finding my role in doing family history

If you look at my ancestors you will find that basically all of them were Mormon pioneers. The most recent convert is probably Rufus Black Tyler, my great-great grandfather, in the early 1900s.

One of the results of this is that the temple work for my ancestors and all their siblings and most of their descendants for two or more generations has all been done. For most of my life I didn't bother with family history other than enjoying the occasional story that someone shared. Then a few years ago my aunt sent me several life histories of my ancestors and I started transcribing them and sharing them on my family history blog. When Family Search Family Tree came out I shared the blog posts as sources.

That was probably when I started seeing just how much work still needs to be done. Not necessarily temple work, but lots of cleaning up. The church has pretty much put everything people have submitted into Family Tree, which means everything from the IGI, the Ancestral File, all those four-generation charts they encouraged us to submit, New Family Search, and more. For people like me whose ancestors have been in the church for four or more generations, that means that ancestors' pages are kind of a mess with lots of alternate names, dubious dates and places, notes and discussions with varying levels of usefulness, and sources migrated from New Family Search (Legacy NFS), not all of which are actually useful. Seeing my ancestors' pages look like this was like having an itch I had to scratch, so I started cleaning them up. If you want to get a taste of what is involved in this, check out this post I wrote on my family history blog. For some people I can get a page cleaned up in an hour, and others have taken weeks or months. Modern revelation says that when Christ comes to the earth we will be presenting him with a book with our family history. My guess is that we will be showing him Family Search Family Tree. And I think it would be better if Family Tree is cleaned up and organized with sources and accurate dates.

For the past couple of years I've been working backward on the Warthen family line. At the time I felt like that was where my focus should be and I thought that if I could get back to Joseph Worthen's siblings I could start doing some descendancy research and maybe even find some family members who needed temple work. I started with my great-grandfather, James Alfred Warthen, and cleaned up his page and the pages for all his siblings. Then I moved back to his father, Brigham Heber Worthen, and worked on him and his siblings. I really hit a brick wall with one of his sisters who kind of disappeared for twenty years and had 3-5 husbands, and I still haven't resolved that problem yet, but I decided to move on to Joseph Worthen. Joseph Worthen joined the church in Ohio and went with the Saints to Nauvoo and then Utah, but the rest of his family stayed in Ohio. Unfortunately at that point the availability of records really fizzled out. The U.S. Census only gave the name of the head of household and the number of other people in the house, and church records in Ohio haven't really been digitized yet. For several weeks I kept trying to find records with no luck, and I was starting to feel really bad about my research skills until I asked our family history consultant for help and he couldn't find anything either. It's not impossible to do research about them, but I would probably have to go to Ohio and see if I could find their church, so it would be more challenging.

That night after the kids went to bed I got on puzzilla.org to try to figure out where I could be more useful and potentially be able to do some temple work. I went seven generations back and looked at each of those people's descendancy charts and literally everyone's had four generations of descendants' work done. I don't know how accurate it all is, but clearly a lot of people have been working on this and if I am committed to doing careful and accurate research it's going to be a really long time before I find any temple work that needs to be done.

After coming to this realization I was talking to Ryan and I was literally in tears. Sometimes it's discouraging to hear speakers in General Conference talk about people who've submitted thousands of names to the temple or say that a few minutes a day can yield huge results when I don't know if I will ever find a person who needs their temple work done. I realize that most of the members of the church worldwide haven't even started doing family history and have plenty to do, but I feel like there isn't a lot of guidance for people like me whose family history has been done ten generations back and forward again. I felt so overwhelmed looking at the huge number of family members in my tree and wondering where I should start working next (I do hope to go back and look at the Warthen line eventually when more Ohio records become available, but right now I feel like they aren't trying to be found and I need to work on other people).

Soon after this, someone (I think maybe it was Ryan or my mom) pointed out that even though it's discouraging to not be able to find names of people who need temple work done, it's actually a blessing to be in this situation because that means so much of my family has already received the blessings of the temple. That thought really stuck out to me and helped a lot. I've decided to keep on with my goal to help clean up the family tree and not worry so much about the temple work. I do still hope that I can contribute in that regard, but I know I will also be blessed by getting to know my ancestors and cleaning up their pages on Family Tree.

