Individuals Activities

3. Making Family History

Overview: According to the production team of the Make History website, making family history is two-fold: 1) Make something new that documents, creates, or contributes to your family history, and 2) Make something of yourself that enhances or contributes to your family legacy.

Activities marked by an asterisk (*) take little or no prep time.

*I3-01: Make Time to Make Family History
Make something new that documents, creates, or contributes to your family history and legacy. See makefamilyhistory.org for a myriad of fun, doable ideas, and set up regular times to work on projects!

I3-02: Create a Family History Book
Organize and preserve family history to give as a gift, take to reunions, donate to libraries, and pass down to the next generation, see Tips for Creating a Photo Book.

I3-03: Make a Generation Photo Collage
"See Who Stands Behind You." How do you and they look alike? How do you look different? What were they like at your age? Who do you aspire to be like and why? What do you want to do the same or differently and why? For more ideas see makefamilyhistory.org (photos from the Make History site).

I3-04: Family History Gifts from the Heart
Take some time to contemplate what family history related gifts you can give family and friends. For ideas, see this blog post about Mothers' Day and this one about the gift of family history.

I3-05: Make a Family Video
Use your video camera, phone, ipad or another recording device to record the following life events, daily routines, family members, stories, and re-enactments. For how-tos, motivation, and ideas, see makefamilyhistory.org (the video to the left is from the website). See also this blog post.

*I3-06: Write Letters to Your Past and Future Self
The team at Make Family History suggests writing a letter to your past self to reflect on the past and learn how to make the future better and brighter. They suggest writing to your future self to your future self to help you make goals and create a road map. See this blog post for details.

I3-07: Learn and Share a Family Recipe
See ideas for learning and sharing family recipes here, and check out How to Create Captivating Family History Videos of your experiences as in this family recipe example. See how to upload stories and recipes to FamilySearch here, and find tips to preserve them in this blog post.

I3-08: Cousin Collaboration
Create a blog, website or use other social media tools for connecting and collaborating with your cousins on all things family history. Ideas can be found in the Family History Guide Activity pages in the Social Media category. See this blog post for more information.

Find more activities here: 1. Anytime Activities and Games   2. Plan-Ahead Activities   4. Documenting the Past   5. Social Media Activities   6. Service Activities   7. Activities for Research   8. Latter-day Saint Activities