Little Family History Celebrations: 3 Inspiring Ideas

After studying the lost art of storytelling, I was inspired to increase the amount of storytelling that takes place in our home.

It occurred to me that I can use storytelling to simultaneously increase our family’s enthusiasm for family history work, improve our public speaking skills, and practice hospitality.

My husband and I immediately set to work telling our children stories about their ancestors. We pulled out the family histories and family photos, which had been packed safely away, and started going through them.

Who knew how engaged our five-year-old son would be with his great-grandfather’s first hand account of a ship wreck at sea?

Or how hard he and his sisters would laugh when they learned that a great-aunt had accidentally fallen out of a window and landed in a trash can?

The shocked look on their faces when they learned that their sweet, feminine grandma use to hang from the trestle beneath a passing train, legs swinging in midair, was priceless.

“Oh my goodness!” their widened eyes seemed to say.

Now that we had our children’s full attention, we encouraged them to select a family history story and prepare to share it with the small group of people we would be inviting into our home the following week. Each child selected a story and practiced telling it until they had the details memorized. My husband and I each selected a story, too.

The Day of the Event

The following Sunday evening our living room was filled with guests who were excited to hear our stories and anxious to share their own.

For the next few hours we laughed and cried and looked incredulously at one another as one story after another was shared. We enjoyed simple refreshments, lively conversation, and a new connection with one another.

In the end, my children were able to practice their public speaking skills. But, infinitely more important, they experienced what it feels like to ” turn your heart to your fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6), and to open your heart and your home to others.

“That was so much fun!” my children shouted, almost in unison, as we headed to bed for the night.

Truly, learning about our ancestors had never been so fun.

ACTION STEPS

Hosting a Family History Story Night is simple:

1. Select a date and location for your Storytelling Night
2. Invite individuals and families to join you
3. Prepare family history stories to share. Stories may be found in personal histories or on FamilySearch.
4. You may choose to collect items, such as photos and heirlooms, to display on a table.
5. Prepare refreshments. Each family may be invited to bring a cultural dish representing their family heritage.

It was a red cabbage that sparked the idea.

Having several red cabbages on hand with no idea how to use them, I searched online for a red cabbage recipe and happened upon a recipe for German Red Cabbage.

Since I have Swiss-German ancestry, I thought it would be fun to gather family history stories to share as the children and I enjoyed the savory red cabbage dish around the dining room table.

Turns out, it was a great idea, for we had a very enjoyable time learning more about an ancestor’s journey to America in 1874 on the S.S. Minnesota.

We saw pictures of the ship and of the ancestor;

read fascinating details about our ancestor’s journey;

and learned more about our ancestor upon his arrival to the States. For instance, we discovered how he helped build the St. George Temple, how he lost two young sons within 6 weeks of each other to an epidemic, and how he lived a faith-filled life, despite the trials that came his way.

This single conversation held over red cabbage sparked strong emotion within our hearts, including:

• a deeper love of family
• an increased desire to gather Israel
• a renewed determination to live a faith-filled life, come what may

The next time you serve a cultural dish for dinner, bring along some family history stories to serve on the side. The combination of the two make for a very satisfying experience.

ACTION STEPS

1. Search for recipes in your family history. You may also prepare basic cultural dishes found in cookbooks or online.
2. Prepare family history stories to share. Stories may be found in personal histories or on FamilySearch.
3. Record in your journal your family’s experience learning about your ancestor.

I step out of my vehicle and made my way to the entrance of a local Baptist Church. The brisk winter morning is beautiful.

It is no accident that I find myself at a Baptist church on this December morning; I have been looking forward to this visit for an entire week.

My 4th-great-grandmother, Elizabeth, a devout Baptist, took every opportunity to read to her children from the Bible. These special reading moments were limited, however, to when her husband wasn’t home, as he was not religious and was very strong-willed—adamantly opposing any gospel teaching in their home.

Whenever her husband left the house, Elizabeth taught her children “about Jesus. She told how He went about among the people to preach and to do good to everybody, how He made sick people well, and how He gave sight to the blind and made the lame to walk. She told how He fed the hungry and how He talked to the people and told them what to do so they could go to heaven when they died. [And] she told… how He, Jesus, loved little children and how Jesus would take little children in His arms and bless them.”

So it was that her daughter, Mary, my 3rd-great-grandmother, came to love the Bible.

Continue reading this life-changing experience HERE.