The research of my family began after my grandmother passed away in February 1988. As we went through her house, cleaning it out, we kept finding hidden treasures. A stack of old pictures in one closet, a Marriage certificate in another, mementos in the back of a drawer, etc. Her dresser turned out to be a real treasure chest. In her dresser we found several obituaries (Including the one for Clarence Post (PHOTO below) who died at age 5.) which gave us detailed information about our ancestors which we could not have gotten in any other way.
Finding this wealth of information got me and my younger sister interested in getting our genealogy started. We sat down with our mother, and pulled together all the names we could into pedigree charts and family groups. (We did not have any forms yet, but we started gathering data.)
My mother asked me to keep all the records we found and to be the family genealogist. My sister though was the one who had the greater desire to find our ancestors. What really got her started was an old bible we found in our parents attic. It listed about thirty births, deaths, and marriages. Unfortunately, we could not tie any of the names in it with the ones we already had, and that bothered her.
When she went back home to Orem Utah she took those names, along with the information we had gathered on our ancestors, with her. The week after she returned home, she went to the branch Family History Center at BYU. There she was met by a friendly librarian who helped her to get started in researching our ancestors. On that first visit she found new information on at least ten of our ancestors. She tried to return weekly to the center to continue her research. One of the best sources she found was the US Census. There she was able to find families living together, with children’s names, and ages, total number of children born in the family and more. She also found that the census was not always accurate. Some children aged twelve or more years from one Census to the next.
Her research provided additional insight into our past. Another great-great-grandfather served in the civil war. From his military records we learned he enlisted as a musician and served from the eleventh of May 1861 until the twelfth of August 1861 a total of ninety days. One of the major battles that occurred during that time frame was the first battle of Bull Run.
From affidavits included in his military records used to secure his widows pension we learned of his character. One said “he proved himself to be a good moral person and not of immoral or bad habit”, another said “he was industrious, honest, sober, respectable, and devoid of vicious habits”. The records also included information on his marriage, the date, and the name and address of the church in which they were married, and information on his death.
In the 1990’s my mother also became active in doing genealogy research for our family and extended several lines back to the early 1600’s. In addition to gathering this information she entered it into Personal Ancestral File (PAF) so it was easier to follow and share.
Since the early 2000’s I have taken over her records and have been doing additional research. My latest efforts have been in gathering better sources and looking for a better way to share this information with my family. This website is the method I have chosen to share this data.
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