My first week at the Myrtle Creek Ward was on Father’s
Day. Several members introduced
themselves to me and Roland. During
Relief Society I was sitting with a sister who thrives on family history.
A
sign up list had been passed around for an activity that would take place in a
three weeks time. The sister asked if I
had pioneer ancestry and would I be willing to share something from my history. Sure, I guess. I do have pioneer ancestors.
When
a received a reminder call, I realized that I didn’t have any stories. As mentioned on previous posts, family
history is not my forte – and I don’t do all that well at Church history
either. There is definitely need for
improvement.
I do
remember my mom telling us about an ancestor named Priddy Meaks – though I
didn’t really have any details. I have
since added his name to my ancestral files and do have more information on him
than probably mom did – but still not a story. I didn’t see any stories come up
on ancestry and so decided to put his name into Google to see if anything would
come up that way. I didn’t expect an
excerpt from a volume (or volumes) found here.
Sarah Meaks was his wife at the time they crossed the plains |
So this is
certainly interesting. But it presented a new problem. I was given
three to five minutes in which to tell my story. So what story should I tell. I’d have to read it all first. As I have also mentioned: No matter how
interesting the material, I am a rather
slow reader. I tried skimming through
words and pages until I realized it just wasn’t connecting for me.
Priddy had
written this all down when he was 85 years old.
I wonder how long he was writing.
I decided I would have to pray about finding the appropriate selection
that would help benefit the results of said activity. I was blessed to be
called upon first and shared a brief piece of his history. My night blindness caused me to leave before
the last sisters were through sharing their stories (I think I was actually the
only one who didn’t go over) –
perhaps the one behind me as well.
I would have
liked to stay and offer my assistance with clean up. I guess next time I’ll just have Roland drive
me so that I can take that opportunity.
It was a really
nice activity, and very well attended. I'm grateful to the pioneers and to those who took the time to translate Priddy's words into print that it could be shared on the Internet - otherwise I wouldn't have had it to share. I'm so happy to be here in Myrtle Creek and for the ward that I currently attend.
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