Genealogy, I am doing it! (Isn't that a primary song?)

A couple of months ago, my mother-in-law told me that she is related to someone who was in the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. I thought that was so neat. I have a cool book by Gerald N. Lund called Fire of the Covenant, so I read it again to remember the story again. My neighbor happened to see me out reading and let me borrow a couple of their books. One is called The Second Rescue. Apparently in the late 90's the Stake President in Wyoming found out that the Temple work hadn't been done for the Willie and Martin Companies. So they did it! It was such a good book. It really made me think about my family and made me want to write down my genealogy charts. I looked online for a few names, and found Jeremy's Grandma Butler's line and found Sarah Nightingale and her mother, brother and sister who were all in the Martin Handcart Company. Just by reading dates, I found out that her brother died at 17, just one year after making it to the valley. Her dad died two years before coming and many brothers and sisters stayed behind.

Jeremy's grandpa Butler made a pedigree chart for each of my kids. This helped me find the Nightingale's!

.

Well, lucky me, the same neighbor who lent me the books, usually works at the family history center here in Santaquin. I went to her house to talk about it one night and she helped me find a program on lds.org that I downloaded and can know type in all my family lines. I look on familysearch.org (you can get there through lds.org) and find all the names and dates and type them in my program. (Thank you Aunt Nancy for finding so many. I've seen your name on a lot of records. We'll have to talk about it sometime! I'd love to hear how you found them!)

.

Well, I'm officially obsessed. I spend hours doing it and every time I think I'm almost to the end of the info., something pops up and I find a bunch more. I have also talked on facebook to some of my Dad's cousins in Ohio (where my grandpa Hayes was born) who have given me tons of names and dates. It's been amazing!

.

I feel the spirit of Elijah so strong. I know there is some reason why I've been so interested in this lately. I don't know if I'm meant to find someone who needs work done, or if it might be just to get me going to the temple more. Either way, I'm so glad I'm doing it!