One of my ancestors, Hans Peter Jensen, joined the church in Denmark and immigrated to Utah to join the Saints in Utah. The rest of his family stayed in Denmark. I've known for quite some time that his father's Family Tree page had a lot of problems, but I'd always heard that it's hard to do Danish genealogy and I felt intimidated by the many corrections that needed to be made. He's listed with three different wives, about 25 different children (some duplicates), and three sets of parents, and there are some other problems as well. It looks like at some point he was incorrectly merged with other people of the same name. I decided to give Danish genealogy a try and see if I could fix his page. I didn't have much luck at first because there aren't a lot of Danish records on Family Search or the other Family Search partner sites, but I started reading the Denmark genealogy wiki on familysearch.org and that helped me to figure out where to find records. I found my ancestor in five or six censuses on danishfamilysearch.com, and for the last couple of weeks I've been looking through the parish records for Voer, which is where he was born and where the family lived for several decades. It's a little challenging to read the handwritten records because they used Gothic script and I don't speak Danish, but I'm getting better at it and I've found christening records for several of his older siblings who died in infancy. I still need to find christening records for his younger siblings and then I'm going to have to start figuring out how to read marriage and death records to get more information about them. Hopefully the census records will help with that. Right now I'm recording everything I find in Roots Magic and once I feel that I have enough sources I will start making corrections on Family Tree.

So far what I've found is that the information already on Family Tree is mostly correct for the people that are supposed to be there. The incorrect merges are a problem and I'm going to have to sort out who belongs to which parents. Clearly at some point somebody did good genealogy research and recorded the right dates and places, but the problem is that up until now there wasn't really a good system for keeping track of sources and obviously it wasn't always this easy to digitize documents. That means that I'm having to replicate the research that was already done by someone else, although I do have the advantage of already having the dates and places they found. The good news is that because Family Tree is a unified family tree that everyone shares and the church is committed to preserving everything in Family Tree, this time the research won't be lost because I'm going to share all my sources. With all the focus on submitting names to the temple I guess a lot of people would wonder what the point is in doing all this work for people whose temple work has already been done, but I do feel like I'm making an important contribution by doing good research and getting my ancestors' pages organized and backed up by evidence. I also feel a connection to these family members when I find information about them.

So if you're in the same boat as I am when it comes to family history, know that you are not alone and there are ways to contribute. And if you're the first in your family to do your family history, keep track of your sources and share them on Family Search so that your descendants don't have to do all that work again!

FamilySearch Indexing

I recently re-discovered FamilySearch Indexing, and now I'm hooked. We talked about it in the family history Sunday school class one day, and when we got home I decided to download the program and give it a try. I have a problem sometimes with checking email and Facebook too much, and I've realized that doing indexing gives me the same rush while actually being something useful, so when that itch comes I've started downloading batches to index instead. I've tried a few different types of records, but mostly lately I've been doing delayed birth records from Chicago, Illinois. If you do the same type of record enough you can do a batch pretty fast, but sometimes it's also fun to try a new type of record.

I've been in kind of a rut lately with family history. I transcribed several life histories that my aunt had sent to me, but now those are all done. I also have The History of Mapleton, both a physical copy and a digital copy that Ryan's dad scanned for me, but I'm not really sure where to start with that, so I've been reluctant to even dive in. I know there's also a lot of decluttering to do on Family Search for several of my ancestors, and I've done that a little bit, but I feel like I need a while to get immersed in it and get my bearings before I can do anything useful, which isn't always possible with kids. So it's been nice to do indexing because I still feel like I'm contributing to family history work, and I can just do it for fifteen minutes here and there. It's pretty exciting when there's a record that is very legible and has a lot of useful information because I know it could be really helpful to people searching for information about their ancestors.

Meet My Great-Grandmas

I also have been blessed to know two of my great-grandmothers, so I thought I would write down a few memories that I have of them.

