Beans Prepared Fourteen Different Ways

One of the best parts of family history is discovering the little details about our ancestors that you would never know unless someone took the time to write them down. Birth dates and census records tell us where they lived, but it's the small stories that bring them to life.

Thankfully, my great-grandpa Norman wrote his life history. He shared memories of his childhood, losing his mother, and eventually meeting my great-grandma, Elva. Just as they had started "going steady" and became engaged, Norman was called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, leaving Elva behind.

At the time, Elva was a single mother working to provide for herself and her young son. During his mission, they wrote letters back and forth. In one of those letters, Norman wrote that Elva told him she had learned to fix beans fourteen different ways.

Now, Norman didn't like beans.

That one sentence tells me so much about both of them.

I can almost picture her smiling as she wrote it, knowing it would make him laugh. She was witty, playful, and knew exactly how to tease the man she loved. That playful teasing didn't stop after they were married, either. If Norman ever missed a fly ball during a family game, she'd jokingly threaten, "Beans for you tonight!"

I don't even know if I could name fourteen ways to cook beans, let alone prepare them! But somehow, that tiny story tells me more about my great-grandma's personality than a page full of facts ever could.

Years later, I found another glimpse of her in my great-aunt's life history. She wrote: 

"Mother celebrated EVERY holiday. Mother's Day, May Day—any holiday there was, Mother found a way to celebrate it. It was great. Mother made each holiday a special time. She put every effort into helping us enjoy them. I mean, think about May Day. Who celebrates May Day? My mother did. She'd fix up baskets and have us take them to the neighbors. She even had a Maypole she would put up, and I remember going around that Maypole." 

She also wrote: 

"Our birthdays were always special. Each child got to choose what we wanted for dinner. She would sew dresses and make presents for us. We always had birthday cake with candles and ice cream. They always made a big deal about it. It was always a fun time for us." 

As I read those words, I couldn't help but smile.

My mum has always called me "extra" when it comes to holidays and birthdays. If there's a reason to celebrate, I'm all in. I love making traditions, decorating the house, planning special meals, and finding little ways to make ordinary days feel memorable.

For a long time, I thought that was simply part of my personality.

Now I wonder if it was something more.

Maybe that love of celebrating didn't start with me. Maybe it was quietly passed down through generations, from a great-grandma I never met but somehow know a little better because someone preserved her story.

That's what I love most about family history.

Sometimes we're searching for our ancestors, and sometimes we're finding ourselves.

The stories they leave behind don't just tell us who they were. They help us understand who we are. They remind us that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves—that we carry forward traditions, strengths, humor, dreams, and little pieces of the people who came before us.

Their stories don't end with them.

They lead to us.

And now, we have the opportunity to make sure they continue with the generations still to come.

ACTIVITY: It's the Little Things

What if one small story could tell you more about someone than an entire page of dates and records?

The little details are often the ones that stay with us—a favorite saying, a playful joke, the way they celebrated birthdays, or the meal everyone remembers them making. These are the stories that bring our ancestors to life and remind us that they were real people with personalities, traditions, and dreams.

This week's printable is an invitation to capture those little things before they're forgotten. Choose someone from your family and write down the memories that make them uniquely them. As you do, you may just discover something familiar—perhaps a tradition you still carry on, a shared sense of humor, or a piece of their story that continues through you.

Because sometimes the smallest stories reveal the biggest connections.

to download/print the activity page simply click here or on the image below