The Impact Of Ancestors' Stories In Your Home

What if you could preserve your family history stories in a children's book, accessible to anyone? Personally, I know that preserving our family history has had an impact on our kids.

Find Out More About The Books - https://familyhistorystorybooks.com/

 Raw Transcript

So, this episode is about church history
and family history. I want to show you
something. This is a small children's
book, Thomas Grover, Generosity and
Obedience. This is made specifically for
me. It is a children's book. Thomas
Grover. Uh if you don't know who he was,
he was a fairly well-known, highly
profiled early church member. Uh friend
to Joseph Smith, bodyguard to Joseph
Smith. uh an amazing story that he has
is why I picked this one. But uh family
history story books took my information
and my own family history and created
this book for me, this children's book.
And again, the great thing is is the
stories are amazing that we have in
here. Can show you some of this. And
they're for kids. Imagine having
something in your house where people can
go through this. The kids can go through
this or grandkids coming over can take a
look at these things and you can read
them this stories or they can read this
story for themselves and go over the
highlights of some of the ancestors,
some of your ancestors, your
grandparents, great-grandparents, people
from, you know, World War II, World War
I, the Revolutionary War or women that
were pioneers or whatever their stories
are in or out of the church and and have
that available in your house. So, very
happy about this. Uh they do a great job
and this episode is with Jake Harmer who
is the founder along with his wife of
Family History Story Books.
Take a look at it. Learn a little bit
about family history. Learn a little bit
about your own family and how important
it is for you to take those stories,
preserve them, and have them available
for everyone in your family. Here we go.
So Jake, what got you started with
family history story books?
Yeah, so since I was a kid, my both of
my grandpas on each side have been huge
into family history, and I loved hearing
stories about the grandpa that chased
Butch Cassidy as a sheriff out in the
Vernal area. Uh the grandpa who fought
in World War I in the cavalry, uh had to
ride horses into machine gun nests. um
all sort, you know, ancestors who
crossed the planes, led handcart
companies, things like that. And so
those stories have always been important
to me. Um about four or five years ago,
my my oldest was about three or four
years old, and I was wanting to, you
know, I was reading a book to her about
a a unicorn kitty or something something
dumb like that. And I just thought, man,
these are these are such pointless
books. You know, most the kids books
that we read are just, you know, reading
is better than watching a TV show, I
guess, right? but just barely. So I, you
know, I wanted a way to tell some of
those family history stories to my kids.
And so at first I was going to first I
wrote one up and then I was like, "Okay,
I need to add pictures. How do I do the
pictures?" And that was that was a big
challenge. Anyone that's looked into
that, it's it's super expensive,
especially, you know, Grandpa Duncan who
was in World War I, like we really only
want 10 to 20 copies of that book. And
so it's not something I can fund to have
an artist do all these all this artwork
for a single book that's going to print
10 to 20 copies.
So, okay, maybe I can learn to draw
that. I could never get anything that I
wouldn't be embarrassed to show my kids.
And so, a couple years ago, as AI images
started to come out, I realized that was
the answer. Um, so I worked on that and
really for for the first year or so, you
couldn't get a horse with four legs. you
couldn't get a person with 10 fingers,
you know,
or you get them with five or six.
Oh, yeah. It was frustrating. Um, and so
after about a year, it kind of got to
the point where, okay, I can I can
create something with this. It's a lot
of Photoshop, lots of cleaning it up,
lots of iterations. But now, yeah, I use
that to create the artwork for these
books. And so, my own personal library
now of ancestors is 10 to 15 books. And
my kids can just sit down and read those
or read them to them. try and keep the
books short so you don't have to skip
pages, you know, not that I would ever
do that with my kids, but keep the books
short. But yeah, we do fully illustrated
children's books and most of them are
based on pioneers. Got about uh 40
pioneer stories in our library right now
and adding one or two a week as those
orders come in and as we have the
resources to work on them. Uh it's been
just a really cool way to bring those
stories to life.
So do you have you know you've done
several then that are not pioneer
stories. Give me an example of one.
Yeah, lots of World War II, World War I
stories. Um, lots of just regular
grandma and grandpa. Um, one that I did
recently was for a woman who turned 102
years old. And so her children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren
and the great greats. Um, all got a copy
of this book about this woman and and uh
just a neat way to remember her life.
Uh, again, so many of these stories are
locked up in a textbook that somebody
wrote 50 years ago, 100 years ago. And
so this takes uh we take the books and
really simplify it so you can pull out
the most important tidbits from their
life. You know, a lot of the time,
especially on the pioneer side, it's a
miracle, right? Or a couple of miracles.
It's the incredible things that they had
to go through crossing the plains or
dealing with mobs or settling, you know,
the the wild frontier. Um, and so it's
just bringing those stories to the front
of someone's mind so they can say,
"Okay, if Grandpa Bunker can lead a
handcart company of people whose
language he doesn't speak across the
planes, you know, I tell my my
four-year-old son like if he can do
that, you can unload the dishwasher,
you know, just get puts it all in
perspective, really." And so I think
there's so much power in remembering
those stories and and really keeping
them at the front of your mind.
Yeah, the stories are crucial. I think I
I happen to have uh pioneers on both
sides of my families. And so those, you
know, I grew up with those pioneer
stories uh of the saints crossing the
plains, but even just stories period.
We're we're in a place where I think
we don't tell as many stories. There's
screens we can give our kids,
but there aren't as many stories. We
don't tell the Asop fables. We don't
tell the Mother Goose stories. we don't
tell uh even the brothers grim and and
and a lot of these different stories
that have always been traditionally
