Gene-Fam-al-His-ogy-

             Our ward had an activity on Saturday.  I was asked to give a spiritual thought in relation to said activity – which was on family history.  I thought I would just give a quick and short thought about why we have family history and sought inspiration.  I listened to a conference talk given by Elder Nelson (now president) had given in 1994 which mentioned “genealogy” being replaced with “family history” which for me opened a whole new floodgate of questions.  

Curiosity got the better of me and I researched dates and information related specifically to downtown Salt Lake. By the time I had finished my research I had enough information for a talk though unless specifically assigned the family history topic it is not a talk that I’ll ever give from the pulpit. 

So my thought was:

“Genealogical Society of Utah started exactly 130 years and 3 days ago.  So what is the difference between Genealogy and Family History.  I would love to give you the reference but this quote came up as an IA overview, but I thought it was such a good quote I thought I would share it.

“Genealogy is the “bones” of a family tree and family history is the “flesh” that brings it to life.”  

I concluded with another quote:

President Spencer W. Kimball taught that “our great part in this aspect of missionary work is to perform on this earth the ordinances required for those who accept the gospel over there.”

I did not share any dates or discoveries that I had made as I researched the history specifically of the family history library located in Salt Lake.  

 According to Russell M. Nelson (GC Oct 1994, who at the time was an elder and not prophet, seer and revelator) the Genealogical Society was organized on November 13, 1894.  I remember going to the church office building where the Genealogical Society was on an upper floor.  I don’t know that it was really open to the public per se – I was always with a group and had assumed prior arrangements had been made. 

I remember searching through large books with legal documents containing family group sheets and either copying the information by hand or most likely using the copy machines and adding said information to my very own Book of Remembrance.  How grateful I am that the legal paper is a thing of the past. 

 Apparently the family history thing (then tacked with the name genealogy) became a hot item during the 70’s thanks in part to Alex Haley.  The Genealogy Library in Salt Lake was not built until October 1985. The name was changed to the Family History Library almost two years later in August 1987.  For a good while there people came to Utah to use the Family History Library, my aunt being one of them.  She would sleep in the extra bed we had, leave in the morning, spend the entire day downtown, and return at night to sleep.

On January 10 last year the name was changed to FamilySearch library to accompany the online source which is available world wide.  How blessed we are to literally have so much information at our fingertips and do not have the expense of traveling to one destination or back and forth to several. 

 The children’s songbook was initially published in 1989.  On page 94 is the song “Genealogy – I Am Doing It” also changed to “Family History– I Am Doing It”.  I remember hand writing the new words but cannot find the book I used.  The second verse is the same but the first us different – except for “progenitors” (that’s a big word for primary kids) I like the flow of the “Family History” lyrics as opposed to the “Genealogy” ones.

 

Geneology – I am doing it, my geneology

                  Fam’ly history—I am doing it, My fam’ly history.

And the reasons why I am doing it

                  And the love I feel when I’m doing it

Are very clear to me

                  Is very sweet to me.

I will keep my book of rememberence;

I learn stories of my progenitors;

I’ll write my history.

I write their history.

It’s a record of my family

I keep records of my loved ones

My geneology

On my own fam’ly tree.

Who Are Jack and Louisa?

         So here is a family history find.  Jack Day Prather was born in Nicaragua to a single mother who had mentioned Jack’s father to him.  The name of his father is Ralph Prather – the same Ralph Prather that had married my Grandma Mary when my mom was sixteen.

 At age eighteen Jack decided he wanted to go to the states and needed proof of his birth.  His birth certificate had him listed as Jack Day Garcia – no mention of a father or even his last name.  Thus when Jack arrived in the states he dropped the Prather/Garcia and passed himself off as Jack Day and has gone by that name ever since.

Eventually Jack did have the desire to know his father – or the man he was told was his father and has been on a mission for many decades.  It’s too bad facebook and Google didn’t exist in the 70’s for both he and Ralph were living in California – though different parts.  He missed finding him.

He did find Richard through Ancestry.  The name “Ralph Prather” came up in Richard’s profile and in April 2021 Jack sent him a message which Richard passed on to me.  I knew that my brother Steven had been in contact with some of Ralph’s descendants and so I passed Jack’s name onto Steven (here). 

