Pop-Up Family History Exhibit Helps California Shoppers Trace Their Roots

In late May 2025, shoppers at a popular Northern California mall received quick and simple ways to connect with their ancestors, accessed a powerful tool to trace their roots, and even snapped a photo of themselves in their ancestral homeland — and it didn’t cost a thing.

It was all part of a pop-up FamilySearch interactive exhibit inside the Westfield Galleria in Roseville from May 29 through 31, 2025. This was the first time a miniature FamilySearch Center was set up in a shopping mall in North America.

“California is the port of entry for many people from all over the world,” said Elder Jorge M. Alvarado, General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Family History Department. “We came here and created this pop-up so we can help of the community discover who they are and where they came from, and to continue to build the family tree of humanity.”

One visitor to the exhibit was Paul V. Scholl, a Sacramento-area publisher who was so inspired by what he learned that he plans to swap his baseball hobby for family history research. That includes ing his grandparents’ graduation certificates and marriage licenses to FamilySearch so they can be made available to his extended family.

“It was kind of mind-blowing how far back the information went. It was really quite fascinating,” Scholl said. “This is going to really help me engage with other family . I can see that this is going to bring a lot of families together.”

The exhibit was staffed by FamilySearch specialists, local Latter-day Saints, and missionaries from the California Roseville Mission. They helped interested individuals and families at several stations:

• Computer stations where visitors were set up on FamilySearch and started making family discoveries and connections
• Help with the FamilySearch phone app, including how to build a tree and use fun features
• A green screen photo display where individuals and families posed with their ancestral homeland in the background
• A coloring station to entertain children while parents researched
• A world map where guests placed stickers to mark their ancestral origins (by the end of the three-day exhibit, colorful stickers dotted every populated continent and most countries)

Debbie Justesen, an Area Temple and Family History Adviser for the Roseville Coordinating Council and a service missionary for the California Roseville Mission, helped organize and staff the pop-up genealogy exhibit. Sister Justesen said the exhibit was well received.

“I was surprised by [people’s] interest and excitement as they realized they had a chance to learn more about their family,” she said. “The biggest reaction was one of shock and awe. The visitors were shocked that they could find family so quickly, and they were in awe of seeing those names and recognizing that these people were part of their own family.”