Grandma Taylor

Adelaide Collings Taylor was my Grandma Lois's mother. Here are some of my memories of her:

When we visited her in Wendell, Idaho, she had a bag with feather dusters and matchbox cars that we could play with. She had two large braided rugs on her floor that we used to drive the cars on like roads. It was fun to examine all the fabric that had been used to make the rugs. I remember a couple of cow clocks and a large old black stove. She had a black upright piano that was pretty out-of-tune. One time my mom and my siblings and I were visiting at the same time as Grandma Lois, and we sang hymns while my mom played the piano. It was a really nice experience and I remember Grandma Taylor really enjoyed it.

Grandma Taylor always encouraged us to be good to our mother and help her.

She always wore an apron, but they weren't like the aprons most people think of. They were kind of like a short sleeveless dress that buttoned down the front and had two pockets in the front. Now that I'm a mom and do most of the cooking I've often wished I had an apron or two like that because they have a lot better coverage and you wouldn't have to deal with the apron strings. Usually when I think of her I remember her sitting in the rocking chair wearing one of those aprons.

My mom's family lived in Wendell for several years, so there was a connection between my Grammy and Grandma Taylor. Apparently Grandma Taylor was my mom's brother Jay's Sunday School teacher for a few years, and she really loved my Uncle Jay. This isn't how my parents met, by the way--they met at an institute dance at the College of Southern Idaho.

My mom said that Grandma Taylor really welcomed her into the family when she married my dad, and she also helped Mom start to build a year's supply.

4-H was really important to her. I seem to recall Grandma Lois telling a story about how she ran back into a burning house to rescue all of the 4-H ribbons.

Grandma Velma

I remember that I really loved Grandma Velma. When she came to visit I always enjoyed talking to her, and she was a good listener.

One of my earliest memories is of going to her house in Kimberly and eating applesauce cake. Applesauce cake is basically sugar cookies stacked on top of each other with applesauce spread in between them, and it's best if you freeze it for about six months before eating it.

I remember she had an organ and a grand piano (which Grandma and Grandpa Glenn have now). She had a little bird that I always liked to look at. Her clothesline was the kind that spins, and I always thought it was pretty cool. I also remember an apple tree.

I think I was about eight years old when she died. The last time I saw her, she was at my grandparents' house and was pretty sick. I was really surprised because she didn't even smile at me, which was so out of character for her. I cried at her funeral because I was very sad. I also felt the Holy Ghost very strongly there and knew that someday she would be resurrected and I would see her again.

Ruby Snow

I never met Ruby Snow, but she did a lot of family history, so I've gotten to know her through the life histories she wrote of herself and many of her ancestors. She is my Grammy's mother. I'm really impressed by her. She and her first husband (Jesse Warren) moved to Idaho in the middle of nowhere and built their farm up from nothing. They pretty much worked all of the time. I have no idea how they did so much. Then Jesse died of appendicitis and she and her children moved back to her hometown of Mapleton. Later she married my great-grandfather, Hans Peter Jensen, and had more children. She loved her callings in church, sewing, and her family.

Meet My Grandmas

Family Search sent out an email recrently challenging people to write down some things about their grandmothers, and since I have two wonderful grandmothers who have greatly influenced my life, I am more than happy to accept the challenge.

Grandma Lois

My Grandma Lois taught me how to sew. I spent a significant portion of my summers each year at her house doing my 4-H sewing projects, and those are some of my favorite memories of her. When I was working on something difficult and got frustrated, she would always tell me, "Try not to get discouraged." She never got upset at me when I made mistakes. She always stayed calm. One time when I was using a serger to sew a skirt, I caught a piece of the skirt under the blade and it cut the middle of the fabric. I was pretty upset that I had ruined the skirt, but she calmly assessed the damage and helped me come up with a way to salvage it. Another time, I tried winding a new bobbin by myself, but I forgot to wind the thread around the knob at the other side of the sewing machine. Without the tension the thread got wound around the bobbin in a nasty tangled mess. I thought she would be so mad because I had let it wind up for quite a while before realizing what I had done, but she just said, "It's okay, thread is cheap," and then showed me how to do it the right way. I don't think I've ever seen her get angry. She is a very patient person.