We have all become good friends with Jack and his wife Louisa.  Steven wrote his own post about them here.

 Their home is on the list of airbnb.  This is where we stayed on Saturday night.

On Sunday we went with them to Maddalena Restaurant at Antonio Winery – which we were supposed to tour.  Unfortunately we forgot and had not made the time.  Again fried brain. I think Jack was hoping we would return to the bed and breakfast but we parted ways at the restaurant. So good to visit with them.

Secondary Hints

 

                         I once wrote a post about a sister who was addicted to family history (see here).  She enthusiastically shared her passion with others and would strongly advice to look for primary sources about our ancestors and not rely so much on the secondary sources.  So primary sources are like birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, etc.  A secondary source would be an obituary, announcement, burials, etc.  I’m not sure where the census and public records fit in.  Even the certificates that were recorded 100 plus years ago can and do get mistranslated (see here)  not because of the language barrier but the ability to decipher the handwriting regardless of what language it is written. Also lot of misspells.  It could be the same person.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

        I’d gone into Ancestry the other day.  There was a red dot over my hints – not a green leaf but a red dot.  Apparently they changed the appearance.  The red dot told me I had over 170 hints.  Awwww . . . . I don’t even recognize more than half the names that appear.  Lot of census.  I have had my own name come up and tell me that I was in a resident in areas that I wasn’t – or else the dates were wrong.  What?  Do I really need that information for people I may or may not be related to?  No.  Not important.  I decided I would weed out my “hints” by ignoring or marking undecided.  That way when I really am curious about certain individuals I can go through whenever I get the desire.

        Family history is definitely time consuming – just weeding them out is time consuming.  Richard has been getting a taste of my frustration – though at a much larger degree.  At least I have rare family names like Fish, Gloppen, Dodds, Gullicksen and Purdie (to name a few).  He’s got names like Rivera y Cortijo, Landor y Martinez . . . might as well be Smith and Young.

        As my few readers can tell – I still don’t have the passion.  Sorry.  Kudos to all of you that do.  That is really awesome.

A Round About Way of Finding the Past

         Jack was raised by his mother.  He had not known his father, but his mother showed him pictures of the man she claimed to be his dad.  She had raised him with his father’s last name which wasn’t questioned until he tried to get a passport.  He dropped the surname that he had always gone by.

Recently he reached out to Roland who had been avid about family history for a few years.  If he could not find someone that he was related to through ancestry he would click on the hints for other family members – such as his late wife or my side of the family.  Jack was interested in knowing more about my grandfather – who was the only grandfather I had really known.  My paternal grandfather passed when I was quite young and I had only met my mom’s biological father only once or twice but certainly did not know him as a grandpa. 

Ralph had married my grandmother when my mom was a teenager.  That’s the grandfather that I knew.  He is the one Jack had inquired about although he seems to have more information about his possible father than do I.  Sad thing is he had moved to Los Angeles long before my grandpa had passed.  Grandpa was living in San Francisco.  If they had had the technology then as what we do now, he might have been able to talk to Grandpa in person.

I forwarded his information to my brother, Corey, who had connected with Ralph’s family at one time.  I figured he would have more information about Ralph than do I.  He does.  Both of us have sent emails to Jack and he has written back to each of us.  This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Recycling Lights and Day 10

      Today’s Light of the World feature is to Highlight our hero on social media and just like last year (here) I think those who truly have Christ like attributes would NOT want to be showcased on social media.  Especially if they don’t see it in themselves.  Thus here is my post for day 10.

        Jenna had an assignment in which she was to write an essay answering different questions about a book character or a personal ancestor.  She chose the latter and we found an ancestor I knew I had stories for.  She needed more words than the three stories combined. As we couldn't answer all the questions accurately we fudged a bit on “what might have been” – it was quite a good essay, but not exact as we have no way of knowing if all the facts were actual – only that much of it was “based on truth”.

        When Jenna learned what Day 10 would be she excitedly asked if she could share her essay on facebook.  At first I told her that perhaps she shouldn’t as certain family members might take it as truth, but the more I thought about it I wondered how many would take the time to read it especially since "posting s story" seems more inviting to her than having to post it to the "wall".  

            I have many stories that I have shared throughout this blog. For the most part I have not posted them on facebook - mostly due to lenghth.  That’s too much information for facebook in my opinion.  And yet my brother would often write lengthy posts - especially during the time that his mother-in-law had COVID.  Those I would read - but sometimes would only scan.

