Do you have a large collection of heirlooms that you’ve inherited? Have you considered a plan for passing those on to your posterity? Heirlooms have a great potential to connect our children and grandchildren to their ancestors. There is something special about trying on the dress your grandmother wore for her wedding or serving dessert out of your great-grandmother’s compote. Add a story to the object or experience, and the heirloom becomes even more memorable....
Do you have an ancestor who “flew the coop” or escaped from a situation to start a new life? My second great-grandmother, Harriet (Huggett) Kelsey, was set to inherit a fortune but was disinherited when she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1841 in England. She escaped from an arranged marriage and later married a man of her choice setting in motion events that would end with her moving to a...
Newspapers provide a look at our ancestors’ lives that can be unique. Before Google Photos, Family Search Memories, and Ancestry trees, we clipped newspaper articles and saved them in scrapbooks. My grandmother, Florence (Creer) Kelsey, was a wonderful keeper of news articles relating to her family, and thanks to her, I have a nice collection of clippings about my great-grandmother Selina (Beddoes) Kelsey. At the time of her death in 1962, Selina was one of...
Do you have a fascinating ancestor who is also a historical figure? What if family stories, DNA, and research found that ancestor to be a different race than expected? Researching and imagining their life could lead to asking hard questions and writing their story. Rachel Jamison Webster discovered her ancestor, Benjamin Banneker, was a brilliant mathematician who surveyed Washington D.C., and wrote almanacs. He was also African American, and her branch of the family had...
In 2022, three Brigham Young University professors published a paper dealing with the psychological benefits of conducting family history work: Barry M. Lunt, Kelly R. Summers, David A. Wood, “Improving Psychological Well-Being of Young Adults by Conducting Family History Research at a Religious University,” The Journal of Genealogy and Family History 6 (2022): 66-73. You can read the article at https://doi.org/10.24240/23992964.2023.1234541. It shows that those who participate more in family history work have higher self-esteem, reduced anxiety,...
Do you have memories of visiting the cemetery as a child on Memorial Day or other special days? My maternal grandparents are both buried in my hometown, and we decorated their graves every Memorial Day without fail. We would pick the May flowers and make beautiful baskets of iris and lilacs to fasten to the ground in front of the headstones. This tradition cemented in my child’s mind the importance of remembering those who...
What memories stand out about your parent or grandparent? As we think about their childhood and adult years, there may be common themes that run through their lives. Fun memories that I have center around my mother’s love of animals and her pets, especially her little dogs, who were such companions in her widowhood. Anna Mae Kelsey was born in mid-winter on 20 January 1928 to Florence (Creer) and Ed Kelsey at Burley, Cassia County,...
What would you do if your aunt gave you the charge never to forget your family’s history and then gave you a book about the family but forbade you to read it? For years, author, Meryl Frank, kept her promise to her aunt but did start researching the events during World War II in Lithuania that resulted in the death of her Jewish family. Eventually, her research led to uncovering the stories and finally to...
When we read the stories of our ancestors, certain memorable instances can stay with us. One such instance from my own family history centers on my 2nd great-grandmother, Mariah (Brockhouse) Beddoes. I’ve always wondered at the story of how Mariah’s parents were so upset at her emigrating from their England home to the Utah Territory that they hid her little girl, Selina, in hopes that it would prevent the journey. I pictured myself as Selina...
Do you have an ancestor who died fairly young? Have you discovered their story? My great-grandmother, Mary Margaret (Peterson) Creer, died in her mid-50s. Her daughter, Florence Matilda (Creer) Kelsey, my grandmother, was expecting her fifth child when the family gathered and took their last photo together in 1925. Mary would miss meeting most of her grandchildren and seeing her youngest children grow up. Although I never met Mary Margaret, stories and photos shed...
