According to research in the New York Times, children who know a lot about the lives of their forebears do better when they are faced with challenges, and have higher self-esteem than children who do not have this knowledge.
Because stories about the ups and downs of their ancestors’ lives have a positive effect on young people, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now encouraging them to create their own family stories and then share them with others through social media.
“At the heart of the campaign is a 90 second video that we created that is purely and truly international in its scope,” said Brad Lowder, international marketing manager for FamilySearch.
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Watch the video at www.FamilySearch.org/MeetMyGrandma.
The video shows individuals telling about and interacting with their grandmothers in various countries: Ghana, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, the United States, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Russia, and Italy.
For example, a voice-over of a boy in Ghana is heard saying, “She taught me that to stay young, I had to stay in the game,” as scenes are shown of him playing soccer with his grandmother on the beach.
A young man in Japan says, “She showed me the best way to find my voice is to share it.” The scene shows him performing a duet with his grandmother.
In each country, subtitles are provided, except for the scene that is in the language of that country.
“The purpose of the video is to give people that little tug. . . (so) that something inside of them stirs,” Mr. Lowder said.
“Our intention is for people to share a story that’s special about their grandmothers, share it on social media, share it with their family, with their kids, their siblings, their parents, their cousins. Because what makes family history come alive is the sharing of the stories and the legacy we have because of our ancestors.”
To that end, Mr. Lowder explained that part of the campaign is a social media component on Facebook and Instagram as well as FamilySearch blogs and newsletters.
Questions will be posed on the site, such as, “What is your grandmother’s nickname?” The day after that question is posed, the responses will be displayed in a word cloud, showing the most popular grandmother nicknames from around the world.
One of the themes will be, “I have my grandma’s _______.” The blank will presumably be filled in by individuals with not just physical characteristics, but personality traits such as, “I have my grandmothers adventuresome spirit.”
“The main message is to think of one story about your grandmother that’s special to you and then share it,” he explained.
The campaign runs until the end of September. Young people, whether of the Mormon faith or of another belief, can click here to sign up and share a story about their grandma.
Read more about the FamilySearch program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here.