Family History Talk July 22 2012

“Collin L. Morse was courting his wife-to-be, Olivia hatch, in Salt Lake City. The grip of the depression was solid, and jobs were few. To earn a little money to meet the necessities of life and work toward their future, Collin traveled to Clinton, Montana, to top sugar beets. He located a small flat where he could stay in the town, shared by several other workers. Every few days, he would walk to a small store several blocks away to purchase...supplies...The path took him past a very small family cemetery in an open alfalfa field. Each time he walked by the cemetery he felt impressed to stop. On his last trip to the store he stopped and recorded the names and dates from each headstone. There were only five or six. They appeared to be from one family with the surname of Mitchell. He folded the paper and put it in his wallet. He returned to Utah and on Dec 14, 1934, married his sweetheart in the Salt Lake Temple. He and Olivia were blessed with four children. Over the next 22 years Collin worked hard to support his family. On many occasions, he cleaned out his wallet or replaced it. He always felt compelled to return the paper to his wallet. In 1954 Collin and Olivia moved their family to Independence, Oregon. There Collin was called to serve as the president of the Dallas Branch in Dallas, Oregon. One Sunday, Collin was talking with a branch member who said he was eager to continue genealogical research but had encountered a roadblock. Collin listened intently to the member. He recognized the surname sought to abe the one he copied from the gravestones years earlier. Collin pulled his wallet from his pocket and removed the folded list of names. He handed it to the branch member and asked if the information would help him The man stared at the names in amazement and then responded that the names were precisely those he had been looking for. Collin’s heart was filled with joy.” Church News 1993. This is one of the family history stories told in the Church News from 1993 . While not every search for ancestors has this dramatic evidence of the work of the spirit in people’s lives as this one does, I have found it to be much more common than I ever imagined. Last Saturday night at the advice of one of the BYU missionary genealogical consultants I was searching on the “Find a Grave” sight for my great-great-grandfather. William H. Staples. who died in 1910. Finding William’s parents has been a very difficult search because he moved away from the family land holdings and the county his family was from, Appomattox, had all the court house records burn in 1892. On “Find a Grave”,I went to several different counties with several cemeteries each looking for any evidence of a Staples family haven’t been born there, hoping to connect to my line. At midnight, after about 20 searches, before closing down the computer, in desperation and a little rebellion, I typed in “Where is the Staples Family from Amherst County buried?” I immediately received a “hit’ documenting a current amazon book for sale with viewing capabilities with several paragraphs about the Staples family, such as which brothers settled in that area, where they were from and where they had land holdings. It also explained why I was running into so many William H. Staples. It was a family name originating from the original settler in that part of Virginia. On Monday, I resorted to calling the library of Lynchburg Virginia to see if they had any biographies or obituaries from 1910 of members of the Staples family in their stacks. On Wednesday, the library called me back and told be that the newspapers did not have any obituaries from 1910 but suggested that I call the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia. After calling them within three minutes, they were able to find the Will of William h. Staples died in 1910. i knew it was my William H. Staples because they mentioned his daughter Dotty Maud who married a Jimerson and my great-grandfather John Edward Staples. They emailed me a copy of the will and I immediately noticed that here was no mention of Dotty Maud in the will. I called back and asked “How do you know about Dotty Maud Staples, it isn’t in the will? and this was my identifying mark that let me know I was working with the right William H. Staples. The researcher, I had called out of the blue, replied that she knew, because Dotty Maud Staples having married Robert Jimerson in 1900 was part of her own Jimerson genealogical history. She had the following information and sources for me: Marriage certificate of Dotty Maud Staples to J. Robert Jimerson in 1900. Death certificate of Dotty Maud Stapes in 1906 Birth, death and marriage certificates of Dotty’s two children. The evidence of an additional grandson of William H. Staples, whose name was Carrington Staples. My heart was filled with joy. I can’t tell you how excited I was to have this information drop in my hands after my amateur genealogical efforts. You may be in for an experience just like this one, if you have any promptings to find or look at your genealogy. It will feel like you are restless or unsettled. You may feel most burdened by a nettling to do SOMETHING with your genealogy. Looking for ancestors you may feel frustrated and hear in your mind several times. “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.” Genealogy has given me so much joy, kept me out of trouble, made me less selfish and is a continuing source of experiences that humble me and make me so thankful for this Gospel. I encourage everyone especially the youth to participate is this marvelous work and a wonder. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen