— Family Activities —

Don’t Eat Grandpa Pete – A Fun Family History Game

August 13, 2019

Don’t Eat Grandpa Pete is a fun family history game for families to play.  It’s just like Don’t Eat Pete, but with a genealogy twist.  MAKING LIFE Blissful (https://makinglifeblissful.com/2016/03/dont-eat-grandpa-pete-family-history.html) introduced this game which we played at the Granite Family History Center “Lord’s Youth Battalion Youth Camp”.  We all thought everyone would enjoy knowing about this activity.

How to Play DON’T EAT GRANDPA PETE

You will need:

1 family tree or pedigree chart with visible family names on it.

1 bag of small candies to cover each of the names (M&Ms, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces, marshmallows, raisins, etc).  You will need enough for several rounds.

Print one of the free FamilySearch family tree printables (or use your own).  Put a piece of candy on each family name.  

Send one person out of the room.  

While the player is out, decide as a group which family tree name will be “Grandpa Pete” for this round. Make sure everyone agrees and knows which name is “it”.  Have the person come back in to the room. Keep the chosen name a secret.  The player then proceeds to pick one candy at a time and eat it.  The player continues to eat until they come to the name that was chosen to be “Grandpa Pete.”  When they touch the candy on the secretly chosen name, everyone in the room exclaims, “DON’T EAT GRANDPA PETE!”  And that player’s turn is over.  Replace all the names with candy and send a new player out of the room while the group picks a new name to be “Grandpa Pete”.  Repeat until everyone has had a turn.

FamilySearch now has free printable family trees and this makes this game soooo easy!  All you have to do is sign in to FamilySearch using this address https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/keepsakes and it automatically creates four different family tree styles for you.  Pick the one you want and print away!

This game also works with a printed FamilySearch pedigree chart, fan chart, or portrait chart.  This is a little more complicated but also provides a lot more information about your ancestors.  Here are the instructions from the FamilySearch help menu:

  1. From within Family Tree on the FamilySearch website, click Tree.
  2. Click the name of the current view, and select the one that you want to print:
    1. To print a 4-generation pedigree, select Landscape.
    2. To print a fan chart, select Fan Chart.
    3. To print a portrait pedigree, select Portrait.
  3. Move the person whose chart you want to print to the main position.
  1. When the screen shows the information you want to print, click Options, then Print.
  2. The chart opens as a PDF in a new tab, use your browser’s print feature to print it. If your computer has trouble with the PDF file, try clearing your cache and cookies, or using a different browser. Use your browser’s print feature to print it.

Here’s hoping you have fun with this game, we at the “Lord’s Youth Battalion Youth Camp” sure did! –Mary Anne Thorum