Many times, in conversations about ancestors, I tell people about a few of mine. Then I am asked, how did I get that information? It is in Family Search. How did I do it? This is how my story happened.
In about 1973-74, some friends of mine were in the Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) and they asked me to go to their meetings. Of course I accepted and then they suggested I join. I said, “What do I have to do?” You need to have ancestors who fought in the revolution (I have that) and document it. For some reason, “document” sounded like a task that was overwhelming! Then I thought of Porter Matteson, a genealogist in our family. I had met him once at a family reunion and he said that if I ever needed information, just let him know so I wrote him a letter. I received a letter back from his daughter and she said that he had passed. She had asked their immediate family if anyone wanted his papers (he was quite old and that was before computers.) It was tons of information which no one wanted so she said she boxed it all up and sent it to Salt Lake City. At that time, I knew little about the ‘Mormons’ so I just let it go.
It was in 1976 that I met the missionaries and in February 1977 I was baptized. Shortly thereafter I was asked if I had done any genealogy. I said that I had a chart of some of my ancestors. I was told about the Personal Ancestry File (PAF) program and soon I had copied my ancestors on a floppy disk. We were also asked to do a 4-generation chart. I had an 8 or 10 generation chart so thought I had that covered. Later, when I was asked if I had done any more with it, I said, “I did not know what to do.” I was told, go to the Family History Center. They will help you.
I arrived at the history center and a kind brother asked me what I had. He looked at my floppy disk and asked if I had tried to do a merge. Not knowing what that was, I said no but could he help me? He downloaded the floppy to Salt Lake City and it was returned with a lot of names. I was elated. I asked him if I could get a list of all the names that had been added, which he then printed out. In the meantime, he was looking at the names and commented, “Do you have family all over the world?” He said that much of the temple work had been done in many different temples! It was then that I remembered that the “boxes of information had been sent to SLC!”
I was so elated to go home with my list of ancestors, but what to do with them? So I Googled them. Many had historical information about them. For instance, one of my ancestors, Sir Thomas Littleton, had been a lawyer in London in the 1400s. He and several other lawyers went to the king and asked if they could convert this large building into a law school. The king said yes, and they named the law school “The Inner Temple Law School” which is still open today. It was named this because the Knights Templar had built the building a couple centuries earlier.
I made a list of the names that had information. I took it to the library and got books to read. In the process of reading, I gained more information about other people and got books on them. This was at a low point in my life, so I spent much of my time reading hundreds of history books which piqued my interest in more people and situations and I just kept on reading and reading and soon I found connections between people, places, and situations.
By then I had moved to California and 2 of my friends were working in the Family History Center. I told them about my ancestors, so they challenged me to go on the new program: Family Search.
One Saturday morning I sat at my computer and started out. I knew my way back to the 1400s, so I was excited to go there. I noticed that the farther back I went, the more information there was–for instance, both parents, 4 grandparents and maybe 6 out of 8 great grandparents. I was so interested I just had to read all their names. That is how I came to find Sir Edmund Knyvet. I had read about him in a history book which told about a situation with him and the king. I do not know if it was just me or the Spirit, but I decided to go back on his line. I went back a half dozen or so generations and came to the name John of Gaunt. I knew exactly who he was–the third son of Edward III, King of England.
All my history book reading was a great help and led me to awesome discoveries. My family history went back to names such as William the Conqueror, King Alfred the Great, and King Cloves who was a Frank, a Germanic tribe. I remembered reading a small book called, These were the Franks, which listed chronologically the Frankish kings as well as Cloves who was one of the kings. All the others were on my tree as well!
I also found connections with the Merovingians, Carolingians, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Scythians, and much farther back to the Kings of Troy. The Trojans led me right into Biblical genealogy. I was excited beyond words!!
The next day was Sunday and I was in our Relief Society meeting. The first 5 minutes or so was a time when sisters could share birthdays, promotions, special events and other exciting news. I raised my hand and said that I had gone back on my line, generation by generation to Adam and Eve!! The room was silent! Finally, the RS Pres. said, “I do not think that that can be done.” She asked her counselor who worked in the family history department if it were possible. The counselor said, “Well, we all go back to Adam and Eve, but I do not know if one can do that now.” I was crushed because I knew that I had done it!
After moping about it for a couple of weeks, I decided to get on Family Search and go back again and list the names of each generation. I soon found that I could not remember how I had gone back. I kept trying and soon I was back to Adam and Eve only on a different line. I successfully went back 5 times in 5 different ways. I found names on my lines such as Charlemagne, Constantine, Alexander the Great, Mark Anthony, Boudicca, and Joseph of Arimathea.
I feel so blessed that my love of history has led me to find and know so many of my ancestors.