The Family History Guide at the East Texas Family History Fair
Last week I was privileged to help with a very successful family history fair sponsored by the East Texas Genealogical Society and The Tyler Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There were about 200 people in attendance at the fair, held at the Tyler Texas Public Library. Here are the specific events I took part in:
Friday, Sept. 9 – Fireside. This was attended by family history consultants and members of the East Texas Genealogical Society. I led a discussion on the importance of family history work and how me can spread our efforts and get more people involved and blessed by it.
Saturday, Sept. 10 – Keynote address. This was an Introduction to The Family History Guide, where I demonstrated the website and held a Q&A session at the end.
Saturday, Sept. 10 – Research with The Family History Guide. This class covered the research tools and resources available in The Family History Guide, including United States and international research.
There quite a few other classes held throughout the day in various parts of the library. One that I was able to attend was an overview of slavery and African American research given by expert genealogist Don Payton. He is based in the Dallas, Texas area and is a popular genealogy speaker and historian. See more about Don at the end of this article.
Photo Gallery
Here are a few photos of note that were taken at the East Texas Family History Fair …
Organizing Committee, left to right:
- Jill Taylor – Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; Communications Specialist, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Tyler Texas Stake
- Dorinda Williams – Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; Chairperson, African American Research – Special Interest Group, East Texas Genealogical Society
- Rick Featherston, Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; 2nd Vice President, East Texas Genealogical Society
- Michele Bailey, President, East Texas Genealogical Society; Chairman of the Planning Committee for the Family History Fair; Director of the Athens Family History Center, Tyler Texas Stake; Senior Service Missionary for FamilySearch, NA – Texas Records
- Karla Clark, Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; 1st Vice President, East Texas Genealogical Society; Assistant Director of the Tyler Family History Center, Tyler Texas Stake
- Dale Wade, Webmaster, East Texas Genealogical Society
- Rozanna Bennett, Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; Reference Librarian for the Tyler Public Library
- Daren Yeager, Planning Committee Member for the Family History Fair; Tyler Texas Stake Presidency, 1st Counselor
Bob Taylor leading the discussion at the Friday evening fireside, Tyler Stake Center
Bob Taylor delivering the keynote session in the Tyler Library Auditorium
About Don Payton
I WAS JUST THINKING: Donald “Don” Payton – our Dallas African griot. Look it up.
I have been overseeing our family history fair for a couple of years as the Director of the Family History Center, We had a large attendance participating. One problem we had was the fact that those participating were welcome at the luncheon (BBQ) during the fair. At the second year, so many families were coming to the luncheon without attending the event. So we never had an idea of how many to prepare for. We ran out of food during the last one we had. Do you have a luncheon and do you have any suggestions on preparing for x amount of people? We had each Ward in our Stake bring side dishes and the Stake took care of the BBQ meat.
I was the Chairman of the Planning Committee for this East Texas Family History Fair that is mentioned in this blog post. We have been doing this event for 20 years and have found the best way is to have attendees order a boxed lunch that we have delivered from a local restaurant, like Jason’s Deli. Or, attendees can bring their own lunch. Then we can focus on the event rather than the food. This year, we had the Fair at the Library rather than a church building so we could do some other things such as fundraisers for the genealogical society and ask for sponsors. We ended up with a local BBQ place donating breakfast tacos. Grocery stores donated fruit, crackers, and other snacks. And, more snacks were donated by a local business. This was through a 20-year partnership between our local genealogical society (I am President of the East Texas Genealogical Society) and the Tyler Texas Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (I am the Director of one of the Family History Centers in our Stake). We had both members of the church and members of the genealogical society on the planning committee. Just like you, we wanted people participating rather than there for the food. This was our first year to include JustServe.org volunteers. It was AMAZING! I hope this gives you some ideas.