Beneath the Wraps

                 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 differ...

           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 th...

                             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...

            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 g...

       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 c...

          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. ...

          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 ...

            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 ...

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 quest...

            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...