How I Became a Family History Fanatic

 

I used to avoid family history. I would hear someone speaking at church mention the topic and I’d lose interest and let my mind wander about something else. How could there be any research to do for my family? I thought I had relatives that did all the work. Plus, it sounded so boring!

But in 2021 I set a goal. It was a little goal. I read President Nelson’s counsel to participate in the gathering of Israel by doing family history work enough times and I knew I was a slacker in this area, so I set a teeny-tiny goal for myself, and I committed to spend ONE hour every WEEK doing something family history related. I didn’t know what I’d do or where it would take me. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I felt it would be a chore, but I wanted to follow the prophet.

I started out by checking on my family trees, adding names and dates and marriages, etc. I played around on FamilySearch and Ancestry, learning a little about the sites and how to use them. I reviewed the Hints features and used them to fill out mine and Matt’s family trees. It was kind of fun. I liked adding my kids’ information that wasn’t updated. I liked making sure the information was accurate. I updated profile pictures of family members. I noticed that some of Matt’s ancestors’ temple work hadn’t been done so I reserved those ordinances, and we took them to the temple. That was exciting! Now I was doing something useful, something that was of eternal value. I was uniting families for eternity!

Interestingly, I learned that Matt’s great-grandfather was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. Several of his family members settled in Missouri, in the areas where we now live. Martha Musser and her husband Isaac Newton Page raised their family in Chillicothe, Missouri. That is the same town where I gave birth to Maggie! Adolphus Musser Sr. was a prominent figure in Plattsburg, Missouri. That is the county seat where we live! Were these coincidences?! I felt a nudge to continue this research and perform their ordinances in the holy temple. This work was fun and interesting!

I also realized my lack of knowledge about family history and that I needed further education on the subject to be sure that what I was researching was correct. By 2022, I was enrolled in the BYU Pathways Program to begin my coursework in Family History Research. I was going to school again!

I loved every class I took in family history. I loved my professors, I loved the atmosphere of BYU-Idaho, I loved everything that I was learning, I looked forward to my classwork every day. This strengthened my interest in the subject of genealogy, and I was hooked even more than ever. I was able to use the skills I learned in class and make progress on my family trees. I was able to get comfortable with my research abilities and I grew confident so that I was more willing to make changes and edits to the profiles and trees of our ancestors.

I completed my first certificate in 2024 and I will complete my second certificate in Advanced Family History Research in April of 2025. I now plan to continue my education at the University of Glasgow in Scotland through their online learning program and hope to receive a master’s degree in 2027!

Family history has become my purpose in life. I spend hours every day researching and learning. I remember when I started with one hour a week! This work has strengthened my testimony of the temple. Matt and my attendance in the temple went from a casual once a month to a committed once a week. I also became a temple worker in 2024 and will have served for almost a year. This whole experience has also strengthened my testimony of following the prophet! That’s how this all began - with a desire to follow the prophet. I never dreamed family history would (almost) take over my life!

If you haven’t given family history a try, please accept my invitation to do so now. As President Nelson says there’s nothing more important for us to be doing at this time of the earth’s history.

Family History Fun over Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all time. I love the smells, the foods, the pies, the gathering of friends and family, the pies, the rest from cooking for the remainder of the weekend because there are so many leftovers, the pies, and the opportunity to express thanks. I don't eat pie any other time of year except Thanksgiving. This year we had 14. Abby makes coconut cream which was the favorite this year, Ella makes apple and pecan, Felicity makes chocolate, Matt made a new one called Texas Trash pie (I had two bites and was sugared up!), my parents buy several pumpkin pies from Costco, I make strawberry pretzel salad (which is totally a dessert) and I made a banana cream pie, plus family brought pecan bars, lemon cream pie, cherry cake, and more. And never forget the homemade whipped cream!

To me, Thanksgiving is better than Christmas because Christmas gets stressful with all of the planning and preparation involved. But Thanksgiving is just a little planning and grocery shopping and then lots of baking and cooking and fun and eating and relaxing. Remind me to share my tip regarding making Christmas less stressful with older children-it's been amazing! 

My sister and her husband and ten of her children came up from Kansas City - always a party when the Robertson's come! My other sister and her boyfriend joined us all the way from Utah and surprise! my niece, Liberty, came too! Our neighbor Crissa always joins us; it's tradition by now. Plus my parents so there were 30 of us! While Matt and I cooked (and some of the adult children), Karina helped Maggie decorate the tables with our hodgepodge of fall-time decorations. We only use them for a day but they're so fun including little Pilgrim teddy bears. 

What I did differently this year than previous years was a fun and easy family history-related activity that I'd like to share with you. Maybe you can use this idea at a future family gathering. I asked Maggie to place a printed pedigree chart at each seat at each table. It was kind of like a placemat. At the beginning of the meal, I told my family members that under their plates they would find a pedigree chart and it would be helpful if they used some of their mealtime to study the pedigree chart because the knowledge would come in handy after the meal...

We enjoyed eating, we played a fun version of "Name That Tune," we consumed dessert, then we cleared out the tables and chairs and I gathered everyone who was interested in game time. 

I connected my laptop to my tv and went to the following link: https://fhtl.org/familysearch-enhancements. Click on the log in to FamilySearch button (I am assuming you have a family tree on FamilySearch). The site will pull the names and dates and other info from your family tree and create games from your specific genealogy. 

