Bringing Your Utah Pioneer Legacy to Life

Bringing Your Pioneer Legacy to Life

by Peggy Ash

(From DUP Jubilee April 2005)

            I was asked to share some ideas on “Bringing Our Legacy to Life”. The last couple of years I have been focusing on sharing our family’s legacy with my children.  It’s not always easy.  I have two teenagers and an eleven year old which can be a tough crowd to please.  I want them to enjoy family history, not roll their eyes when they see it coming.  From General Conference yesterday I liked Elder Ballard’s story about his friend who was trying to teach a colt to follow a lead rope.  The more he tugged on the rope the more the colt dug in his heels until finally it fell over.  After repeatedly trying the same thing with the same results he concluded that he had done a good job of training the colt to fall over.  His wife suggested that he loop the lead rope around the colt and let go, then walk beside the colt.  It worked beautifully.  It is human nature to resist or resent something we are forced to do.  Especially with teenagers, I am trying to be very careful not to force my family history onto my family but present it in such a way that their legacy comes to life and they enjoy it. 

Setting the Mood

            The question is “How do I do that?” It requires planning, forethought, and creativity.  Each history I present is unique and lends itself to different methods of presentation.  When I write a family history I include written family night ideas with it.  I have begun passing these histories and ideas on to extended family members who live far away so that they can use them with their families and they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  They have been well received and used.   If the ancestor is from a different country, I include refreshment ideas native to that country or  may include a family recipe with it’s own legacy.  Small flags can be purchased through LDS book stores and traditional music CDs (bag pipes from Scotland, etc), costumes,  or decorations can be used.  It’s amazing the affect atmosphere can have on compliance when facing a tough crowd. 

Naming Pattern Puzzle

            I have found that the keys to a good presentation are participation and F-U-N!  The skit from our Convention in February told about one of our family nights where we did a role play.  My children like puzzle games so another history was presented as a puzzle.  They were each given pedigree charts to look at.  It was explained that the Dutch, English, and Scottish naming tradition calls for children to be named after their grandparents starting with the paternal side first, unless grandparents have died previously. Then their names may be used first.  As the history was presented, my children had to guess the names of all the children of both wives even as babies died, genders weren’t born in the right order, and names were masculinized and feminized.  It was a tricky puzzle that they quite enjoyed. 

Ancestor Christmas

            At Christmas I gathered a collection of Christmas experiences from one ancestor.  I found an interesting object to represent each experience.  Some were Christmas poems written by this ancestor.  I collected an assortment of interesting objects to represent each item.  I placed the objects on a specially decorated table.  I attached a number to the bottom of each item that corresponded to the ancestor’s experience.  Starting with the youngest, each family member got to take turns picking an object and then sharing the story or poem that went with it.  They enjoyed the anticipation of their next choice and then finding out what the item represented.  The items were things like a train, an orange, a beautiful doll, a nativity set, etc..

Ancestor Suitcase

            A friend of mine, Betty Stewart, had a similar idea.  Using an ancestor’s old suitcase, she took objects that belonged to that ancestor or objects that represented something about that ancestor and placed them inside.  She then decorated the outside of the trunk with photographs and other remembrances.   She plans to use it as a visual family night similar to what I had done. I plan to use an inherited temple bag to do something similar.

Story Illustrations

            Another family night idea is to have each family member illustrate a different part of an ancestor’s story.  This activity appeals to all ages because even an unartistic teenager can have fun drawing with stick figures.  Make sure they include enough detail to tell their part of the story with out reading it and be sure to have them label their drawings.  Then in the proper order, let them share the story through their illustrations.  It’s always fun to see what everyone has come up with. 

Pioneer Activities

            Several of the DUP members of our camp just helped the Primary children in our ward experience pioneer life.  The children got to shake cream into butter, stick pull, leg wrestle,  rope cattle and play with pioneer toys (magic wallet, button on a string hummers, wooden tops, handkerchief dolls, cats cradle, etc).  It was a highly successful activity because our DUP members added an authentic touch and because it was FUN!  Remember to always include participation and FUN!  My fifteen year old son may roll his eyes when he sees family history coming but now he does it with a wink and a grin.

Personal Legacy Books

            I have received great ideas in DUP and am always looking for new ones.  Gayle Pace has presented how they have monthly extended family home evenings. Family members are assigned an ancestor and a month to present what they put together.  Each presenter must prepare enough material to add to each individual family member’s own history book (binder).  We have adapted the idea with our little family.  Each person chose their own cover paper so that it was uniquely theirs and it has their name on the binding.  The books are displayed in our entry way with our photo albums.  I was stunned the first time my eleven year old proudly pulled his out to show his friends.  He was very proud of the sea scape he had chosen, the list of pioneer ancestors,  and the family stories inside.  His friends wanted one too.

Carol Follett’s Ideas

            Carol Follet has brought her Legacy to Life in her family with something she calls Zion Girl Dolls, bringing a family touch to the American Girls Collection of dolls idea.  She uses the dolls a to represent an ancestor and makes them costumes.  Some of her other ideas:

            --Joseph Smith Timeline side by side with ancestor’s timeline

            --Clothespins on can to represent people with illustrations on the outside and objects inside

            --Hand made dolls to represent ancestor

            --Costumes for children to play dress up and be an ancestor

Other Ideas

            --Create a coloring book.   Have one family member write up the wording to go on each page and then have each family member provide an illustration to go with the wording. 

            --To reinforce a history that has previously been given, play a question and answer game.  For correct answers they get to shoot rolled socks at a round laundry basket or bushel basket.  It was a popular old fashioned game.  Establish teams and points as you see fit.

            --Make finger puppets or flannel board figures to tell a story.

            --Create an ancestor bingo game using ancestors names or photos on the bingo card..

            --Play a memory game using ancestor’s photos, match the name to the photo.