My Family Tree

I have always wanted to have a silhouette of a tree painted on my wall, so that I could have space to put up the framed pictures of my beautiful grandchildren.  I finally made my dream a reality, however I didn't end up painting it, as I believe that is what has kept me from doing it for so many years. I was afraid to make a huge mistake on my wall with black paint, sooooo I started looking into vinyl options, and found one, or should I say 4.  What am I talking about?  Well, when the tree came, I knew it would not be tall enough, so I ordered 2 and made the trunk a little fuller and the branches a little wider and fuller too, however this was not enough. I didn't take into consideration that my ceilings are really tall, and my tree was looking pretty small, so I got online and ordered 2 more.  I was able to graft in branches all over the place to make my tree as full and tall as I needed. 

So why do I tell you about this?  What does this have to do with Relief Society or Visiting Teaching?  This past few years, I have really gotten into searching for my ancestors, and have had some amazing experiences in finding them as well as doing their ordinance work.  Our church as really developed some wonderful programs for fining our ancestors, and add to it all the time.  I wonder just how many people are taking advantage of the advances in research and genealogy that has availed us, within the past few year.  Judging from my own ward, and the Family History class attendance, very few have taken advantage of the wonders of the Internet research made possible by our very own LDS church!

What if the Relief Society supported this effort to teach the sisters how to research their ancestors, and spent a couple of the night meetings, focusing on Genealogy.  I feel pretty positive that the leaders in the ward who know and teach the Family history class would be very gracious about sharing their knowledge with the sister.  I have come up with a few ideas of what could be taught, however I am sure you could do just the same by putting your heads together.

1. Finding your roots - could be a night talking about how to look up and find your ancestors and know where your roots come from. You could serve things that grow on trees like Apple Pie, or other fruit tree pies, nuts or other tree related things.  (my idea that corresponds is a bit of a stretch but I thought I would offer it anyway...)You could do a play on words "Roots" by bringing in a beautician to have an additional class, besides a genealogy class, teaching the women how to cover up their roots, about saving money and being thrifty,  by coloring your hair yourself instead of at the beauty shop. (gray hairs). 
2. All ye of Royal Birth - could be a theme because most peoples genealogy on one line or another go back to royalty.  My husbands Bennett line (his mother) goes back to the King and Queen of England.  I can see the tables set for a dinner with the Queens of their homes, and each sister gets to wear her crown (from Burger King or found online) for the evening.  You can have a couple of different classes offered, one focusing on finding the kings and queens in your family.  Another could be talking about how to be the queen of your house, by honoring your King and encourage him to honor his Priesthood. I could even see another fun and learning lesson being how to make yourself feel like a Queen. ( teach how to make skin care products from the things you have around your house.) There are lots of websites that have recipes for masks, lotions, oils, bath salts, etc.
3. Your Family tree - You could have the genealogy specialists in your ward show how to get on the LDS Genealogy site and show how to make a Family Tree Fan, right on that site. (See the examples below)  Here is one link that you can see how to do this. Here is a link that tells about it  http://ldsmediatalk.com/2011/12/28/family-history-fan-chart/ and here is a link to create your family fan or family tree.https://createfan.com/   Maybe everyone could make one to take home.  You could do other classes on how to organize your genealogy and important family files, and even talk about the importance of knowing your family health history that date back as far as you can find.  There are sites such as this one that can really help you. https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/fhh-web/home.action

I won't go on because it is almost midnight... why oh why do I get my ideas so late at night????  Hummmm?   Good night and hope these ideas help you!