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 6,039 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
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• Annual membership: $49.95/year

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Welcome to the new Legacy Family Tree Webinars website!

Our website has a fresh new look. The site is now fast, mobile-friendly, and easier to navigate.

Improved searching and filtering

Search capabilities were enhanced and new filters were added. Now you can apply filters directly on each page, or conduct a search and filter by category or language to further refine your results.

Revamped speakers' page

The speakers' page now makes it easy for you to read about our awesome speakers, including their bios, webinars, and more.

Exciting member-only features

Members enjoy exclusive benefits such as bonus webinars and can access their watch history, bookmarks, and a list of webinars they've signed up for — all in one place.

Visit www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com.

Watch the tour

Geoff Rasmussen, founder and host of the Legacy Family Tree Webinars series, is doing a live tour of the new site in a free webinar on Tuesday, September 28. Register here. You'll enjoy the behind-the-scenes tips and tricks along the way.

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Get access to all of these members-only benefits for 15% off with the coupon code webtember (good through September 30, valid for new members only). Your annual membership will include:

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On the last Friday of each month, we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscribers a new bonus webinar just for them!   This month enjoy "Moravian Trails and Records" by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL. 

Moravian Trails and Records

The Moravians in the 1700s not only settled Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but their mission work took them to other areas to work with Native Americans. Moravian records include Community Diaries which were required to be kept by each settlement. They were a way for them to record not only ecclesiastical events but other events that affected their settlement such as their interactions with native populations and slaves as they went about doing their missionary work. The German heritage of the Moravians shows in the details of naming visitors (along with any aliases) and relationships among the individuals mentioned. The Moravian records are truly a treasure-trove for anyone whose ancestors were in the same vicinity or time.

About the Presenter

The recording of today's webinar by Robyn Smith, "Cluster Research: Using Groups of People to Find Your People" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 24 minute recording of "Cluster Research: Using Groups of People to Find Your People" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

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Webinar Members get:

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• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
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FamilySearch made an incredible announcement this week. They’ve digitized all of their microfilm collection. What an achievement and gift to the genealogical community. I’m looking forward to this increased access to online records.

Despite how wonderful this is, it doesn’t mean you can do all your genealogy research from home.

Far from it.

In the case of FamilySearch, the benefit of a visit to the Family History Library is that you can research in books, maps, subscription websites, and microforms that are not available for at-home use (some digitized records have restrictions and can only be viewed at the Family History Library, a Family History Center, or Affiliate Library). A visit to the Family History Library allows you to benefit from staff and volunteers expertise, whether it's a research question or a language translation. I was with a friend at the Library recently, where we not only researched his family history and made significant discoveries in their book collection, but his online FamilySearch tree was printed into a large fan chart. A very visual representation of what we had learned about his family. Those discoveries could not have been made from home.

A few months back, I traveled to Allen County Public Library and interviewed the director, Curt Witcher. One of the points he stressed to me was that digitization does not make a library visit irrelevant. There will always be materials that are not digitized, and the library’s collection is constantly evolving. There will always be a need for repositories and in-person research.

Now, I'm not denying that digitizing has a considerable benefit, and I'm grateful for it. Digitization means we can start our research from home as we exhaust what is easily available and create a research plan. Online research is vital for those who have to research from home because they are primary caretakers of children or other family members, those who work long hours and have little time off, those who have health or financial issues that make travel impossible. Digitization has made the world smaller and more accessible.

Exhaustive research often requires us to go beyond the digitized. It requires us to write letters to government agencies, pull records in person, and ask other genealogists, librarians, and archivists questions. Not everything is digitized, and good research requires a variety of sources.

It use to be that genealogy research meant we would go a nearby Family History Center and order microfilmed records for the location we were researching. We would exhaust the resources of FamilySearch. As technology advanced and microfilm rentals were discontinued, many researchers stopped exhausting FamilySearch. I’m a huge supporter of exhausting FamilySearch’s free resources and then continuing the search to other online sources and repositories. With this recent digitization announcement, we have that option again.

But the new announcement doesn’t mean you should cancel your next trip to Salt Lake City (or any other library). What it does means is that we have more access to records and more opportunity to research. And we all benefit from that.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

The recording of today's webinar by the Board for Certification of Genealogists and Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA, "Federal Records Relating to Rivers and Canals" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 16 minute recording of "Federal Records Relating to Rivers and Canals" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,596 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,980 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2021 webinar brochure here.