About the project
The 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, a family history project, invites individuals to increase their connections with family past and present for a consecutive 21 days. Measuring the results with both a pre-experiment and post-experiment survey.
Studies have shown that having stronger family connections, including a personal understanding of your family’s history, can lead to increased resilience and self-confidence. Started during the world-wide pandemic, we, as a group of family historians, thought it would be an excellent time to do an informal study about how connecting with both living and deceased family members can contribute positively to our overall emotional health and mental well being.
The family history activities in this 21 day experience go beyond traditional genealogical tasks. In fact they are short, simple, engaging, fun and can be enjoyed by children and families. These family friendly activities include discovering and sharing interesting stories of living relatives and ancestors, playing family history games, learning quick and easy genealogy tools, recording and sharing your own unique stories, and more.
Why 21 days? Research suggests that the brain takes 21 days to adjust to significant changes, new habits, or positive lifestyle adjustments.
Most of all, we want to share the peace and joy that family connections can bring to your life through a broader perspective of family history, which includes family connections with both living and deceased relatives. We hope that as a result you will experience an increase in overall happiness as well as stronger family connections, just like we have!
Want to help build the project? Join our team, we have both Internships and Volunteer opportunities available, learn more:
OUR TEAM
Directors
Olivia Jewell
Project Director, Founder
Olivia is a family history presenter who has presented at RootsTech, BYU Education Week, and other related events.
Amidst her busy schedule as a mom of four she has learned to incorporate her technological savvy and family history experience to teach busy people of all ages simple ways they can incorporate family history into daily life using modern technology to make it easy and fun.
Camille Mecham
Perspective Director, Founding Member
Camille Mecham is from southeast Idaho. She still lives there with her husband and 3 kids.
She has taught at the Rexburg FamilySearch center, the South East Idaho Genealogical conference and at RootsTech in 2020.
She runs The Mommy Genealogist where she shares how to share family history with your family, especially kids.
Taralyn ParkeR
Inviting Director, Founding Member
Taralyn Parker is a journalist turned family historian who runs the blog Keep Moving Forward With Me.
Whether she is unraveling record clues or traveling to ancestors’ hometowns, Taralyn is passionate about sharing family history and stories. She is social media manager for her local Family History Center where she regularly teaches classes.
Michelle Gardner
Experiment Benefits Director, Founding Member
As long as I can remember, I’ve been teaching others of all ages how to use tech to their advantage the easiest way possible. I LOVE connecting with people and creating opportunities for individuals to connect with others, so much so I got a degree in Recreation and Non-profits. This love has also driven me to genealogy work and helping others get through genealogy roadblocks in their own family history.
Sarah Garner
Business Director, Founding Member
Sarah is a wife, mom, graphic designer, story lover and family history nerd from Gilbert, Arizona.
She is the founder of The Kindred Press and Sarah Garner Design. She is passionate about helping others create connections in their lives and businesses and to feel the significance of their own stories.
In her free time, you can find her playing with her cute kids, enjoying nature, reading or baking and eating pie.
Russ Seigenberg
Psychologist, Ph.D., Founding Member
Dr. Russ Seigenberg has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Brigham Young University.
He has worked at Bear River Mental Health in Logan, Utah, LDS Family Services and Utah State University. He also maintained a private counseling practice until retiring in 2020.
Team Members
Felicia Warner
Website Manager
Founding Members & Contributors
We'd love to hear from you!
Have a great experience to share? Questions or ideas you’d like us to hear? We’d love to hear from you!
