Presenting with My Family (Video)

The best moments in my speaking career have come when I've had the opportunity to speak with my family members.  I've spoken at BYU with all three of my children, I've spoken with both of my twin sisters Amy and Emily, and I've spoken at RootsTech with my Dad.  My son Matthew spoke at RootsTech on his own (he filled the room better than I did, but don't tell him that.)  Matthew's RootsTech talk was exceptional and he was asked to give it several more times at other conferences throughout Utah and California.

We have the opportunity to speak together this weekend again at the Welby West Jordan Family History Fair organized in part by my good friend Luana Darby.  Matthew hasn't given his talk for a couple of years now so we've been going through it and updating things to make sure it is all current.  As such, I've been really impressed with the videos we put together at the time.  Matthew is now 20 years old, but he was only 16 when he spoke at RootsTech.  This talk is really great for a 16 year old!  

One of the things we noticed at the RootsTech youth event the year before we gave this talk, was that many of the youth were looking at their phones throughout the presentation, but when the speaker played a video, all of the heads in the room popped up to watch the video.  So, in order to capture the younger generation's attention (and to take a little pressure off a 16 year old) we added short videos to his presentation.  Check them out:

His title, "Get to Know Your Geezers" was fabulous and eye catching as well.  At the very first RootsTech conference, someone actually criticized me for having my children there.  Now, with so many actively involving their children in their Family History Research, things have changed much for the better.  Families like the Family History Fanatics, and The Genealogy Kids are carrying on the torch as my kids head into college and beyond.  I'm sure those kids, and all of the kids they reach will be benefited the way my kids have been.  Truly that has been the biggest payoff of my career.  

Decorating with Family History for the Holidays.

 My daughter Rachel and I had a great time making a fun family history tree a couple of years ago.  We've enjoyed this tree so much in the years since.  I hope you'll allow me: proud Mom here. She created this video to give you some ideas for your own family history decorating.  Hopefully it will help you inspire your family with their heritage at this time of year.

Family History Eagle Scout Projects

Eagle Scout Projects are a great way to engage youth in family history while providing leadership skills and service to the community. Eagle projects can be used to share family history and to record family history. If you have a potential Eagle Scout in your family you might think about genealogy for a great project.

Digitizing cemeteries using the BillionGraves app and website is fabulous Eagle Project which Geoff Rassmussen's son recently completed. Several of my neighbors have completed Billion Graves projects for their Eagles as well.  That is a great project that helps preserve cemeteries so that people can find their ancestors online.


A few years back my oldest son Adam completed his Eagle Scout Project by showing ways to involve youth in the vendor booths at genealogy conferences. While I was UGA president, we tried shaking up the conference a little bit by challenging each of the vendors to also sponsor an activity booth and giving them a discount on the booth in exchange for the activity.  Adam offered to help with some of the booths if the vendor didn't feel like they could do it alone.  He developed some great activities. 

Family History Bingo Make and Take

The RootsMagic Photo Booth

Family Roots Publishing sponsored popcorn

Games Your Ancestor Played was a popular booth.  It was fun to see the older generation teaching something fun to the youth.  The kids loved. it.

Making cemetery rubbings

Unfortunately we were about 2 years too early.  We didn't get a great turn out for youth but we learned alot of important lessons about youth and family history.

Luckily that has all changed now.  RootsTech is seeing record numbers and youth are getting involved all over the place. A couple of weeks ago, my son Matthew spoke again at the Ogden Family History Conference and the room was standing room only--completely filled with youth.  As he's given his "Get to Know Your Geezers" talk over the years, the room has filled with more and more youth--a great thing to see. The genealogy world is attracting youth in greater numbers and the trick is to keep them interested by providing fun opportunities within our families and communities.

An Eagle Scout project is a great way to get started.  Congratulations to Evan Rassmussen.  Our newest Eagle Scout genealogist.  Way to go!

Family History & Youth Infographic Part 1: Academic Benefits

For more help in teaching your children and grandchildren about family history, check out our Zap the Grandma Gap books and workbooks.

Passing the Torch.

