52 Ways to do Family History in 5 Minutes a Day

Happy New Year! I love the start of a new year & the hope and renewal it brings.  And I love to set goals! Do you have any goals related to family history this year? I have created a printable with 52 ways you can work on your family history in just FIVE minutes a day. Can you believe you can really work your family history with as busy as life gets? You can take as little or as much time on these suggestions as you'd like, but I set them up so that they can be done quickly but meaningfully. Don't forget, the little minutes you do every day add up! A couple minutes a day is totally doable, and you may find yourself making more time in your day to keep working on it. Once you get excited about family history it's easy to keep going!

Here is your free printable. I created it in a list as well as a grid. Print whichever one is easier for you to work on & have fun! Don't forget to share with people you love! Here we come 2019!

52 Ways to do Family History in 5 Minutes a Day List form

52 Ways to do Family History in 5 Minutes a Day Grid form

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All the Stories on FamilySearch.org

Today I am sharing my favorite app to find family stories on FamilySearch.org called All the Stories.  It isn't an app you download on your phone, but a web app. It pulls all your ancestors' stories from your family tree into one place to easily read them. I learned so much about my ancestors from using this app! I always told people I didn't have pioneer ancestors until I read several stories from their diaries on All the Stories. Beware--once you use this app you'll want to keep reading stories. Make sure you have a lot of time to read them all! 

Okay, here we go. Head to FamilySearch.org and sign in. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on App Gallery.

In the search bar at the top, type All the Stories. Click on it when it shows up!

Next, click Get Started and then Login. Sign back into FamilySearch with your account info and then click Let's go. The app will scan your tree for stories and pull them to the left side of the page. This takes a while but you can read stories while it scans. 

There you go! When you read the stories from the left side, you can scroll down to see your direct relationship with the person. You can also click View on FamilySearch to take you back to that ancestor's page on FamilySearch.org.

Have fun reading stories about your ancestors! Don't forget to add your own stories and memories to your ancestor's pages so that there will be even more to read, and so that others can read about them as well. Come back here to let me know what you find!

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Gatherers

I love that President Henry B Eyring used the word gatherers in his recent talk at LDS General Conference.  To think of ourselves as gatherers as we are working on our family history makes a powerful impact.  Not only are we finding names of our ancestors, we are gathering them through stories, photos, records, and ultimately gathering hearts together.

Think of yourself as a gatherer next time you search through stories, photos, and records, or the next time you discover an ancestor you haven't heard of.  Think of the great, eternal work you are performing when you take that person's name to the temple, or when you attach photos and memories to an ancestor. You are a gatherer!

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One by One

Sacrament meetings are interesting with three kids and a husband at work!  I try to go, regardless of what a hot mess we might be, and hope to feel at least a tiny bit of the spirit while I'm there juggling a tantrum-throwing two year old, a hungry five year old and a squirmy baby.  

Yesterday we had a surprise visit from Elder Petersen, our local area authority.  Elder Petersen was my stake president growing up and a very important figure in my spiritual growth.  He gave me numerous blessings and taught me much about the gospel.  I was excited to hear from him, and between the tantrum thrown by my two-year old and the slobber from my baby, I learned this important lesson:

He said (quoting what Elder Bednar had told him), "the Lord works one by one. We aren't expected to teach everyone all at once.  We teach them one by one." 

I have thought about that for a whole day now, and decided that works for so many parts of our lives, especially family history! We aren't expected to find all of our ancestors right now.  We find them, learn about them, and take their names to the temple one by one.  That's how the Lord works with us.

It makes me think of the beautiful song by Hillary Weeks,

I stand amazed that Heaven knows me

He hears one by one, loves one by one.

When this crowded world around you

doesn't know your name.

He knows us, one by one.

When he saw the hungry thousand

Every person ate.

Comforted the aching soul

And looked into each face.

And when he had a world to save

He had a world of time,

To stop and hold a little child.

He hears one by one, loves one by one.