        The experience that I am now sharing was from a different ancestor and another side than the one we used for Jenna. For facebook I will end up with only one paragraph that explains a journal but not much of a story line.  But I will share the story here and send a link to any of those that may be curious enough to want to read more:

        Just a brief history to hopefully make this easier to follow.  My great grandmother had four children.  Her only daughter married and had three children: my dad, his brother and his sister. Great grandma’s oldest son married and had six children (three boys and three girls).  The eldest of his children also had six children – five girls and a boy.  I will provide the names of four as I am about to mention the “story” and what unfolded as a result.

        My dad’s sister had four sons.  One I will refer to as Skyler. Dad’s cousin had the six children.  Her only son is Brett. He fits somewhat in the middle. The last time I remember seeing my second cousins was when Heidi was four to six years old.  I had forgotten that dad’s cousin had also given birth to twins after Heidi. I don’t believe Skyler knows about Brett or Heidi or any of the living relatives on that side.  But I could be wrong.  I don’t suppose it matters to the point of this story.

 

On March 29 this year was our second Sunday since the schools shut down and we were on a Stay-at-home order.  Skyler had shared a post about great grandma’s grandfather on a family facebook page.  He sent a Acrobatic link which included pages of Richard’s journal.  Richard is our 3^rd great grandfather. 

I did write a brief synopsis at receiving the journal (here) but did not mention what took place shortly after that. 

Brett has been active on ancestry and I thought he would be interested in Richard’s journal as well – though some of it is really hard to read.  At the time it did not appear that Brett had an account on facebook – though I have seen his name quite recently so must have created an account during the pandemic – I’m thinking in August.  I don’t know if he’s posted since then.

I am facebook friends with one of my dad’s cousins – Brett’s uncle, his mother’s brother.  I knew the names of three of his sisters but had no idea what their married names were and so went to their uncle’s account to see if I could possibly find them that way.  I saw that Heidi and I had two fb friends in common – her uncle and my daughter-in-law.  What?  How would my daughter-in-law know Heidi?  Turns out they had lived in an area that Heidi’s mom had grown up in and seemed to dislike.  I smile every time I think about her saying “Who wants to live in [place]” – and here she has at least two daughters living there.

 I messaged Heidi:

         “I understand that Randy and Carrie used to live in your ward.  I am Randy’s mother.  I am also your second cousin by way of your Grandpa J and my Grandma Helen.  I used to work with your mom at Snelgrove’s ice cream store.”

I mentioned that I’d been searching for her brother as I believed he might be the family historian and told her about Skyler sharing a piece of our 3^rd great grandpa’s journal and asked if they might have seen it.  Unfortunately I was unable to send the pfd. I asked Skyler if he could email it to her but do not know if Heidi was able to view it.  But I have shared other things with her – a photo of Randy and Carrie’s baby, a family photo of our grandparents, great grandparents, and her mom when she was three or four years old.  I also shared a photo I have shared on my blog before and our relationship with the Bird family (see here) 

          The point is I had made a connection with living relatives which to me is more important than lineage.  Not to take away from ancestry or those who thrive on it.  I have shared other discoveries on my blog as well as my lack of enthusiasm for family history in the past;  I do enjoy maintaining present and keeping records for posterity so they may hopefully have a better attitude toward genealogy than do I.

          Though I don't share the story of the ancestor himself,  I have briefly shared our lineage and the experience of connecting over social media.  I don't guess that's showcasing my ancestor - though he has become more than just a name to me. He evidently wrote some poetry in addition to his journal.  

not all the pages are this hard
to read but much of it is

Technology replaces "old school"

          The stake has been advertising a Family History Fair which was supposed to be at the end of February but was postponed until today due to the power outage that took place.  We went to the one that was offered today.  I asked Marva if she would like to go as I thought I remembered her having some interest in family history and so I facebooked her the information.  She reminded me that she and Shelly are no longer attending Church which I knew and still don’t understand after all her hunting the missionaries down and having them teach her – but whatever.