I can't tell you what a great day it was for me when the day for Matthew's big lecture came at RootsTech.  The genealogy community was fantastic.  The whole day they treated Matthew like a rock star.  So many people were congratulating him and telling him how wonderful it was that he was speaking.  Thanks to Drew Smith for interviewing Matthew for his Genealogy Guys podcast.  I have yet to hear what he said.  I'll post the link when it is available.

We prepared and prepared for this lecture and the best part was how much more Matthew learned about family history and the different ways there are to do things.  And once all the videos and slides were put together, he got to do some practice runs for youth groups organized by friends of mine.  (Thanks!)  But as we were walking in, I realized--if I hadn't before--how much it was entirely up to him now and I had no say in what was going to happen.  That moment when a mother lets them go...  And Matthew has decided to be the stand up comedian of Family History.  He had a couple of jokes in there that I was a little nervous about but we survived.  He talked about how if you use a picture of a potato with MyHeritage's face matching technology it doesn't work so well.  And he had a slide where he explained how on FamilySearch you are contributing to one big tree, but on Ancestry and My Heritage it was just your own tree.  He kept referring to the one big tree as being like communism.  Try as I might we couldn't find anything to replace that joke.  But it always gets big laughs and that works for him.  Even if I don't appreciate it so much.  At least he understands the concept I guess.

So the room filled with about 400 kids (twice) and HE NAILED IT!  He did so wonderful.  He went slowly enough, his audience stayed with him, and I think he really taught them something: the difference between a conclusion tree and actual sources, an introduction to what the three big sites offer, and search strategies for looking for real data about your ancestors. One lady wrote me an email afterward and said, "I recently attended several days of the RootsTech conference, and the class Matthew presented on finding your geezers was by far the best.  I brought my teenage daughter with me today for the youth event and this was the class she and I decided to attend together.  This one class was well worth the entire registration fee for the conference.  I cannot thank you enough for spelling out the similarities and differences in the various websites and their software.  Your class was clear and concise, humorous, and highlighted all the right areas.  Thank you for showing the ~how~ of finding ancestors, and making it accessible and understandable to my daughter." 

It was truly the biggest payday of my genealogical career.  So much more than anything I have accomplished, to see him so confident and knowledgeable about his own family history and how to do real research with real sources was so wonderful.  And that's what it is really all about isn't it?  As a mother, I truly feel that raising successful confident kids is the most important work I will do in my life.  And Family History is such a great tool for that.  In the weeks since the conference, I'm amazed at the peace and self-posession that has settled into him.  And our relationship throughout this process has improved 10 times over.  I don't think that is just because of the experience of the lecture--I really think it is largely because of the topic.  Family history work gives kids the self assurance of who they really are and what they can become.  And that is the greatest thing a Mom could ever hope for. This whole exercise has been very real proof in my life of the power of family history to strengthen youth and strengthen the family relationships they have.

Three years ago I brought my pre-teens to Rootstech and they were the only kids there. A couple of people even gave me a hard time about it. My how times have changed.  The crowds were wonderful at the conference this year.  I think the final count came in around 13,000 with about 4,000 of that being youth.  Kudos to FamilySearch for bringing this all about.  We passed out paper dolls at the booth from our new activity books.  It was crazy busy and so much fun.  I never even got a chance to get any good pictures around the conference.  But I did snap one of the booth.  Or the backs of the people at the booth anyway.  

Both of us with our speaker tags.

Oh yeah, and I lectured too.  I did my Leave a Heritage Workshop where we took time to brainstorm what family history assets each person has and who the transitional people were in their families.  Then we broke into groups and tried to figure out where those assets relate to the different ages of youth in our families.  It didn't quite go the way I wanted it to.  Try as I might we ran out of time.  It really needs to be a two hour workshop.  But the feedback I got was good.  I think it really gave people the time to think about what they want to purposely pass down.  And I know they left with a plan of action.  I developed a little worksheet for the class based on some of the Power Up Workbook pages.  Hopefully I'll get to use it again soon in another situation. 

