Activity: Exploring Your Family Tree

As a group, make a plan to use your stake’s Family History Center (or another place where youth can use computers or tablets).

Go to FamilySearch.org and show the youth how to look at their family tree using the Family Tree function. After all the youth have accessed their family trees, ask them to take a few minutes to review the information there.

As the youth review their family trees, you could ask them to look for things such as these:

• Are there places in their family tree where people are missing?
• Are any famous people in their tree?
• Who is the oldest person in their tree? The youngest?

At the end of the activity, encourage the youth to continue exploring their family trees.

Please adapt activities as necessary to ensure all individuals are able to participate, belong, and contribute.

• While looking at FamilySearch.org, invite the youth to try changing the view on their family trees to Fan Chart or Portrait.
• As the youth explore their family trees, ask them to look for green arrows, indicating temple ordinances to be done. Can they find any?
• If the youth find they have a full family tree, show them how to identify an ancestor and follow their descendants down to the present day. Does anyone in a family line need temple ordinances done?

Encourage youth to talk about how what they are learning can help them and others grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity and should last just a few minutes. You could ask questions like the following:

• Why is it important to do family history?
• Why do you think the Holy Ghost prompts us in our efforts to learn about family history?
• Have group members discovered any interesting stories about their family that they’d like to share?

• “How can temples bless my life?” (Come, Follow Me—For Aaronic Priesthood Quorums and Young Women Classes)
• Amy Harris, “ How Family History Changes Our Hearts and Minds, ” Ensign, Feb. 2015

• Learning to Recognize and Follow the Spirit
• The Plan of Happiness and the Covenant Path
• Using the Book of Mormon to Answer Life’s Questions
• Indexing
• Share a Family Story
• Study and Apply the Words of the Prophets