Family History Fair

Last spring our Bishop told me that he would love to have a Ward Family History Fair. That seemed like a lot of work to me, so I suggested that we get the Stake involved and make it a Stake Family History Fair. He responded that he really would like to keep it to the ward. Well after a lot of planning and a lot of work and a lot of fear we had our Ward Family History Fair last Saturday (9/24/22). It turned our really well and I’m kind of pleased with myself.

The Bishop opened the fair with a ten minute introduction in the chapel where he also suggested that we turn on our “Relatives Near Me” feature in the Family Search app. I was surprised to learn that I had two third cousins there. One I knew about and that is Lacy Hilton descended from CFB and Antoinette Lybbert through their daughter Esther Anthonette but the other one was a guy named Jeff Millard. I said to Lisa, “who is Jeff Millard?” and then I hear a guy in the row behind us say, “that would be me”. It turns out that he is also decended from CFB and Anthonette Lybbert through their daughter Mary Sophia Elizabeth Lybbert. It just so happened that I wore my CFB reunion shirt to the fair so of the names listed on the back of my shirt decendents from three of their children were at my humble little History Fair.

After the Introduction we split into workshops. We had Family Search 101, DNA 101, Memories, Indexing, and Children Activities. The classes were each 25 minutes so you could take two classes and then we all met in the gym where the booths were set up. We had two kinds of booths, we got some families to sponsor a booth about one of their countries of origin. We had…

Germany                        Oldenwalder
Wales                             Hilton
Mexico                          Gastelo / Cano
China                             Lew / Chang
Norway / Sweden          Burstedt / Larson
Belgium / France           Bush
Denmark                        Hunsaker / McPhie
Scotland                         Linnell

We also had fun and informative booths…

Compare-a-Face           Anette Agaard
Where Am I From?      Lisa Leavitt
Photo Booth                 Youth
Start your tree & Print a Temple Card    Fred Leavitt
Temples                       Missionaries
Wedding Pictures

The country booths were far more popular but the “Where Are You From” map was a hit and ‘Wedding Pictures’ were fun. People brought a wedding picture taken in front of the temple where they were married. No one was able to recognize the Gills.

Mandy & Peter did Germany

 

York & Gloria Lew did China

 

Vicky Bush did Belgium but I did contribute my wooden shoes, a few books and some Smurf’s.

 

The Gastelo & Cano Families did Mexico


The booths were all very good and quite popular but these are the pictures that I have. I think the country booths drew the most interest.

Actually that isn’t entirely true. We also asked volunteers to bring food samples from one of their ancestry countries or even a country of interest. I took sugar waffles from Belgium. The food was amazing. I even got a chance to taste Haggis. It wasn’t as bad as its reputation.

All in all I think the Penasquitos Ward Family History Fair turned out well.