RootsTech Small and Simple Things Syllabus

Small and Simple Things Stacy Julian Objective: Learn to use everyday objects and heirlooms to spark meaningful connections that will bridge generations, so that you can bring family narratives to life.

Questions I want to help you answer: •

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How can I use small and simple things to become better acquainted with our ancestors, so that they aren’t just names and dates?

How can I make biographical sketches more relevant and memorable?

How can I use small and simple things to tell my own story?

Ideas discussed in class: One. Spend some time exploring the power of images as triggers for personal stories and family connections. Pay attention to things that help YOU remember people.

Two. Use a 4-generation pedigree chart and begin adding one physical “thing” that you have or could get that would remind you of each person and help you tell his or her story.

Three. Bring some of these things (heirlooms, everyday objects, intangibles) into your daily life and intentionally use them or make them visible.

Four. Read life sketches, biographies and obituaries for things you could use to bring someone you love “back to life” for others.

Five. Document the things YOU love and share this information!

Think about: One brief experience can forge a lasting connection I’ll share the story of my “Minnie moment” that has forever endeared me to my great grandmother, Minnie McDougal. Had my mother not wished aloud that I could “talk to Minnie” I would not have made this connection to her. How can we be prepared to create connecting moments for others?

There are clues to physical connections, lurking in biographical sketches I’ll share several things that I have discovered on Family Search that I am using to create a stronger connection to ancestors for whom I have little information.

You can create physical spaces in your home that will spark conversations and strengthen family connections I will suggest specific and doable ideas for making your unique family connections visible and more available to family members, especially children. Cookies in a honey tin and pictures in a bathroom!

You can establish routine opportunities for sharing the “small and simple things” that are connections in your ancestry and family story.

Consider using mealtimes and Family Home Evening to routinely discuss and share family history. I’ll share a one-page PDF document, designed as an easy lesson, which I uploaded to familysearch.org for others to use.

Why does all this matter to family history and to you?

I love the intent and premise behind author and historian, Michael Wilcox’s book, 10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven. In the preface, Dr. Wilcox writes about gathering people that he loves, people that have blessed and influenced him—even people he knows only from scripture and history—into his mental city, so that he can prepare to meet them someday … “Over the years since that first moment of enlightenment, I have added dozens of men and women to the population of my mental city. I am at ease with them and enjoy our conversations across the ages.

I feel that I am rich and prosperous in lives! We can all enjoy the vast wealth of wondrously lived lives and make such lovely friends. We are openly invited to explore and draw upon … personal accounts of human experience as need arises. These singular people of the past move within my mind offering counsel, encouragement, comfort and insight.”

I think as we anticipate that great family reunion that follows this life, we’ll want to prepare ourselves for meeting and conversing with family members that we have worked to search out. We’ll want to have something other than names and dates to approach them with, and if we have created shared experiences with them, we will have all the more to talk about.

Let’s continue the conversation …

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