My grandma has always loved to be a mentor. She led a 4-H club for many, many years, and as part of that she was able to get to know many girls and encourage them to become more than they thought they could be. She still stays in contact with many of the girls who were in her club and she loves it when she finds out about their achievements. I've mentioned this before on my blog, but she stuck by me during some of the hardest years of my life and made it clear that she would not let me fail.

I always thought that Grandma was a very classy and well-bred person. She has always faithfully and lovingly tended to her garden. I think at one point someone said she had 100 rose bushes in Kimberly. You can tell if she's visiting because she wears this lovely perfume that smells like flowers and doesn't make you feel like you're suffocating if you get a whiff of it.

I enjoyed spending the night at Grandma's house in Kimberly. She had the best bathtub ever. It was huge and square, and when you were done taking a bath the towels were right there in the cupboard and they were nice and big and soft. The bathroom mirror was also fun because it had three sections with hinges and if you pulled the side sections to just the right spot then you could see the mirror reflect itself forever. There was a pole in the basement living room that we climbed a lot. Outside there was a well house that we would play on for hours, and there was a really awesome bush that had a little alcove in it that was great for imaginative play. I remember spending a lot of time mixing witches' brews and pretend soups in a plastic Halloween pumpkin there.

Here is some of the best advice I have received from Grandma (this was after Kevin cut Heidi's hair): "May I offer some unasked for advice? It has been my experience that it is not possible to reason with children before they reach the age of accountability. It is better to just keep the scissors or other offending objects out of reach. For the most part children want to please their parents, so when they do something wrong it is not their objective to make the parent unhappy. They are just curious and don't think about the consequences of their actions . . . I had learned that anger is never productive and focusing on making things better was helpful. Derald and I learned to just laugh about a spilled glass of milk and clean up the mess. Getting angry just makes it worse. Please all of you enjoy and treasure the time you have with your little ones."

Grammy Jenna

I think my siblings and I are the only grandchildren who call her Grammy. She heard about another grandmother whose grandchildren called her Grammy and decided that she wanted to be Grammy Jenna. For a few years she volunteered at the elementary school and the kids there called her Grammy Jenna too.

Grammy loved her family. I vividly remember a time when we went to visit her and we found her talking on the phone, obviously very upset. When she hung up the phone she burst into tears and said, "Oh, Gaylene, it's Rex. It's his heart." (Rex is my Aunt Colleen's husband, so my mom's brother-in-law.) I was startled to see by the look on her face how dearly she loved him. My mom said that when Uncle Ricky was killed in a motorcycle accident she packed up her bags and drove to Utah in the middle of the night to be with Aunt Marsha. I remember she loved hugging and snuggling my younger siblings, and she would sneak them tastes of ice cream even when they were just a few months old.
I can still remember Grammy's laugh. It was so joyful and genuine. We used to love to tickle her toes to get her to laugh.

Instead of saying, "Excuse me," if she wanted to get past you, Grammy would say, "Toot, toot!" She also would say, "It's time to put on your shoes and stockings." When we got to her house she would smile and exclaim, "Well who are you?"

Grammy worked hard her entire life. She went to school to become a nurse so they could make ends meet, and she worked nights a lot of the time.

We always loved sleepovers at Grammy's house, and we would fight over who got to sleep in her bed with her. I remember watching movies and getting pizza and lemonade from Maxie's Pizza.

We always watched General Conference at Grammy's house on Sundays, and we would have a nice dinner in between the sessions. I know there was always green bean casserole, and for dessert we would eat razzleberry pie.

Once when I was little, Grammy was babysitting Melissa and me while my parents were somewhere. She had some plaster of paris and she wanted to put our handprints and the date in it and give them to my parents. I was not going to put my hand in that nasty white stuff, and she had to chase me pretty hard before she eventually managed to catch me and get my handprint.

