Youth Activities

4. Documenting the Past

Overview: With your interest in family history and your skills in technology, not only can you keep current by writing about your life as you know it, but you can help preserve your family’s history. Here are some ways to record your heritage so each piece of your family’s past won’t be forgotten or lost to you and future generations.

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

*Y4-01: Record Memories on FamilySearch
It's easy to record your family memories on FamilySearch: use the steps in The Family History Guide to help you out.

*Y4-02: Get Started with Your Family History
Here are 10 tips to help you get started with your family history, courtesy of this Youth Camp article from Findmypast.

*Y4-03: Build a Time Line
Learn how to build a free ancestor timeline. See this blog post for more information.

Y4-04: National Endowment for Humanities—Where I Come From
Using tips from this article, you can trace your family origins and learn about your ancestral homelands.

Y4-05: Your Surname Origin and Meaning
Find the meaning and origin of your surname (last name) at Surname Search — FamilySearch.org. Before looking, have fun letting family members guess what the meaning of your surname might be. After looking, discuss as a family what you discovered.

Y4-06: All About Me
Where in the world does your name come from? How many people share your names? See what you can discover for each family member at All About Me. Check out the What Does My Name Mean? blog article on FamilySearch.

Y4-07: Finding Headstone Photos
Find out where one of your ancestors was buried and look on FindaGrave.com or BillionGraves.com to see if someone has uploaded a photo of the headstone, if that person had one.

Find more activities here: 1. Anytime Activities   2. Plan-Ahead Activities   3. Making Family History   5. Social Media Activities   6. Service Activities   7. Activities for Research   8. Latter-day Saint Activities