Researching a Spouse's Family Heritage

When I was first married, I didn't research much on my husband's ancestry. After all, both of my husband's parents had been born to prominent pioneer families of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His shortest pioneer line in the Church stretched five generations back to the days when trains brought new members across the US to Salt Lake.

For example, there is a surname organization with thousands of members for descendants of Andrew Hunter Scott (one of my husband's pioneer ancestors).

As I once told my sweetheart, his side of the family had several family organizations with thousands of members. Meanwhile, I was a family organization of "one" as I was the only one in my immediate family (parents & siblings) to join the Church. No one on my side of the family seemed interested in pursuing elusive ancestors with me.

Then our two children blessed our home and my heart was softened as the months and years passed. Here are some ideas I realized.

• My husband was so busy with priesthood responsibilities and his profession that it was probably not going to happen on his watch for a long time.
• We lived far from his parents and siblings. I wanted to appreciate and understand them better.
• I wanted to share with my children their Latter-day Saint heritage and the stories told by their ancestors. If something happened to my husband and/or his family, I needed to know that heritage so that my children could feel gratitude for their pioneer ancestors who had sacrificed so much (in some cases everything) to come to Utah.

Now in my past 22 years of marriage, I have seen great blessings come to our family. Some results I never imagined would come but they have.

I was a few steps ahead of my husband but he was supportive, patient, and willing to give me a lot of opportunities, time, and resources (financial, etc.) to further my own family history. Surely I could give him a little gift of his own heritage.

Here are a few research items that we have done over the years -- in no particular order.

• Ordered the military files for my mother-in-law's brother who died in Germany during World War II. He never had children but had been married.
• Checked for ancestors against the Mormon Overland database on the Church History website. If we had more information than the Church, we added it to their files. Corrections were also made.
• Gathered family information from the family history centers in Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois. These records were wonderful and included journals, maps indicating residences, and pioneer records.
• Typed his ancestry into Personal Ancestral File (PAF) and shared it with other family members.
• Used FamilySearch.org to organize and locate other family records (original sources, compiled family histories, and missionary records).
• Ordered microfilms & fiche at the Family History Center (FHC) to locate original records to document his ancestry. (His family had a lot of information but it was not necessarily documented properly.)
• Made copies of family photographs of his ancestors to share with our children.
• Cleaned up some family information and submitted it to one of the family organizations.
• Walked through family cemeteries in Provo and Payson; recording information & taking photographs.
• Found dozens of newspaper articles from an online historical newspaper collection for Utah which enrich our family histories -- like the 2nd great-grandfather and his son charged with throwing dynamite into the Provo River when they were doing some serious fishing.

At the moment, my husband is completing his second year as a staff member at our local Family History Center. He seems to be enjoying it. While he doesn't always know what to do next, he is very willing to try. Sometime I give him assignments and he gathers the information for me. Sometimes he helps prepare my database to share with others.

If anyone had said even 10 years ago that my husband would be making such progress, I would have been surprised.

Long ago I realized that out here in Michigan our priesthood brethren are kept extremely busy in various responsibilities to keep the wards and stakes moving. We do not have the great numbers of members that some of the western stakes have. Our priesthood leaders are often so busy keeping food on the table and "perfecting the saints" or "proclaiming the gospel" that they don't have a lot of time to do genealogical research.

While I can't help all of them, I can do something to help the priesthood leader of our family. It is a gift to him and our children, as well as to his extended family. I enjoy sharing my latest family history stories and tidbits with my husband and our children. We have grown to love and appreciate our family's heritage to a greater extent.

My love for my husband's ancestors has brightened many a day and given me courage to face life's challenges. At the same time, I believe that these ancestors have somehow blessed us with love and encouragement over the years.