Roberts Roots & Branches

The most important thing you can do may be the easiest of all: Tell your children the story of their own family history. Researchers in Georgia have found that children who know more about their parents, grandparents, and other relatives - both their ups and their downs - have higher self-esteem and greater confidence to confront their own challenges. Knowing more about family history is the single biggest predictor of a child's emotional well-being. Grandparents can play a special role in this process, too. Feilr, Bruce, 5 Secrets to a Happy Family Huffington Post online, posted 02/19/2013 05:42 pm ET | Updated Apr 21, 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-feiler/secrets-to-a-happy-family_b_2712111.html

“…when I was 15 years old and my grandmother lent me my great-great-grandmother Theia’s journal. ..as I read this journal I felt intimately connected with this woman.”     ---Leishman, Anne, “Bring Your Ancestor Back to the Future,” Roots Tech 2015, Friday session, available online at:   https://rootstech.org/video/4053507279001

 “Shakespeare’s works are all we know about him. We can study, along with the scholars, his plays, poems, songs and sonnets, and discover something of what life was like for him… However, because he did not keep a journal, we don’t know, and probably never will, if he was happy or sad, if he liked sunsets and long walks by the Thames, whether he liked music, what his favorite foods were, if he enjoyed company or preferred to be alone. Some of his plays are set in other countries, and we don’t even know if he ever left England.” --- LDS Church News, "Keep a Journal"  published online 13 September 2014 at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610722/Keep-a-journal.html  

"Life does not consist mainly,  or even largely,  of facts and happenings.  It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts  that are forever blowing through one's mind." -Mark Twain

So if you accepted this years challenge to Journal you have now begun to record your life.  In addition if you accepted last years challenge to Index and you have kept it up you have been busy doing family history work and creating some great family history habits!!!! So what is the goal for 2015? Watch the blog for the 2015 RR&B family history challenge--coming in January. . .

“Many people wonder what their great-grandparents were like, and our children will probably wonder the same about us. The peace and pleasure that descendants can find in discovering what their ancestors loved and hated, what their trials and triumphs were and how they faced challenges can only be found if a journal is kept. Birth and death dates may be easily found, but we can only imagine the grief that our ancestors felt when a child died or the happiness when someone married or a new baby came into their lives. It’s never too late to start keeping a journal. Just a couple of sentences every few days would give your descendants a picture of yourself they wouldn’t otherwise have…” --- LDS Church News, "Keep a Journal"  published online 13 September 2014 at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610722/Keep-a-journal.html  

“After four hundred years of intensive research into the life and works of William Shakespeare, we know almost nothing about the personal life of the most famous writer in the history of the English language. Only about a hundred documents related to William Shakespeare and his immediate family have been found: baptismal records, property deeds, marriage bonds, tax certificates, and court records — nothing about him personally.” --- LDS Church News, "Keep a Journal"  published online 13 September 2014 at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610722/Keep-a-journal.html