Making Histories

I just have to share how amazed I am.

In the LDS church, we care a lot about family history. We believe that the prophecies made in Malachi are being fulfilled -- that the prophet Elijah has come and restored the sealing keys. - Or the authority to bind in heaven that which is bound on Earth. - Like eternal marriage, with spouses and children all belonging with one another forever. Malachi says that when Elijah comes he will turn "the heart of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers". As Latter-day Saints, we often call this the "Spirit of Elijah".

It sounds very vague, but as I've delved into family history work at times of my life, I have FELT this Spirit come to me. To a point that the work of finding these ancestors can be quite "addicting" (for lack of a better word :). Where I think about these people, I yearn after them, and I can almost feel who they are. And I KNOW they want to be found.

Six years ago, I took a Family History class at BYU-Idaho. It was a wonderful class where I had an opportunity to learn the different programs that the Church has. It was awesome. I put together an extensive "tree" of my ancestors. Most all of my family lines can be traced back to the early days of the Church -- and therefore, much of the work in finding people for many generations back has already been done. (Don't get me wrong, I'm WELL AWARE that there is still LOTS more to do, Mom. :)

As a result, I started looking into some of Nels's history. There's been a lot of work done on some of his lines, but the "Chick" side of his family has been harder to track down much past the family that originally joined the Church in England and then immigrated to Utah. After I finished my class at BYU-I, I started doing some research on that line in earnest. I found bits and pieces -- exciting things -- but as life got busy, I didn't have time to "finish" and shut it away. -- Where I've been sitting on it for five years.

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As I've been pregnant with this baby, I have felt a lot of anxiety about what this little lady's name is to be. It's been strange, because I can't even remember hardly thinking about that at all until my last trimester with my other girls -- and even then, we still didn't really "settle" on anything until the baby was actually born. BUT this baby? She wants to have a name. There has been some sort of importance tied up with her name. I've even gone so far as to mostly settle on a name, only to lose sleep over it. Waking up in the wee hours of the morning for a week, feeling anxiety about it!

Just so you know, she does NOT want to be named Pearl. :)

However, one name has played in the back of both Nels' and my mind since before Violet was born. When I decided that her name was NOT to be Pearl, that's the only name that I could think of -- and I haven't lost another wink of sleep over it since. :)

I've also been trying to decide on a middle name - knowing that I wanted to find a family name, preferably from the "Chick side". The name that has come to me over and over again is Lettice --- Nels's g-g-g-g-grandmother that I found in all of my searching five years ago. I have thought of her often over that time.

Today, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I pulled out my binder and started recording all that information that I'd gathered years ago. - So that even if I don't have the time to do all the leg work right now, at least the information will be there for someone else to work on it.

I genuinely believe that part of the reason that I've been feeling so much stress over the name of this baby is so that I will get this work done. I know it sounds weird, but I believe that those that have passed on want to be found and that they can find "creative" ways of helping us do just that. :)

I also found something else that is very cool. The name for this baby. --- The one that feels good and doesn't keep me up at night. --- I found today that it is also the name of Nels's great grandmother. How awesome.