          I told her that the FHF was advertised as a community event offered to everybody regardless of faith.  It just happened to take place at the LDS stake center (a boundary name for LDS church location) as there is information available at LDS centers that are not always offered to home accounts.  The instructor I’d gone to today was explaining different icons to be clicked on and what they meant and where they would take us.  She said there are some items of information that will not even be retrieved from the LDS family center porthole but could be found at the LDS family center in Salt Lake City.

          I remember having gone to the center several times at different stages in my lifetime.  I started out as a youth, never building a passion for genealogy, but having gone to do research.  It was back in the day before personal computers.  Nothing was digital.  We copied information by hand or else paid a dime to have a legal size page photo-copied from a copier probably made by Xerox as that is the only brand name I remember being associated with copiers. 

          We kept our papers in a legal size binder.  Usually, they had extended punches to be slipped more easily into the binder (which means they could also easier slip out) or else we could loosen the screws and even change all the pages around in a different order.  

          There was a large variety of hardcovers to choose from.

          Many had pictures of temple outlines and silhouettes.  

          I could not settle on any one temple.  I chose a white book that displayed the majority of temples in existence at that time.

          I remember my Aunt Julia coming to visit for about a week or so.  We rarely saw her.  She would leave early in the morning and stay at the Genealogy Library until it closed.  How awesome it is that technology continues to bless so many lives.

Hey, You Have Your Own Computer . . . Get Off Mine!

          I added the death date of Roland’s sister to ancestry.  Shortly after I noticed there were new leave hints and clicked.  It had the marriage of somebody that may or may not be his sister.  The dates looked correct but the middle initial was not the same and I don’t believe her husband’s name was her married name.  I ignored it but showed it to Roland yesterday.  Oh, my word.  I opened an entire can of worms that I surely hadn’t expected.          

             Roland was behind me saying, “Click on this.” “Click on that.”  Really?  You’ve got your own computer, Pal.  I don’t even know how to get into his account where he has every family lumped into one.  I personally have separated his family from my own.  I have a hard time knowing if the hints on my line match those in my family line – and many of the names in my line are not the most common of names.  His family line, on the other hand, has common names.  I don’t know if they’re related or not.  

             I was journaling my work status of the last two weeks – or trying to.  I have been so tired and unfocused or else I get interrupted.  Yesterday Roland wanted me to watch “Glass” with him – which I must say looked better than the prequel I had sat through and will never get those hours back in my life.  I was not interested in watching “Glass” even if I hadn’t had at least eight other projects that would have been far more productive.

         I was finally on my last page of catching up when Roland asked if I would go to facebook to look at his post right now as he was apparently seeking validation.  That’s when I asked about his sister.  He wanted me to add her picture to the profile and had me add others as well.  He got interested in doing family history again – but on my computer.  After I left my chair to fold clothes, he moved over and looked at hints and translated the Spanish words into English – another thing that trips me.  Family History.  It doesn’t excite me really.

More Than Names To Second Cousins

            There is a family history fair coming up in May.  Someone had made reference to the importance of it during our conference meeting.  Yes.  It is important.  Good hygeine is important - yearly checkups with the doctor and semi-annually for the dentist.  That doesn't mean we love doing it.
           I have been rereading the autobiography of my former neighbor's mother.  She was 81 when her words were published and lived another 25 years.  She is the oldest living person that I have personally known. It has been interesting reading about the history she has lived. She enjoyed family history. 

            I prefer the picture taking and journal entrees over research and accumulated documents that may or may not be a distant relation. Currently, I have at least three second cousins who enjoy doing genealogy - or at least I assume they do.  More power to them. 

            My dad has only one paternal cousin who married and had four children.  Three are quite older me. It is the youngest of those three who has taken over her mother and father's love for genealogy.  She introduced me to another distant cousin who I am facebook friends with, but have never met.

            My paternal grandmother had three brothers, two of whom died in their youth.  The eldest of her brothers has six children.  The eldest of those six is also deceased.  She had four children - three girls and a boy.  I know the names of her three daughters and her son who is doing family history.  I think he was quite young when his mom passed and may feel the need for connection.  Thus he has been doing my dad's maternal side of the family.

            The last cousin has been doing the family history of my mom's maternal side.  She is the grand-daughter of my great uncle who passed away when we were both living in Kearns.  She seems to thrive on family history, but I do not.  I see evidence of somebody doing my mom's paternal side - though I don't know who or where we fit on the family tree in relation to one another. 

