4th of July Thoughts for Donaldson Gathering

 

Ruth Grey <ruthygrey@gmail.com>	Mon, Jul 21, 7:09 PM (19 hours ago)
to me

Carlfred Broderick, a social scientist, coined the term “transitional character”. Chain breaker -significant changes for good in a family line

A few in our own direct family tree 

Singing America the Beautiful in old 2nd Ward building remembering Grandpa: 

2. Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare of freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God mend thine ev’ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

3. Oh, beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine,

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev’ry gain divine.

Walter Donaldson- Civil War ultimate sacrifice

Grandpa

Christina Campbell

Livingston

1789-1876

12 kids, took 6 orphaned grandchildren, joined church in Scotland and embraced gospel. Crossed Ocean and plains to Utah. 

We also have ancestors who were the first pilgrims. Through one of these lines we get to Isaac Hollister 1749-1828-Indian capture

Christina Campbell’s grandsons- one was Charles Livingston - He and his brother worked running the stone quarry for the Salt Lake temple; Thomas Doxy also worked on it. 

One morning, Sir Christopher Wren, a famous  architect, who was not personally known by many of the workers building the Cathedral he designed, stopped and asked three different laborers, all engaged in the same task, what they were doing. He got three different answers.

The first said, “I am cutting this stone.”

The second answered, “I am earning three shillings, six pence a day.”

The third man straightened up, squared his shoulders, and still holding his mallet and chisel, replied, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build this mighty cathedral.”

John Ruskin poem: “Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! this our fathers did for us."

Family History Thoughts

 

Throughout my life I’ve discounted encouragement to become involved in Family History thinking previous relatives had already found any ancestors that could be found on my family tree. However, a few years ago, I took an ancestry.com DNA test. There’s a feature on Ancestry called ThruLines that provides generations of direct ancestors through connecting DNA. I’ve been able to use this to confirm information, make corrections and add additional notations to familysearch.org. An added and unexpected benefit has been to make sweet connections with relatives. 

 

Family History work has been fascinating and I'm starting to understand why the elderly have always seemed to be enamored with it. Beyond a simple birth and death date, each individual experienced heartbreaks and loss, had weaknesses and failures yet also loved and were loved, had courage, fortitude, commitment and strength. It's been humbling to get a small glimpse into their encounters with God and our mutual need for His great plan of redemption. 

 

At times, it's challenging to think that an all-powerful, intelligent, Creator of worlds without end could possibly care about me. However, He is aware of everyone who has ever been on this earth and it brings comfort to know He will still love me even after the here and now. I feel God is pleased when I make efforts to find those who have passed on. 

 

It’s also been a reminder to record the countless, simple day-to-day experiences, so easy to discount, that have brought me joy and fulfillment. So many cherished memories: Singing songs with my mom as a little girl, basketball games with my dad and brothers, a fire and blanket on snowy winter nights. Later, weddings and facing the unknowns of new homes and new places. The painfully obvious realization that I was out of my element at the demands of nurturing a new life but then getting the hang of it, then getting really good at it. The unexpected sudden surge of gratitude for my own mom for keeping me alive for the first few months of life when I became a sleep deprived mom myself. Babies learning to crawl, jump over puddles and attempts at cartwheels, making Valentines, bike rides, climbing trees, teaching children to read and then frequenting the library enough to be on a first name basis with the librarians. Children mastering the art of riding a mattress down the stairs on rainy days. The perfect moonlit nights looking out the window at the stars and tucking toddlers in with their favorite lullabies. The heart wrenching good-byes as people who loved me have passed on holding an elderly wrinkled, bruised hand to say goodbye but holding even more tightly to the scripture, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" That kind of love changes you. It becomes a part of who you are. The songs, the stories, the times I felt God's rescuing hand; my own encounters with His goodness. I feel God's love when I look for my ancestors and when I take the time to record my own memories. I can't recommend Family History enough! 

Families

President Brigham Young explained that our families are not yet ours. The Lord has committed them to us to see how we will treat them. Only if we are faithful will they be given to us forever. What we do on earth determines whether or not we will be worthy to become heavenly parents.

-Elder L. Tom Perry

 Elder Larkin Story: When he was a kid he went to a family reunion and he was having fun terrorizing squirrels with his cousins when his mom made him go to a family meeting.  He didn’t want to be there and was acting up when his aunt pointed at him and said, “Todd. I’ve been doing family history and looking for Casper Yenter for 22 years and I’m going to die before I find him, so I need you to find him for me.”  When Elder Larkin was young he would send letters to Germany trying to find information about Casper Yenter. When he was older he looked online. The search for Casper Yenter kept helped him make good decisions growing up. He would tell himself, if you do this bad thing, then God won’t help you find Casper Yenter.  He also felt a connection to his family and heritage because of it. Just recently he was doing family history one Sunday and he searched once again for Casper Yenter and found him. His parish records in Germany had been digitized and now his work could be done. After 42 years Casper Yenter was found, but it was the years of searching that helped save Elder Larkin.