We divided into teams based on where the participants were sitting and got started. First we played Geneopardy. Some of the questions were very specific but the resourceful kids used their pedigrees to figure out the answers! There were a lot of laughs! There were questions about marriages, length of life, places people lived, etc. We played Wheel of Family Fortune which was great fun and a little easier because the kids were now familiar with the names and dates on the pedigree charts. We ended with the Baby Name Generator game which got a lot of cackles. I asked each niece/nephew to select the parameters (boy name or girl name or either, length of the name, and range of years to pull from) and then I told them their first baby would be named... and we all saw what was generated. Here's an example: Margaret Susannah Francisco.

This family history activity was fun for all of the kids involved, aged 9 to 20. It was an easy, almost no-prep activity to get their attention on their pedigrees and become familiar with names, places and dates of their ancestors. The website also has clever games that kids (and adults) will enjoy in other circumstances including solitary games like word search, puzzles, and wordle. 

An overdue update

I'm feeling the urge to use the blog again to share experiences with our family and with genealogy. So much has happened since 2019! Here's a brief update on everyone's activities: Matt is 9 years cancer free! Praise God! He's spent the last 4 years as Bishop of our awesome Grindstone Creek ward in the Far West, Missouri Stake. In 2022, he moved teaching positions from the St. Joseph Missouri School District to the small-town school the kids began in 2020 in Osborn, Missouri. There are about 10 kids in each class of that preK-high school. It was a major paycut but a good experience to be at the same school as the kids (Felicity, Klaus, and Maggie). He even got to be Klaus's 6th grade teacher which is something Klaus has looked forward to ever since he started public school with Daddy in kindergarten. But this past year Matt got offered a job for a charter school in California called John Adams Academy. It has been a pay increase and he gets to work remotely which is something he's always wanted. It's been an incredible experience for him. Hopefully he'll share more about it on the blog. We're hoping the kids will be able to join their private school when they open next year. Rhyetta (me). I got started doing family history a few years ago (that's a story for another blog post) and now I realize that it's my passion and purpose in life! I'm almost done with my Associates Degree at BYU-Idaho that I've been able to do from home. I love BYU-Idaho so much! It's an amazing educational experience! I'll have to share about my awesome internship opportunity this semester in another post as well. I help G'pa Chad in the garden each summer, keep the house running, and I worked at our local library for a couple of years. We're also grandparents now! Kian married Farren McKenzie in 2021 in Gallatin, Missouri. They have had two children: Penelope and Timothy, and Baby Genevieve is likely to be born any week now. The grandbabies are miracles in our lives! Kian works from home as a computer programmar. They live in Braymer, Missouri which is not very far from us so we get to see them lots. Abby has been through a lot the past few years but has been making so much progress. She works at Casey's on the 3 am to 11 am shift! She's earning money to pay for a neuropsychiatric exam and to move out of the house. Her goal is to move out in January to a house in Iola, Kansas with a roommate/friend. She's been serving as the Primary Secretary the past few months and doing great at it. The sisters who work with her love her so much. She is an amazing writer, specializing in fan fiction. Ella has worked for 3 years at Raquelita's, a Mexican food truck owned by a friend in Kearney. She has always been an excellent cook but now she is muy excelente at cooking comida mexicana!! We often request her to cook our birthday meals. She is now looking for a new job because Rachel needed to close Raquelita's. Ella is such a hard worker and so fun to be around. She cracks us up at dinnertime with her witty comebacks. Felicity turned 17 today! She is in her junior year, driving, and looking for a job to earn money. She just served as the backstage manager of a community play. The director said she couldn't have done the play without her! She is discovering her talents and loves seminary. She is so reponsible and I'm thankful for her being my faithful driver when I need errands done and the dishwasher of the household! Klaus in in 8th grade. He also had a role in the community play which was his first time. He has a great singing voice and plays the trumpet for the school band (there are maybe 6 kids in the band). He's a great student and the science teacher says he has to tell him to stop sharing what he knows in class. He knows everything there is to know about Pokemon and aviation. Because of his enthusiasm, our family went to the air show this summer which was the first time for our family. Maggie is 9 years old and has attended Osborn School since kindergarten. She is a great reader and has enjoyed school but has requested that I homeschool her to finish the year. So we'll be starting that soon! Maggie enjoys playing with friends, riding her bike when the weather permits, swimming, and watching "Ruby and the Well" or "Just Add Magic." We have a bonus daughter, Carolyn, living with us who just turned 18. After spending months sleeping on the couch because all of the bedrooms in this house are full, I finally asked her, "Would you like to have your own bed?!" We squeezed her in with Abby and Ella downstairs. She works at Arby's and is finishing her high school degree through homeschool. We also often have another bonus daughter at our home who is Maggie's best friend. I never know how many dishes to set on the table! Every night I have to figure out who's home and how many plates we'll need. It's usually between 8 and 11. G'ma and G'pa usually join us. They've had some serious health issues this year but they're still healthy and enjoying life. My dad works in the garden all summer and indexing all winter. My mom serves us by cooking, mending, cutting hair, etc and serves everyone in our community as the Compassionate Service Coordinator. Every day is so busy and goes by so fast. I'm thankful for this family of mine and the support we are for each other.