Family Home Evening Helps

Evening of Family History

Evelyn Repman, Utah, USA

We recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of our Family History Evening. Every third Sunday, our family gathers to play with a purpose.

We try to include everyone as we learn about our ancestors or record personal history for our posterity. We offer rewards to the children if they write in their journals. Sometimes we venture out to the family history library, or we work online. We share research successes as well as stories about our ancestors. We have created family history organizers for everyone’s accumulated information.

But we don’t just gather information; we teach it. We share lessons, show pictures or heirlooms, and invite the children to reenact stories of our ancestors. Over the years, we’ve created family history games and puzzles, celebrated special occasions of long ago, and helped with school projects pertaining to our family tree. Those who can, attend the temple, keeping us focused on the purpose of our time together.

We enjoy socializing with one another, and sometimes we don’t make much progress in an evening. And even after 10 years, we still consider ourselves to be family history novices. But we have a lot of fun together and are building commitment to this sacred work.