today i taught the primary lesson - about family history. i attended a relief society activity yesterday that was focused on our heritage and when i got home i felt really inspired that was what we needed to focus on today. here's alex for an attention grab - looking less than impressed with our family tree.
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we started by watching this gorgeous video about a family's record - or their book of life, which you can find here and asking some questions:
what was that video about?
what did you learn from it?
what was the book the girl was holding?
before having a quick game of hangman, with the mystery word being ancestors.
what is genealogy? another word for that is family history, which is learning about ourrrrr? ancestors!
here's a little about my ancestors:
william and mary goodlet (my father's grandparents) - immigrated from scotland and lived in a tent for two years in koorow on scrub land. my great-grandmother was a small and timid lady, but big in personality when she needed to be.
stanley and violet marshall joined the church in england after meeting the missionaries and purchasing a book of mormon, then moved to salt lake in the 1920's. my grandfather roy was born there, on the same day and in the same hospital as president nelson! (there was a lot of wows from the primary kids at this one hahah) he was a builder by trade and also kept bees!
joseph goodlet was my grandfather, he was a painter and glazier by trade but was also very skilled with wood and much to my mother's horror (but not surprise) made slingshots for all of his grandkids. he also made rockinghorses and stools and i still use mine in my pantry as a step, it was made more than 30 years ago! he fought in wwII in a placed called morotai that is between indonesia and papua new guinea.
(my little display at the relief society activity yesterday - including wedding photos of douglas and i - my parents and both sets of my grandparents, my blessing day photo with my mother, hand written recipes from my grandmothers, quilts made my mother and grandmothers, the book of mormon my great-grandparents purchased in england and the shell my grandfather brought home from morotai for my grandmother.)
his wife phyllis goodlet became the cub commissioner for perth in the scouting association. her favourite flowers were roses and geraniums which she grew and she also loved carnations. she loved to crochet and made a blanket for each of her grandchildren along with many other things. she was an great cook and loved to feed people. she had a beautiful alto voice and was often asked to sing for occassions, such as weddings and as the entry voice in the perth production of the saturday's warrior musical. she was a staunch and faithful member of the gospel and raised two sons in the gospel after one died when he was younger. she also lovingly raised foster sons. she was the only person that drove in their family, my grandfather never got his license. she had a little green car with no seatbelts in the back.
my mother's mother - was gwendoline madge marshall. we realised a few months after madeline was born that we had accidentally named our daughter after her. ma-deline! she was a tea lady at the perth lawcourt. she enjoyed spending time with her grandkids, kintting, embroidery and going shopping at the garden city shopping centre. they lived on reynolds road which is one street down and she would take the bus from her door to the shops, because although she had her licence, she never drove! she was a well presented and softly spoken brit who lived for her family and loved them all fiercely. she passed away reasonably young and left behind her husband who never really got over it and spent years mourning her.
both of my grandmothers joined the church in the 1960's. they had lost a child and felt the pull of eternal families in the gospel.
can anyone tell me something fun about their ancestors? do you know your grandparents first names? why do we focus on family history? (so our family can be together for eternity)
now. i want to know about yours! when you go home today, i want you to fill in one of these! get your parents to help you fill in the names and then find out about the people and learn their stories, our ancestors can live on when we tell them again and again.
family tree for junior kids available here
and senior primary here
it was a great lesson with lots of laughs and questions, we really enjoyed it.
