family history cousin camp

Lucky for me, I have the most talented and kind sisters and sisters-in-law.  (In my view, they are all my sisters).  They inspire me all time, and my whole family benefits from their talents.  The family history cousin camp my sister Jodi held this summer was just one of those times. 

I have always loved history, but haven't done a lot with researching our family history.  Our family history is a pretty complicated story, filled with murder and intrigue (really!) and although my parents have tried to find answers, they have been met with frustration every time.  That is, until Jodi got involved.  She has been amazing and they have had some major breakthroughs that have helped us find answers and understand so much more about my dad's grandparents and our family history.  

This past summer, shes held a family cousin camp at her house, where she taught the kids how to research a name, fill in the blanks on the Familysearch site, and find names to take to the temple to link our family together.  It was pretty awesome.  Not without complaint, mind you :).  We may or may not have had to chase kids down a few times and drag them back!  But in the end, I think they each understood much more and each one found at least one name to take to the temple.  After a few days of camp, the twelve-and-above group took all the names to the temple to do baptisms.  

Kate was especially inspired by what she learned, and has since spent hours finding names and preparing them for the temple.  I'm guessing she's found at least 50 names!

We also spent an afternoon at the Salt Lake City cemetary, learning more about some our grandparents and ancestors, and finding the grave of Willard Richards, who is my grandma Sally's great grandfather.  It was an afternoon well spent.  

(Love Ryenne in this picture- full of enthusiasm, eh?  I would say this is a pretty good example of the response we got when we suggested the family history camp idea!)