In your biography you mentioned that you've caught the
Spirit of Elijah. What events lead you find so much joy in your family history?
I became of member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints at age 25. As a new convert, everything
was exciting and bigger than life, and this enthusiasm extended into
researching my family history.
My father’s parents died when he was 12 years old. This was a painful experience for him and he never
wanted to talk about it, so I asked my aunt if I could ask her questions
about them. When I showed up with my
tape recorder, and list of questions, she just turned it on and we both relaxed
as she shared memory after memory with me.
It was as if I could see the pages of history unfold before my very eyes. Then she said, “You know, I just might have
some papers you’d be interested in.” She
went into another room and resurfaced with my grandfather’s Catholic Baptismal
Certificate and a couple letters he had written to his sister who stayed in Spain
with his parents when he came to America. All the documents were in Spanish and I
couldn’t wait to have them translated, which gave me three generations of names
I would otherwise never have had access to.
It doesn’t take a lot to light a fire under me. This enthusiasm only increased as the kindled
flames of the Spirit of Elijah grew as each new piece of my family history
puzzle was discovered. I never had the
privilege of knowing my father’s parents, but as I transcribed the loving
memories of my aunt, I grew to know his parents well. I would even go as far as to say I would know
them and feel our kinship when I see them in heaven.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. I have a great grandmother (whom I never
knew) who was the family historian of her time. She did extensive research on my mother’s
family line, and my appreciation of this labor of love is immense when I
realize the difficult process she went through in writing to government
officials, churches and such to obtain information. Family history then was costly and a lot more
time consuming as you’d wait and hope for responses to letters.
I live in Utah,
and whenever I went to Denver
to visit my parents, I stayed in the spare bedroom in the basement. Late at night, when the lights went out
upstairs, the lights went on in my bedroom. Mom had a bookshelf with multiple journals
written by both my great grandmothers.
She also had a dresser drawer filled with old photos. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night
with pen in hand as I copied family history information onto the pages of my
notebook. As I read her journal one
night, I discovered ‘my’ name written within its pages. I couldn’t believe my eyes! She knew me. Though we lived states away from each other,
and I had only visited with her at the tender age of five while on vacation
with my grandmother, she remembered me, and through correspondence with my
mother and grandmother she kept track of my life. From this moment of shocking realization, my
love for her has grown immensely as I find I share her interests. Through the pages of my great grandmother’s
journals I found that she had a deep love for her Heavenly Father, she loved to
write and she loved Genealogy.
I think of her many times as I add new pieces to my family
history puzzle, and with her help, I am seeing a much larger picture now. We are connected through shared
interests.
My great grandmother was a postmistress and a teacher. She also wrote columns for her local
newspaper, sneaking in bits of family history wherever she could. She was sharp as a tack as she worked on her
family history well into her eighty’s; consolidating duplications and carefully
pasting her final organized work into a large scrapbook. She placed it into a box (along with her
black shawl to cushion the precious contents) and wrote this note which she
tucked into the cover of her scrapbook:
“I have completed my life’s work and now leave this with you to carry
on.” Though there are other members of
her family it may have made more sense to mail this package to, she mailed her
life’s work to my mother.
For years I pleaded with my mother to not throw away any
family records, and if she ever wanted to get rid of them, to please let me
have them. With my family history
research they would be of great value to me.
Years later, my mother decided to ‘de-clutter’ and
finally agreed to let me have the journals and old photos. I was thrilled beyond belief as I carefully
packed these things into two large boxes.
Then my mother retrieved another box from the closet shelf and opened it
up. It contained my great grandmother’s
scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings that contained family history,
and two letters. One was a love letter
from my great grandfather to his wife stating he hoped the war would end soon
so he could return to her. The other was
a letter to my mother from my great grandmother stating she had completed her
work and made a copy to send on…and wanted my mother to keep the original
records. As my mother read this she
stated “I don’t know WHY she sent this to ME!
Family history is the FURTHEST thing from my interest! Instantly I had the realization, I
know exactly why she sent it to you. It was
intended for me!
Doing the extensive work she did, and being the spiritual woman she
was, I’m certain my great grandmother prayed as to
what to do with her life’s work...her genealogy. The Lord works in mysterious ways and the
Spirit of Elijah is alive and well. Is
it any wonder I’m on fire with the love of this sacred work?
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