Genealogy

Where should we settle?

London 6 (13%)
Salt Lake 13 (29%)
San Diego 13 (29%)
Seattle 12 (27%)


I have to admit, I am a bit surprised by the poll results! I guess we're staying in the US, but since San Diego & SLC tied, and Seattle was close enough to be a possible tie (the margin of error is +/- 3%), we could honestly choose between any of those. My personal opinion? I'd like to have small kids in San Diego, teenagers in Seattle, grandkids in San Diego, and great-grandkids in Salt Lake. I admit it, I want to die and be buried in Utah. I don't know how much of a choice I'll have about any of this, though. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

For Labor Day Weekend we spent a couple days up at my parent's cabin. I love it up there! Everything is peaceful and quiet, I have no household chores, Samuel hangs out with me all day, and the kids are absolutely enchanted with the area. Well, on Sunday morning we were busy doing stuff and Elijah started acting fussy, so Sam said he'd put Lije down for nap. When Samuel didn't come back, I went looking for him and this is what I found:


Anyway, I don't have much about the kids this week, but I do have an interesting story. For those who don't know, I love genealogy. (Hence I do this blog.) I have found, however, that the big-old books about each family's history are a bit daunting to many people. So, I am making documentaries about both my and Samuel's grandparents and great-grandparents. I'm not sure exactly how I will organize everything, but my guess is that each great-grandparent couple will get 20-30 minutes, each grandparent couple will get 45-60 minutes. And my plan is to make four DVDs (one for each family line - Ricks, Hancock, Smith, and Baker). Each will have three docs on it - one of a grandparent couple, and two docs of greats (one for each of their parents). That may take a minute to digest, but it makes sense. So I'm interviewing all of our direct-line aunts & uncles, and great- aunts & uncles. Kind of an intense project, especially when you come from big families. The DVDs won't be made for many years, simply because right now I'm having a race against time trying to get all these interviews done. I had only done the first of two interviews with my grandpa, for example, when he suddenly passed away from a stroke. So now I feel rushed to get all the footage I need from every side before its too late. Once I have all the footage, then I can start editing.

Anyway, the reason I explain that is so that the rest of this makes sense. Yesterday I was interviewing my great-Aunt Timmie, who told me a sweet story about her maternal grandmother, Margaret Stoddard Lang. This is Timmie's version, in my words, and therefore subject to verification. But it should cover the general idea. Margaret was born in Scotland in 1866. One day she was walking through a plaza and heard someone preaching about a pre-mortal and post-mortal existence. The things she heard really resonated true in her heart and she decided to find that preacher. Every day for a week she went back to the plaza and tried to find the voice she heard. Finally, one week after first hearing the preacher, she found him and obtained a pamphlet about the information the preacher taught. On the pamphlet an address was listed where church meetings were held, and on Sunday Margaret decided to go see what this church was all about. She tried to slip in the back, but an energetic missionary pulled her to front, where she became captivated by the message she heard. Everything that was taught fit in perfectly with what she believed about God and religion. Margaret was soon converted and baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (she was baptized in 1891). She had an older sister who had been baptized by an Elder Brighton years earlier, however, being that she still lived at home and knowing that her father would be angry, she kept her baptism a secret. She soon found out, though, that her mother had been baptized years before (I don't know when) and although she was not active, she had a vibrant testimony and has secretly taught her children concepts of the gospel through out the years so that when they grew and learned of it on their own, they would recognize the gospel. Well, soon enough Margaret's father found out about her baptism and he threw her out of the home with only the clothes on her back. (Her mother later sneaked her a box of things.) Margaret found a job with the church there in Great Briton and soon found passage to Utah. One day as she crossed 1st South in Salt Lake, she heard the street car bell ringing and looked up to see Elder Brighton! Although they had never met before, they recognized each other from pictures and knew a great deal about each other. They began courting and soon enough they married. (Not that this is necessary to the story, but Thomas Brighton was a widower with three little boys when he met and married Margaret). Anyway, an interesting story, huh!?!