April 25th, 2025, 11:00am MDT
Traditional family trees become narrower to one person. For some, this may mean that the story stops there. And, especially for young adults, this can lead to feelings of little offering when it comes to genealogy.
But young adults are in a unique position to preserve the stories of currently living families, such as grandparents, who may not be alive when young adults start building their own families, said Sami Freeman, a student at Brigham Young University.
“The Be The Bridge campaign rethinks family tree as an extension through you, not as something that leads to you. … Young adults are at the heart of family stories, not the last,” 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 entrusted the creation of a campaign to promote the involvement of young adults in family history. Specifically, there was a need for a campaign to save stories about FamilySearch, including encouragement to interview grandparents, and to share experiences with friends and family.
29 teams were held from March 11-28, judged by a panel of FamilySearch experts and presented the $8,000 award.
Additionally, over the coming weeks and months, FamilySearch will incorporate the ideas for finalist campaigns into its own marketing, said Brad Lowder, who leads FamilySearch’s collaboration efforts with Church Education System.
The Freeman, Weeks and Kuipers teams ranked first in a group of 15 finalist campaigns. The second-placed team also came from BYU, while the third-placed team came from Utah State University.
The top three teams announced their campaign to FamilySearch employees, academic supporters and others during a meeting at the Salt Lake City church office building on Tuesday, April 22nd.
Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, Director General of Cebueti and executive director of the church’s family history department, gave a brief speech to the students who visited following the presentation. He stated that the main purpose of the family history work is to “nourish the temple in the name of our kinship death.”
“Your effort and countless other efforts like them will bring people from the world to come and participate,” Elder Hamilton told the students.
Young Adults and Family History
FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood also spoke to students, celebrating the idea that was “inspired.”
“I hope you have gained tremendous experience and credibility in your great educational pursuits, but this (competition) was not an academic exercise,” he said. “We believe that revelation is scattered between us.”
The main reason FamilySearch targets young adults is the unique and sacred role President Nelson has identified for this generation in terms of family history.
“We can’t help you experience this and experience this, but it won’t help you take over it,” Lockwood said. “And you’re going to do that.”
Brooklyn Lowe, a senior at BYU, graduated from marketing and led an effort to create a case marketing competition in collaboration with FamilySearch.
She considers that younger adults often have family history in older families, but competitive campaigns show many ways that young adults can take charge of genealogy.
“I think bringing our talent to the world is a true testimony that the Church is true and that this family history (work) is guided by the Savior,” she said.
Lowder, Liaison of FamilySearch and Church Educational System, added that young adults view genealogy not as charts or research, but as a way of bringing joy, identity and purpose.
“They are interested in making the world a better place,” Rauder said. “They care about serving those around them… It really changes the work of family history when they apply their lenses and understand their understanding of human connections and how important it is.”
Winning Campaign
The No. 1 project for Freeman, Weeks and Kuipers includes strategies such as setting up an immersive walk-through display at City Creek Center’s Glass Bridge, collaboration with social media influencers, and opt-in text messaging campaigns.
The second-placed campaign, Sunday Stories, also came from BYU. Students Lauren Fabello, Meg Spataro, Morgan Topham and Jay Dalton focused on developing the habit of sharing family history stories on social media every Sunday. The proposed marketing strategies include text reminders, social media partners, and on-campus kiosks using QR codes and postcards.
Topham, a senior who graduated from marketing, said the competition was thrilled her because she had no opportunity to develop a campaign for anything related to the church.
Family history “is a truly good reminder of how (God) loves all his children and how special this life is,” she said. That’s why it’s important to document your life experiences “for others to learn.”
The third-placed campaign, Vintage Voices, comes from Utah State students Kendrah Allred, Dylan Elliott, Lindsey Haderlie, Danny Anderson and Abby Green. Their campaign aims to help young adults discover who their grandparents were before becoming “grandma” or “grandpa”, and includes prompts and resources to interview living grandparents.
Junior study marketing Allred said everyone on the team feels a strong personal connection to the subject of the competition.
“I think this allowed us to see the real family history and in particular, how much family exploration we can really (actually) do,” she said.
Elliot, another junior studying marketing, added that before this competition he often fell into the trap of thinking his family’s history work was essentially perfect. But when he helped develop a vintage voice campaign, he realized that “there is a lot to add to the conversation.”
He also loved to integrate his faith into academic projects. This is a new experience for him.
“There was room for the mind to allow them to speak, and that’s not getting (a lot) opportunities, especially because of competition,” Elliott said.