( From www.lds.org/youth/music, search One by One)


I know that the Lord knows us one by one! He does not expect us to do everything. He wants us to find our ancestors one by one, just as he loves us one by one.

xo, Kayleigh

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Starting Small, part two

So we have decided to jump into family history! It may be a small jump..maybe more of a hop or just a step, but we are beginning nonetheless.

But where do we begin?

It's all about making priorities and starting a little bit at a time.

Remember, you do not have to complete your whole family history right NOW.  Let's start small and do something little every day, or even every week.  Here are some ideas to help us start small!

Maybe instead of one episode on Netflix, you can take that 30 minutes and enter a story about a grandparent on the memories section of FamilySearch.org. Or find a census record and add it to a family member's profile. That 30 minutes can be used in so many ways!

Call a grandparent once a week and ask them a specific question about their life. Record their answer. Example questions can be found here: https://familysearch.org/blog/en/52stories/ 

If you have an Instagram account, you're already documenting your family history! Boom. Post about moments that are important to you, and plan on printing your Instagram feed. There are a few great inexpensive services that do this. My favorite is https://chatbooks.com/.

Start a family blog. Blogspot.com is free and easy to connect to your phone so that you can import your photos and add captions easily.

Do the 52 questions associated with stories that Family Search created. Pick one question a week and answer it yourself or ask a parent or grandparent what their response would be. Record their answer in a journal or in the Family Search memories section! https://familysearch.org/blog/en/52stories/ 

These are just a few ideas to help you start small and start simple. What matters is that you start.  Please, please don't do all of these things right now. Pick one thing that you can do. One thing that you think you can be successful at right now and do that. Notice the difference that one thing makes in your life. When you feel ready (and not overwhelmed), pick another.  But first start small, and start simple.

xo, Kayleigh

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Starting Small

If you're anything like me, you've thought something along these lines when it comes to family history.

I have young kids and no time (I have 3 kids under age 5!)

I am busy with work

I don't know much about my family

I have 8000 photos on my phone (literally) and don't know where to start

I haven't journaled in years

I don't have a lot of extra money

It's overwhelming

I don't have much experience with family history

I don't have time to sit at the computer and do hours and hours of research

All of these thoughts had gone through my head at one time or another, and they all led me to one decision:

I will just have to do my family history at another time in life.

Until very, very recently this was my thought process. I felt guilt for not doing my family history, but just resigned to the fact that I'm busy and it will have to come later.

--But--

That constant tap, tap, tap feeling kept coming. My ancestors have been knocking on the door of my heart and I just couldn't keep it closed any longer.  Have you felt that?  It's still and small, but it just keeps happening. A sweet, small tapping on your heart. That's your ancestors trying to get you prepared to start something. Anything.

Here's the conclusion I've come to: We can do this NOW! With young kids running around, zero extra time and no experience. We can do it!  It's all about priorities and starting a little at a time. Something very, very important that I've learned is that we don't have to do our whole family history right now. All that matters is that we're trying! Sister Wendy W. Nelson said something so profound about this. She says,

"The Lord will provide everything we need to be successful in doing this work,

including the inspiration, the information, the energy, the answers, the proxies, 

and even the time and desire.

All we have to do is ask & show that we are serious in wanting the help."

(bold added)

That's what this is all about. Showing the Lord that we are willing, despite our current circumstances, weaknesses, or inexperience. He will provide the way if we but step into the work, however small that step may be.

(Photo via @familysearch on Instagram)

xo, Kayleigh

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Protection

This is one of the most powerful quotes I've ever read about family history. What wonderful promises are made to us when we work on family history! Who wouldn't want more protection from the adversary? I know that Heavenly Father awards us for our attempts. As long as we are trying, we will be okay. We don't have to be professionals today! We just need to make the effort and try.

Here's the free printable. You can download it and print it as a 4x6 or 8x10.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4O2YuRXcBPoYUdXNWtmdzAzeG8/view?usp=sharing

Feel free to share this, print it for your family or someone you feel needs it. Happy weekend friends!

xo, Kayleigh

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