Grammy was very talented with crocheting. She crocheted the amazing dress that my sisters and I were blessed in as babies, and Heidi and Ann Marie were blessed in the dress too.

The day my Grammy died, I was sitting in a class when I noticed that I had an empty feeling. After school, Grandma Lois was the one who gave me a hug and tenderly told me that Grammy had died. It wasn't really a surprise because she had been sick, but it was still very hard because we had spent a lot of time with her my entire life. I think it was really hard for my mom because she had been coming to Grammy's house on at least a daily basis to take care of her and she missed serving her and being with her.

on "taking names to the temple"

Ryan's dad wrote this post on his blog a few days ago, giving some suggestions for goals stakes and wards can set for doing family history other than taking names to the temple. I wanted to add a few thoughts of my own.

Whenever wards decide to emphasize Family History more, it always seems to be about "taking names to the temple." My ancestors are all Mormon pioneers for several generations back, and there have already been many people who have traced the lines back and done a lot of the proxy temple work for them. (I'm not alone in this--Mormon pioneers tend to have a lot of descendants, especially the ones with multiple wives.) If I were to find an ancestor who needs temple work done, the fastest way would probably be to go all the way back to someone whose parents haven't been found, hurry and find their name in a census somewhere with their parents (or someone who sort of seems to be their parents), and submit that to the temple. There are a few different problems with that. The main one is that it's quite possible that mistakes have been made along the way and those people who lived in the 1600s aren't even actually my ancestors. (As an example, according to my family tree on familysearch.org, I apparently have an ancestor named John Crow who lived in Hartford, Connecticut in 1602 who had 21 brothers who were also named John Crow--all sorts of things don't make sense there.) If you do a hack job at family history it's not going to be meaningful and you're going to waste time doing proxy work for non-existent people or people who have already received their ordinances five times.

For me, the approach that makes the most sense is to start with the people who are closest to me (for example, my grammy and her parents) and work my way backward, verifying that everything on Family Search is accurate and adding sources like census records and life histories typed by my great-grandmother, which I have been transcribing. I expect that it's going to take me years to get oriented in my own family tree and figure out what needs to be done before I'm at the point where I can find people who need temple work done.

Personally, I would like to have help from my ward learning how to do good quality research. I want to learn about all the resources that are out there, beyond the US census, that will help me learn about my ancestors. I want to gain skills in recognizing which information is correct. These are skills that would be valuable to everyone, whether they are descendants of Mormon pioneers or the first person in their family to join the church. The scriptures indicate that someday we will have to present this work to the Savior, and when that time comes I think it's important that what we have done is accurate and well-done. A lot of what I've been doing on Family Search lately is looking at people's pages and cleaning things up--foot-long lists of alternate names, notes and sources that are gibberish, and various mistakes that need correcting. And that's a valid contribution to family history too. Our participation in family history isn't going to be measured exclusively by the size of our briefcase full of temple ordinance cards.

I also want to see them emphasize more that these are people, not names. We go to the temple to do ordinances for real people. We should focus not just on doing the ordinances, but also on getting to know the people. They're our family. Don't you think it will be more meaningful when we meet these people someday to be able to say we know them, instead of just saying we took their name to the temple?

new blog

I have been thinking for several months about starting to get involved in my family history work. It appears that the temple work has been done for the most part for many generations back, but I want to learn who those people are. I don't even recognize a lot of the names. Today I got on New Family Search and looked at my pedigree chart, and I realized that for most of the people on my mom's side of the family, the only sources seem to be from entries into the IGI and Ancestral File, which didn't have a way of entering primary sources. So there is more work to do than I realized. I can start looking for primary records like censuses, birth certificates, and such, and then I can enter the sources on Family Search.

I've started a new blog to share what I learn. I don't have a lot of experience with genealogy right now, and it will be slow going since I have school and my family to take care of, but I think it's time to make a start. You're welcome to read about my discoveries and experiences there. I plan to share pictures, family stories, memories, and other things as I find them.

http://margletan-familyhistory.blogspot.com/