My Family History Journey

Well, it is January 22 and I am in room 4 at Rodeway Inn in Panguitch, Utah. Gil and I drove down last night and Jess and Nicole drove up from St. George this morning.  Maria, a co-worker of Jessica’s and Maria’s son Kevin, came with Jessica. Kimball drove over from Cedar City and joined us. We drove to Rainbow Point and after about 45 minutes we all had our snow gear and snowshoes on and headed down Bristlecone Loop. We ended up on Under the Rim Trail and went out to a vista that we haven’t seen before.

It was a wonderful day for making memories in one of my favorite national parks. The weather was beautiful especially for January. Of course, anywhere is great to be if I am with my husband, daughters and family/friends.

I have not been getting up at 4:30 am to do my Family History hour. I have gotten very far behind on my entries to the point that I am not going to try and make it up. I have been doing FH sporadically and life has reflected that lack of dedication.

I did go to temple the last two weeks and did endowment sessions. I have come to the conclusion that I must take one day a week and just focus on FH projects the whole day. I think next week it will be Sunday, tomorrow. Gil and I are going to be traveling home and I am going to do Christmas cards. I know it is January but I still want to send a few out. I am going to write up a to do list and schedule for FH. I want to do a countdown calendar for countdown to Rootstech which is March 3 -5. That is 40 days away!!

I started watching a video from the BYU Family History Library about a FH concept called The Timeline Grid. It is a way to organize data as I search for sources to expand my Family Tree. I need to finish watching it and get started.

I finished watching the video on the Timeline Grid and I have started a copy for Hannah McKean, however I don’t think I can use the census names in the top column because she was born in the 1700’s. Not sure she was still alive in 1841 Census.

Well, I have made a copy of both the US and the UK timeline grids.

I am including links for some of the slides that had great information:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zLKfWzFXcDZvqAAPPoFZLJpd5lOSxQ_yKCxDwxqUhMk/present?slide=id.g1c58e078a_0112 This is slide on using hyperlinks, comments, etc.

This slide summarizes the uses of Timeline Grids.

This slide has the website for Designing Timeline Grids.

Tonight, I took some time to work on Hannah McKean. I think Mary Haining is her mother and I found a David McKean who is the right age to be her father and neither of them are attached to anyone’s family tree at this point. I am going to pray about it and work on it in the morning when Gil is not watching some weird Netflix show that is very distracting.

I am learning a lot about how to Search in Family Tree. Now, I need to learn how to attach persons to my Family Tree. I might need to contact our Ward Family History Consultant.

This post is a day late. I attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Thursday, Dec. 9. I did initiatory work for five women Nancy, Norvella, Mary Catherine, Mary Elizabeth and Florence. I was able to request the endowments, sealing to parents and sealing to spouse for Nancy, Mary Katherine and Norvella. I have an endowment session scheduled for next week on Tuesday.

This post is a day late but I did the work yesterday just didnt get time to post. I checked out the Family Tree app on my phone. I was able to go to Family Groups and set up Max and Serena Watt Family as a text group for FH info. That will be fun to use.

Then I went to Family History Activiites and clicked on Famous Ancestors. That was very interesting to say the least. The first person it showed was Massasoit, a Native American Leader. He shows as my 10th great grandfather on the Baldwin/Hatch line. I am excited to explore that story more.

There are also multiple presidents including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln that I am related to distantly.

The activities page is a lot of fun and very informative. I am excited to explore more.

This is going to be quick because it is 11 pm. It has been a great day. I got to spend time with my parents and Linda, Ryan and their family. I was able to attend my great uncle’s funeral, DeLyle Dance and meet extended family members. It was a very nice celebration of his life and a wonderful reminder that time is fleeting.

Dad, Mom and I stopped at the Riverside Cemetery and placed a wreath on Allison’s grave and a little pine tree replica on Taylor’s grave.

I was able to help Dad get on Family Search and get a name to take to the temple tomorrow. I also showed him Hannah Mckean and we decided that I will talk to my ward FH consultant and see if I can add Mary Haining as Hannah’s mother.

