We have been fortunate to have a number of written family histories of grandparents on both sides of the family.  It has been wonderful to share the stories of our ancestors in family gathering and on family trips and vacations. In one Family Council, we planned on a trip West from Washington, D. C. to Utah to stop at Nauvoo, Ill. where we walked the Taylor property and shared narratives of that time. We sat in Hawaii during a family reunion and read of Lorenzo Taylor’s mission experience on the very spot.  We boated down Lake Powell to the Hole in the Rock in Utah and read George B. Hobbs’ mission experiences as a scout for this expedition. We read of courage, dedication and faith of our ancestors to living the Gospel and commandments of God. 
          We have shared family history examples in Family Councils of life decisions of both our ancestors and our own lives. We have discussed our critical life decisions like stories of youth employment with newspaper routes and chickens, school projects, struggles and achievements and church service in sugar beets fields and on dairy farms etc..
          The goal has been to help ground the children in the past so they have strength for the future.     
This agenda item also includes maintaining connections with family members both living and dead. To do this we created journals, wrote letters, visited family and attended reunions, did genealogy research, wrote family histories and attended the temple to link family members.
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