Recently we were blessed to be invited by a stake to give a presentation on FH and Youth. The presentation was centred on Elder Bednar’s talk at the October 2011 General Conference. Here is our handout.
1. Putting things in context
- Remember the blessing of having a Prophet and Apostles
- Always talk and counsel with Stake and Ward Leaders
2. Goals
- To provide a list of practical suggestions to involve youth in Family History
- End Result – To increase the participation of Youth in Family History
3. We have been asked to focus on Youth and Family History. Why FH for Youth? How? The Obvious? Follow the program. Keep doing what do we do now in the YW and YM programs. Review the program after going through Elder Bednar’s talk.
4. Talk: The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn – Elder David A Bednar, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , October 2011 General Conference, Saturday Afternoon Session – key resource – answers key questions invites youth to participate in FH and how this can best be accomplished:
5. Why do Family History?
6. What are Youth to do?
- Learn about and experience the spirit of Elijah
- Study, search out your ancestors
- Prepare to perform proxy baptisms
- Help other people identify their family histories
7. A Promise . . . What is promised?
- Your hearts shall turn to the fathers.
- The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts.
- Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you.
- Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase.
- Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding.
- I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary.
- You will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.
8. Role of Parents and Leaders
- Help them learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah
- do not overly program this endeavor
- or provide too much detailed information or training
9. A further word of caution
- “First, the youth won’t need technology or computer lessons, in fact, they could be called as consultants to teach new.familysearch.org after just a few minutes using it. They get it.
- Second, you will lose them if you try to teach them to become genealogists.
- Get them to the temple with their own names,
- Set them up to help and serve others, and you will be successful.
- Teach them how to correctly document jurisdictional place names, or to correctly enter sources and citations and you will lose them.
- They are a wonderful resource and can help and be blessed in so many ways.” (Jim Greene, FamilySearch)
10. What should youth do?
- Invite to Explore
- Experiment
- Learn for themselves
- Use FH for Youth website
- Be learners who act
- and receive additional light and knowledge by the power of the Holy Ghost
- Not merely passive students
11. You will stand all amazed
- Youth will quickly learn how to effectively use resources
- Youth can help those uncomfortable with or intimidated by technology or unfamiliar with FamilySearch
- More time for FH and Temple service means less time doing . . . . .
12. So what should we do?
- Using the Youth and FH website – give them the opportunity to look at the videos and try some of the activities
- Learning about their ancestors for at least 4 generations – not just a pedigree chart – but who are they? Gather, organize pictures
- Take their own family names to the Temple for baptism
- Help by Indexing
- Help friends learn about their ancestors
- Ask question – is the information on new.familysearch.org accurate for my ancestors
- Can we get it corrected? – yes we can!
- Help ward members – could be a service project – someone with no computer and or no computer skills – someone needing someone else’s eyes and hands
- Digitizing photos and documents
- Help the FH Centre – are there youth who could serve a shift a week? are there youth who could provide some of the technical support?
- Are there youth who could teach all or part of the SS FH course?
- FH and Missionary work – could youth go with full-time missionaries to help with FH questions?
- How are we preparing youth to be full-time missionaries? What do they need to know about FH to be ready to enter a MTC?
- when youth are assigned to talk in sacrament meeting, ask them to learn about an ancestor who embodied the gospel principle they are talking about, and then share what they learned
13. Find Short Active High Success Activities
- Explore the Family History for Youth website - lds.org/fhy
- Use the 5 Minute Genealogy videos and activities – available at FamilySearch.org (remember these can be downloaded and used offline)
- Create a fan chart at Createfan.com – what still needs to be done on my tree?
- Indexing – always! – and now available on the ipad/iphone/ipod – app called Indexing – and android devices
- Watch for the 20 Minute Genealogist – at
https://twenty.byu.edu
/ – not available yet (as of 10Feb)
14. Internet access in church buildings
- Can 35 youth all come to the FHCentre and use each use a computer? Probably not. Plan for manageable groups
- Plan the use of the bandwidth we have available
- How many people can access the Internet simultaneously in my building? If you need to know more ask your Stake Technology Specialist – but you will quickly find out if the number is 10 or 15 or 20 or ?
- Download videos like the 5 Minute Genealogy series – and then use it offline
15 Challenges/goals and competitions
- # of names indexed
- number of family names taken to the temple – is this an appropriate competition?
- caution – re duration of challenges – short repeated challenges may be more effective than single long events
- can competition on sacred things something become inappropriate? What spirit is being shared?
- How about a competition to see how many people you can teach to do indexing – even a neighbour or someone who doesn’t yet belong to the church
16. Some of these suggestions will take some planning – and involve choices – and leadership decisions – discuss then with your Bishop and Stake President in Councils as appropriate - you can’t do all of them – prayerfully select
17. Some Resources:
- Elder Bednar talk “The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn “at October 2011 General Conference (Saturday afternoon session)
- FH for youth website lds.org/fhy – Experiences are frequently being added. Be alert for additions
- Indexing at
https://www.familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing
- 5 Minute Genealogy video series at FamilySearch.org/learn in research courses – many great resources in this area
https://createfan.com
/ – makes a fan chart from data at new.familysearch.org- Watch for the 20 Minute Genealogist – at
https://twenty.byu.edu
/ – not available yet (as of 13 March but you can register for the beta)
- video at <
http://lds.org/service/serving-in-the-church/temple-and-family-history/leader-resources/individual-stories-and-topics?lang=eng#strengthen-youth
> 6 min - articles at the Research wiki at familysearch.org – particularly 3 articles – 1. FH Activities for Youth, 2. Involve Children and Youth in FH, 3. FH Activities for Children 12 – ?
The 20 Minute Genealogist beta is live now.
Thank you for letting me know, Justin