Tonight, Cassandra came over and we all had dinner together..Thai Noodle with Broccoli (Cassandra’s request). Then we decorated the tree and the living room. What wonderful traditions and memories we have and continuing to make! I am truly so blessed. I will post pictures in the morning as it takes a while and I am going to sleep

I am at my parents home in Idaho. The flood of memories as I attended the Thomas Church building next to Snake River Junior High (now called Middle School) has been constant today.

My family and I lived in a rock house just down the street from the junior high until I was about 6 years old. My mom says she has pictures of the rock house. It is still there but has been extensively remodeled and now has siding, one can’t see the rock.

I drove home along the Thomas Road and past some old friends houses, people I babysat for, Tamara Gillins home where she cut my hair on regular basis, and a home where my Aunt Diane and Uncle Dick lived and I remember visiting.

I had an amazing childhood and have been so blessed to be a part of this wonderful community.

Art Kelly, he was our family’s home teacher for many years, taught Sunday School today. He looked at me sitting with my parents and said, “So nice to have Shelly here, now it feels like home.”

I listened to Elder Nelson’s talk from his October 1994 Spirit of Elijah this morning as I drove up. Almost as an aside he said this, “I would add that the daily building of happy memories in our families is an important part of making family history pleasant. Each day on earth can bring a little bit of heaven.”

That means so much to me because it helps me recognize that spending time with family making memories like today is a form of family history.

I had a great time just talking to Mom and Dad after church while we waited for dinner to warm up. Then we went to town to Delyle Dance’s viewing. He is my Dad’s uncle on my Grandma Margaret Watt’s side. He was the last living sibling of my Grandma. I remember his infectious laugh at family reunions and gatherings. He told great stories but unfortunately, I don’t remember details of them just that they made everyone laugh.

I met my Dad’s cousin Ella Gorder there and we exchanged numbers and determined to get a family gathering in St. George together. Ella and her husband and their son Eddy and a grandson live in St. George.

We met Katherine there and then came home and Dayna and Brandon and Isaac, Amelia, Noah and Peter were here. Linda and Ryan and Jackosn, Jake and Olivia showed up around 8:30 from Salt Lake. I truly enjoy spending time with my family.

I missed yesterday. Just ran out of time in the day. I didn’t do my Family History first thing so it just kept getting bumped by things that seemed more important at the time.

Tonight, I have been looking for the mother of Hannah Mckean in the Watt Family line. I think I might have found a person who could be her..Mary Haining christened in 1748, November 21. She doesn’t appear to be attached to anyone in Family Tree. I am going to sleep on it and pray about it some more.

I read a blog post from Family Search about how to use the Search feature in Family Tree. It was very helpful.

I also listened to this article in December 2021 Liahona magazine this morning on my last drive to the University of Utah Hospital for N342 clinical.

Help the Hastening

In Doctrine and Covenants 88:73 the Lord said, “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time.” Some of the clearest signs of this hastening are:

• Increasing numbers of temples and their proximity to Church members.
• Missionary work throughout the world.
• The explosion in the availability of information about our ancestors.
• The development of powerful technology to find, organize, and share this information.
• A real and rapidly increasing desire among God’s children on earth to discover who they are and connect with their families—past and present—as well as their ancestral homelands.

As President Nelson said, “Our message to the world is simple and sincere: we invite all of God’s children on both sides of the veil to come unto their Savior, receive the blessings of the holy temple, have enduring joy, and qualify for eternal life.”⁷

What a blessed opportunity we have, as Church members living in the latter days, to be Heavenly Father’s helpers in gathering together His children!

I really wanted to just check out tonight and lose myself in a the latest episdoe of “The Wheel of Time” series on Amazon Prime but I remembered that I hadn’t done my Family History today and came downstairs and started on the computer. I know that 27 days ago I would have chosen the TV show. I am changing and growing as I use the time the Lord has blessed me with to help gather Israel.