And prizes.  One of the best parts of Matthew's presentation was the end where he gave away prizes.  He gave away a full set of RootsMagic products in each of the lectures, and My Heritage donated a full subscription, a set of their ancestor playing cards, and a My Heritage hoodie for each of his lectures as well.  Thanks to Bruce Buzbee and Daniel Horowitz for being so supportive of Matthew and being so excited about young genealogists.  I think prizes and more thinking outside of the box is important for getting youth involved.  We gave away some Family ChartMasters blank charts and gift cards too.  We're nothing if not supportive of efforts to help youth learn about their family history around here.  :)

Matthew has been scheduled to teach at another local family history fair in Pleasant Grove in March and at the Family History Conference in Ogden in September.  He has submitted to a couple of other conferences as well.  I've passed on a few of the conferences I usually do this year so that I can do some more development.  But he is taking up the torch.  Exactly how it should be. 

Facebook to the rescue and Youth Family History Centers

We've worked really hard on Matthew's presentation for RootsTech and I know he has it down, but I've still been a little worried because--for crying out loud--he's only 15, and this would be a lot of pressure for some kids.  He is completely unruffled and not nervous at all.  But I thought I should get him a little more speaking experience before the big event if I could.  And Facebook came to the rescue.

I love the genealogy social networking crowd.  And they really came through for me this time.  I wrote a post asking if anyone had a youth group or family group that Matthew could practice on last week and several of my friends jumped at the opportunity to have someone young come and speak to their youth.  Thank You So Much!  We're looking forward to speaking for a couple of groups Sue Bankhead has arranged.  She has been so supportive and excited it has made us really excited too. 

On Thursday last week my friend Sue Maxwell had us come up to her new Family History Center designed entirely for youth.  So Awesome!  It has just been set up and they are planning to open it with just youth staffing it in the afternoons and evenings.  That is that "youth teaching youth" idea at work.  So So Cool!  Take a look at the pictures:

I told Matthew I wanted to move closer to that FHC :)

And by the way--someone mentioned on facebook that Matthew was "brainwashed" or being manipulated.  Like I said on Facebook, this kid won't do anything he doesn't want to do.  Just try making him get off the computer and go to bed.  I've thought about that some--with my books and with trying to help people involve their children in family history.  It isn't so much about manipulation, as about being a good parent or grandparent.  There are lots of things we do to teach our kids how to be happy in life.  This is just a really important one. 

NextGen Genealogy Network

Take a moment and look at the facebook page for the NextGen Genealogy Network.  https://www.facebook.com/NextGenNetwrk.  Great new organization to promote family history with the next generation. 

I'm sure the group will be a great place to get news and ideas.  Some of the recent links include: Three Keys to Involving the Younger Generation in Genealogy by Scott Phillips  and Stanford Magazine's History Detected by Theresa Johnston.  Lots to learn.  Together we'll figure out how to reorganize family history so that it is fun and attractive to the next generation. 

My final take away from the youth activities at RootsTech

So as I've been putting these last blog posts together and talking to my kids about what they thought about the youth classes at RootsTech I've learned two things. 

1. One and possibly two of my teenagers have been to enough presentations about how great family history is for youth and how they should get involved.  They are actually curious and looking for more instruction about how to do research. They've googled and such but I'm hearing a little more curiosity about where the good resources are. 

and
2.  My teenagers don't want to listen to adults teach them about how to do research.  There is some kind of disconnect there.  My kids go to lots of genealogy conferences, but I don't think they're all that excited about going to classes.  I'm going to try again at the upcoming UGA South Davis Family History Fair in a couple of weeks but in general I don't think they want to listen to the adults. 

So.  I just proposed to my son that if he would sit down with me one on one and learn a little more, maybe he should develop some courses that he could submit to conferences for teaching youth.  I think if he would rather go to a class taught by a teenager, maybe he could be talked into teaching other teenagers. 

Hmmmm.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

RootsTech from a teenage perspective--guest blogger

This is a guest post written my my 13 year old daughter.  I asked her to write about what she thought of the sessions for teenagers last weekend at RootsTech.   She typed her ideas about family history conferences into her phone as she listened to the lectures.  I've preserved all of the original spelling for you and all of the passion.  She is definitely my daughter.  I do best with spell checking too.

