A traditional family tree narrows to one person. For some, this might imply that the story stops there; and for young adults especially, this can lead to feelings of having little to offer when it comes to genealogy.
But young adults are in a unique position to preserve stories from currently living family members, such as grandparents, who may not be alive when young adults begin building their own families, said Brigham Young University student Sami Freeman.
“The ‘Be the Bridge’ campaign reimagines the family tree not as something that ends with you but something that extends through you. … The young adults are at the center of their family stories, not at the end,” she said.
Freeman and her fellow teammates — BYU students Keely Weeks and Brynlee Kuipers — recently won the first BYU Marketing Case Competition, sponsored by FamilySearch.
The contest recruited student teams from all over Utah and tasked them with creating campaigns that promote young adult involvement in family history. Specifically, campaigns were required to include encouragement to interview grandparents, to preserve stories on FamilySearch and to share experiences with friends and family members.
Twenty-nine teams entered the competition, held March 11-28 and judged by a panel of FamilySearch professionals, which awarded $8,000 in prizes.
Additionally, in coming weeks and months, FamilySearch will incorporate ideas from the finalist campaigns into its own marketing, said Brad Lowder, who leads FamilySearch‘s collaboration efforts with the Church Educational System.
Freeman, Weeks and Kuipers’ team took first place in a group of 15 finalist campaigns. The second-place team was also from BYU, while the third-place team was from Utah State University.
The top three teams presented their campaigns to FamilySearch employees, academic supporters and others during a meeting on Tuesday, April 22, in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.
Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church‘s Family History Department, briefly addressed the visiting students following their presentations. He noted that the primary purpose of family history work is to “nourish the temple with the names of our kindred dead,” an idea introduced to him by President Russell M. Nelson.
“Your efforts and countless other efforts like them will invite those in the world to come and participate,” Elder Hamilton told the students.
Young adults and family history
FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood also spoke to the students, praising their “inspired” ideas.
“While I hope you’re getting tremendous experience and credit with your wonderful educational pursuits, this [competition] was not an academic exercise,” he said. “We believe that revelation is scattered amongst us.”
The key reason FamilySearch is targeting young adults, he continued, is the unique and sacred role President Nelson has identified for this generation regarding family history.
“We do everything we can not to help you engage [in] and experience this but help you to take it over,” Rockwood said. “And you are going to do that.”
Brooklyn Lowe, a senior at BYU graduating in marketing, spearheaded the efforts to create a case marketing competition in collaboration with FamilySearch.
She said young adults often think family history is something older family members do, but the competition campaigns show many ways in which young adults can take charge of their genealogies.
“Bringing our talent to the world, I think, is just a real testimony to me that the Church is true, that this family history [work] is led by the Savior,” she said.
Lowder, the FamilySearch and Church Educational System liaison, added that young adults don’t look at genealogy as charts and research but as something that brings them joy, identity and purpose.
“They care about making the world a better place,” Lowder said. “They care about serving those around them. … It really transforms the work of family history when they apply their lens and their understanding of human connection and how important that is.”
The winning campaigns
Freeman, Weeks and Kuipers’ first-place project includes strategies such as setting up an immersive walk-through display on the glass bridge at the City Creek Center, collaborating with social media influencers and an opt-in texting campaign.
The second-place campaign, Sunday Stories, also came from BYU. Students Lauren Favero, Meg Spataro, Morgan Topham and Jay Dalton focused on helping young adults get into the habit of sharing family history stories on social media each Sunday. Their proposed marketing strategies include text reminders, social media partners and on-campus kiosks with QR codes and postcards.
Topham, a senior graduating in marketing, said the competition excited her because she‘d never had a chance to develop a campaign for something Church-related.
Family history, she said, is “a really good reminder of how [God] loves all of His children and how special this life is.” That’s why it’s important to document life experiences “for others to learn through as well.”
The third-place campaign, Vintage Voices, came from Utah State University students Kendrah Allred, Dylan Elliott, Lindsey Haderlie, Danny Anderson and Abby Green. Their campaign, which aims to help young adults discover who their grandparents were before they were “grandma” or “grandpa,” includes prompts and resources for interviewing living grandparents.
Allred, a junior studying marketing, said everyone on their team felt a strong personal connection to the competition’s subject matter.
“I think this allowed us to see how authentic family history, and FamilySearch especially, really [are],” she said.
Elliott, another junior studying marketing, added that before this competition, he often fell into the trap of thinking his family history work was basically complete; but as he helped develop the Vintage Voices campaign, he realized “there is so much I can add to the conversation.”
He also loved getting to integrate his faith into an academic project, a new experience for him.
“There was room to allow the Spirit to talk, which you don’t get [many] opportunities, especially in case competitions, for that to happen,” Elliott said.