            I was thinking that my maternal grandfather was the youngest of seven children, but I see only five are listed.  He was only a week old when his biological mother died.  His dad remarried and they had three more children - I'm guessing it is someone from the line of the youngest (or maybe one of his sisters) who has been doing the research. 

            There is a bit of information given about my grandfather's biological mother's side, but not much.  I was told that my grandfather was the black sheep of his family.  I did not know him, nor do I believe that my mom knew her father the way that she knew her mother  - though she had mentioned visiting his family when she was young.  I think she liked his family better than she liked her own dad.

            Corey enjoys making connections with the living as he has run across photos and will have questions and has done "detective work" to make contact with someone else who might remember.  For example, my mother had a stepsister.  I don't think she lived with my mom's family but had probably gone for visitations. I think she was only 13 or 14 when my folks were married.  Corey had once asked whatever became of her, but as I barely even knew what her name was, I didn't know.  Corey said he found her son or other relation that told that she had passed away. 

            Family history can be interesting as with the names I mention in this post.  Family history can also be time-consuming.  I'd rather preserve the memories of this present to pass down to the future.  But perhaps my posterity will feel the same way about family history as I.  Perhaps I will have at least one posterity who may have a passion as a few of my second cousins.            
 

           A family history full of common names presents more challenge.  I am grateful for the unique names that exist in my family history.

           

Way to go Jenna!

Two of our boys had said they’d come for a visit this week.  Roland took the days off so he could spend time with them. They both cancelled, but Roland still has the time off. Neither Jenna nor I have classes and so are on vacation as well.  Let us vacation – do something we don’t normally do.  We’d like to have Roland eliminate the TV.  We wouldn’t seriously be watching TV if the boys came?  Roland said we’d probably go to a movie? Are you kidding me?  I’m not spending 13 hours of driving so that I can go see a movie.  I want to visit.  I want to play games.

After Jenna and I returned home from our jaunt downtown yesterday, we made a gingerbread house. 

Roland and I held the house part together and Jenna did the majority of decorating.

Roland added to it a bit when she was through.

 I think we played three different games before Roland announced he was getting tired and would watch TV.  Jenna then fired questions to him about his childhood and things he did; his likes and dislikes and so forth.  She kept him talking for three hours.  I missed the library meeting AGAIN – but the communication and discovery was so much more important.  I’m happy that Jenna could steer Roland away from the TV for so long and that Roland was willing to share of himself and his time.  No more television watching would be the most awesome Christmas present ever!

In the Event that Heidi may be Searching . . .

            When commercials come on, Roland will usually watch them and critique them.  Depending on the station, he will sometimes tire of them and start changing channels.  Recently during his channel hopping, he landed on a program focusing on individuals searching for  biological connection.  As the story unfolded, a connection was made due to a facebook post in which the biological mother wished her unknown daughter a happy birthday.  It matched the same birthday of the child who was seeking her mother.  It got me to wonder if the boys half sister on their mother's side might be looking for her biological past.

                About six months before Roland met his first wife, she had given birth to a part white/part Asian daughter.  She'd given her up for adoption and said that the adoptive family had named the baby Heidi.  Roland said he was willing to raise the baby as his own, but Deborah said that it was too late - which I find odd as almost every adoption I have known about has had a one year wait-to-see-if-the-biological-mom-may-change-her-mind requirement.

            I remember Tony having mentioned it first.  He was hoping to establish some kind of connection.  I don't know if that will ever happen in this lifetime.  Heidi would be about 33, I think.  Possibly turning 34 by the end of the year?  Roland does not have many details to go on, and I have even less, I'm sure.  I suppose if Heidi were to look for answers about her biological mother, she would have to ask Aunt Judy - as she seems to be the family matriarch, but I could be wrong.  She may have at least some clue to who the biological father might be.  Roland doesn't have any information.

            Clyde & Barbara Walden [not their real names] gave birth to eleven children. Five are now deceased along with mom and dad.  Judy is their eldest daughter.  I met her for the first time after Jenna had turned two.  We had missed Clyde's funeral by only three days and had been invited to the family barbeque (here) - which is when I met at least eight of  Deborah's siblings and their families.  Waldens are truly hospitable people.  If indeed, Heidi is looking, they will definitely embrace her.