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.

I'm related to my ANCESTORS!

Who knew, right?! :) Last week we went down to Utah (again!) for a wedding and a family reunion. It was so great! The wedding, of course, was fantastic, but I really didn't anticipate having such a great time at the family reunion. Seriously folks --- I know that each of you can remember being a kid and being dragged to every family reunion imaginable - at least TEN every summer :) - where you got to sit around (or walk around or drive around) for about 5 hours in the blazing heat while your parents talked to 100 people that you didn't know and would probably never see again (or at least not for another 5 - 20 years!). If you were lucky there would be some 2nd or 3rd cousin there that was about 4 years older than you that were also bored out of their brains so you sat around in the heat making awkward conversation every once in a while and wishing that you were dead. I KNOW that many of you have had this experience MANY times over. I have.

Well, we decided that since we were down, we would go to the Lindsay Reunion in Heber. This is my paternal grandmother's (who died before my parents were married) side of the family. I

t was so great! (I don't know that Nels, my children, my SIL Kelly, or niece and nephews would agree, but it was a great experience for me!) I really enjoyed talking to my dad's uncle and cousins. I was able to learn a lot about that side of my family - a lot that I didn't know - and it was really exciting. 

LIKE every line on that side of the family either came through Nauvoo with the Saints or were in Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs. That's cool. We read the history of one grandmother who was in the Martin Handcart Company as a little girl and whose hair was frozen to the ground nearly every morning when she woke up. We were able to see (and go into the bathroom of :) the home that my great-great grandfather James Lindsay built. See the home(s) and land where my grandmother grew up. The following Tuesday I went up to my great-uncle Ben Lindsay's home and was able to get some copies of histories and talk to my dad's cousin, Karen, about helping her compile a Lindsay book with all the histories that she's collected in it. I'm super excited.  --- 

--- As an aside, I also learned another little tidbit of trivial information that means a lot to me. I realized while talking to my Uncle Ben that he has ENORMOUS hands. :) As I sat there looking at them - I realized that they look exactly the same as my dad's (other than obviously being older! :). The shape of them is just like his. And MINE are the same shape as my dad's hands (and only slightly smaller). The palms, the fingers. I've always been kind of self-conscious of my hands. I was not blessed with the small, pretty hands that my sister Melissa has, that my mom has. I have big, strong hands with long, thick fingers. I've always thought that they looked like man-hands! :) LOL! Last week I realized that these were probably the same hands that my grandmother had --- or at the very least, a gene that SHE passed to me. I feel . . . I don't know . . . strangely more connected to her. (((happy sigh))) :)

Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple of pictures that I've been able to collect this past week. I'm planning to gather pictures of my family and Nels's as well and make a big collage wall in my living room with them. For any of you (like within my family) who don't have these photos, I just wanted to share them with you.

My dad's family (all but my oldest aunt who was married by then).

My dad is the youngest boy - on the right.

The only professional picture I have 

ever seen of my Grandparents together.

My grandmother's family had THREE

sets of twins!!! (Out of their 11 children!) 

My grandma is the young girl

on the right. - They would refer to 

themselves as the "Pairs" and the "Spares"! :)

(Before downloading any of these photos, email me. I'm going to continue playing around to see if I can get the colors any better.)

Over the past 4 years or so I have developed a deep love of family history. The verse in Malachi is so true! "And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers . . ." I have truly felt the power of the Spirit of Elijah. For quite a while I would get so consumed in finding names and searching out "our kindred dead" that it would take up hours of my day . . . "one more minute" would turn into hours. It didn't take very long to realize that this kind of family history work is just not practical for a young mother . . . or at least not for ME. :) I put away my books and pedigree charts and said, "This will just have to wait for another time in my life." Which sadly is not any time soon. Truly, it does make me feel sad and I continually feel a yearning toward it. 

Over the past year or so, I have come to the realization that although I can't do some of those parts of family history work, there is still a lot that I CAN do! I'm going to work hard to find histories and compile them for others in my family. I'm going to try to gather other information like pictures and such that I can also help distribute to family members. It is amazing the love that you can come to feel for those who have gone before you. The way that learning about them can complete you and help you to understand yourself better. 

I know that sometimes when you think about family history you envision your parents or grandparents sitting around computers or visiting cemeteries (or you remember being a young girl sitting and sitting and sitting and wandering around Temple Square for HOURS waiting and waiting and waiting for your mother - who is at the Family History Library - who said that she was only going to be "just a minute" :) and you think - that is not for me! I'll do it when I'm old and grey. When I have nothing else to do but think of dead people . . . Well, I'm here to tell you that it is for now. It can bring such joy into your life! Whether you are a member of the LDS church or not. There is SO MUCH information available to us now! Through the Church and through hundreds of other websites. A New York Times article from 2001 said that the two most frequented types of sites on the internet are porn and family history. :) Amazing isn't it? Those things that kill the spirit and those that enlarge and enliven it! So tally-ho friends and family - go find your ancestors! They are waiting for you -- and believe it or not, you're waiting to know them as well!

P.S. - For any of Nels' family: I've got a copy of your parents' wedding picture - the one that we gave them for their anniversary last year - that I would be happy to send out to any of you! Just email me and let me know the size that you would like. Right now it is in a square format, I'm sure that I can crop it to whatever dimensions you desire. :)