they're lesson based really. I mean
they're they're lesson based and it's it
it helps create a morality to some
degree with the kids
and and we don't do that as much
anymore. And so anything I think that
provides any type of an anchoring story
especially for kids I I I think is
really important.
Right. It's a parable really. A lot of
those stories and whether or not it
happened exactly the way it's recorded,
it teaches a lesson, right? And that's
the lesson that we want passed on to
kids and grandkids.
Yeah. Give me an example of a really
interesting story that uh you've you've
published from someone.
Yeah. So, um Mariner Wood Merrill was an
apostle. Um he was the temple president
of the Logan Temple uh the first one.
and he
uh he he had some crazy experiences. Uh
one of them that comes to mind, his son
was about 35 years old, was one of his
best friends and business partner and
everything. And Mariner, as he was the
temple president and an apostle at the
same time, he had to rely on this son
for everything. And then this son got
sick and died. And so Mariner over the
the next year, he spent so much time
mourning and and just could not get over
the loss of this son. Uh, one day as
he's traveling up there in Cash Valley
from one town to the next, he looks over
and the a man on a white horse rides up
next to him and and climbs onto this
carriage and he looks over and it's his
son and he, you know, he's obviously
shocked and his son goes, "Dad, you need
to stop mourning for me. I'm busy over
there and every time I have to come
comfort you, you're taking me away from
the work."
And so just just an amazing story. And I
think it's so important with that that
for those descendants, you have to
decide, okay, if if you're wanting to
doubt your faith, if you're wanting to
question God and miracles and and Christ
and all of that, you have to question
your ancestors, too. Were they lying?
Like, did he just make that story up or
was it true? Right? And same thing with
all of these miraculous stories, so many
angels and and all sorts of 3D fight
experiences, um all kinds of miraculous
healings, uh everything that the
pioneers did. They they faced death so
frequently. They saw so many miracles. I
think we don't face death in the same in
the same uh
we don't face death at all these days,
but when you come across those
experiences, that's when you really get
down and pray and you can see some of
those miracles come to light. Now,
you've also created a library on your
website here at familyhistorybooks.com.
Uh, and as I'm scrolling down this, for
those that are on video that can see it,
you can see there's a library here of
several different uh books, ebooks that
you've already published, tell me an
idea of what is this for? What is its
purpose? How does it help people?
Yeah. So, once a book is created, I
really want it out to everybody. So once
we we publish the book then we put it
into family search as a memory on that
person. So for example, Edward Bunker
Senior, you know, he has he has probably
three or 400 documents in Family Search.
One of them is this children's book
about him.
Um on the website too, these are all
available to download for free. Really,
it's a it's a full library of pioneer
stories, World War II stories, World War
I. I understand you're not super
interested in somebody else's life story
unless you're related to them. And so
you can also check on here and see if
you're related to each person or you can
check the whole list in general and see,
okay, am I related to anyone on this
list? And if you've if you have ancestry
in the church, you're going to be
related to someone on here, even if it's
a third cousin, Five Times Removed. Um
about 60 to 70 stories so far published.
And so on here, you can also order print
copies of the book if you want them. Uh
the ebooks, the digital downloads are
all free. Um, so really I'm trying to
put together this huge published books
library um of all these digital stories
that kids can go and read and and learn
a little bit more than they would about
a a unicorn kitty.
No, that's pretty cool. And most most
people know, right? They're like, "Okay,
I I know I'm related to so and so
if it's on here." And if you think of
someone that you're interested in as
you're doing family history work, maybe
check out the page here at
familyhistorybooks.com
and see if there's been a book already
published on this. Uh, anything else we
need to get in here, Jake, before we
finish?
Yeah, the other thing is just um, you
know, the the costs and everything to
have me do a book have. So, it's me and
my uh, cousin and my sister-in-law who
do these books. It's a it's a family
family business. family uh project that
we've been working on for the last
coming up on two years now. Um but if
you want us to tell one of your stories,
reach out through the website. The cost
information, everything is there. What
I'd recommend is look at it from the
perspective of okay, me and my siblings
going together to tell a story about
grandpa, right? Or me and my siblings
and cousins, we tell a story about great
great great grandma, whatever it is.
Everybody has that lore that you pass
down, you know, the stories that are fun
to just share about that time when when
uh grandpa Well, yeah, there there are
all kinds of stories. Um they all uh
they're worth sharing, worth telling.
Yep. And so just think about it and
okay, I divide this cost up between my
siblings and cousins. We do a story for
grandma and grandpa for Christmas.
You're going to get tears. Like that's
guaranteed or your money back, right?
as you're going to get grandma and
grandpa to cry or as a grandparent,
right? You can do this book, get a copy
to every one of the grandkids and then
that's your Christmas present for the
year. It's it's much more memorable than
a Lego set or a Nerf gun or a Barbie
doll. Um it really it's a legacy. And
then the books are all a lot of a lot of
book publishing companies, you order the
first copy or you order the first 10 or
whatever and then if you want a copy
five years from now, the company is out
of business or it's, you know, $50 for
another print copy. We don't do that.
Once the books are published, they're
always available forever. Um and and
they're very affordable on the the daily
price uh to order a print book. Again,
the ebooks are free downloads and bulk
copies are cheap as well. So, uh you're
looking at how many grandkids you have.
Again, go in together with siblings,
order a book for all of your shared
grandkids. It it's it's really
affordable. It's cheaper than a Lego set
for all your grandkids.
Awesome. Thanks, Jake. Really appreciate
your time.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Greg.