I don't exactly like how they all talk about the same thing. It is probably just me because I've been to so many but it seems like they all talk about exactly the same thing. They all talk about how "we have to get children involved in family history" and we have to teach them what our history is and family history is so fun and it is a good way to spend your time.  

I think the first thing you should do is just put up some geniolagy charts and pictures of your ansesters.  Don't totally jump in and say "oh go do indexing and go find some ansesters" that I've never heard of before. Start slow . Maybe after that just start telling them a couple of the story's every now and then but try not to tell the same story's then it gets reely boring and it makes them think that it's boring and totally shuts them down.

          Next try introducing them to  roots magic or something and let them go find random people.  Do not stand over them.  If they have questions they will come to you.  If they are not to much into computers like me then  try giving them recipes from your ansesters at some kind of craft like paper dolls or try collages. If you have any thing from your ansesters you can show them that

Another thing you can do is plan trips to go see where they lived. Let them explore don't give them a huge presentation or whatever on what is what. They will figure out and mabey it's just me but my mom takes forever to go through things so you can go find things while they go explore.  Don't stop them in the middle either.  If you want to take a picture take it while they are looking around don't make them stop and get them to them to smile becouse they were probilbly looking at something and you just killed the mood. It makes them not want to do it any more becouse you take too many pictures and you don't let them explore for themselfs.

Then introduce them to actual family history like making charts but again let them do it unless they have questions don't take over. It totally kills there perspective of family history.  It makes them think that its is sooooo boring and it's something that old people do for fun but if you let them do it it is much more fun for them.


Janet again--I don't know about you but I learned alot.  And maybe more is sinking in than I thought there was. Apparently there are some things we have done that she has enjoyed.  And she's intrigued. That is very very good.

Report from the youth sessions of RootsTech

So of course we had to try out the youth sessions on Saturday for RootsTech.  I was really glad I had already scheduled my kids to be there on Saturday for the youth sessions because I had to press them into child labor at the booth in the morning.  We were so busy passing out fill-in-the-blank charts that we needed their help. It was wonderful to have them around to help with all the youth we saw at the conference on Saturday, and then luckily the bulk of the classes started at at 3 in the afternoon, so by then they were able to go and I was able to go to the later classes with them. 

The kids went to the 3:00 session by themselves and here's what they reported:  They said it was about "how to get involved"  They liked the videos (this is the youtube generation--descended from the tv generation.  We all perk up when there are videos involved.)  They liked that it wasn't one person talking the whole time.  It impressed them when youth talked about how satisfying family history was--that it wasn't just the parents talking about it. 

My middle son wanted them to get beyond the "why it is interesting" to how to do it.  I thought that was really informative.  I think he is getting a little beyond the "I'm interested" stage and he is looking for better skills.  But he wouldn't be interested in a real class with me at a regular conference.  That still seems like the adults talking too much.  So I need to figure out where I can get him a little higher level training without him feeling like he is "becoming a genealogist." (watch out for that awful word with teenagers.)  He said he wanted a class where they "teach you how to search for ancestors" but I know he wouldn't have wanted to go to any of the three days of classes there had just been at the conference.  So--I have another nut to crack.  How do I get my teenagers to feel welcome and involved in a real "how to do it" class at a genealogy conference?  Is it just because there are only adults there?

When I came in just after 4pm to the panel discussion facilitated by my friend Devin Ashby, I was thrilled to find my kids listening to other kids.  YEA!  They need to hear from other youth not just from the adults.  That seemed to really resonate with them.  One of the kids on the panel had been to the same school my kids attend.  Score!  They liked seeing what other kids had done to get involved.  They liked that the facilitator didn't make it "all serious" (Thanks Devin!) 

It was fantastic for me to walk in to that 4pm class and find thousands of youth in the auditorium.  Fantastic.  Just think what great genealogists they will be when they are our age.  They are going to completely outstrip the efforts of this generation.  I can't wait. 

Next post--Elaine Dalton's Saturday evening presentation.