My Talk: Pioneer Heritage

Before the last two posts, I had thought about spending some posts on the different elements of the talk I gave, having mentioned that I prepared a lot that wasn't said:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2022/07/speaking-and-teaching.html

That seems like the thing to do now. It may lead us to other things.

It was my first time speaking on Pioneer Day. I don't have any of the traditional Utah pioneer heritage, but I do have other connections.

I have been asked before if we are related to Martin Harris. I always assumed not, but in the library I once found an old book on the ancestors of prominent Americans. I looked up Harris, as you do.

There was a Franklin Harris who was prominent for being president of BYU, and whose great-great grandfather's brother was Martin Harris. They were descended from the first Harris to leave England for the American colonies, Captain Thomas Harris. Our line is descended from his first wife, and then after Thomas was widowed he remarried and that's where you get those other Harris', making us distant cousins.

I have another connection to a completely different pioneer heritage. 

My father's aunt Mary was Carrie Ingalls' stepdaughter. 

When we would watch Little House on the Prairie, and Carrie would tumble going down the hill, no one ever said, "Oh, that's Aunt Mary's stepmother", but I don't think anyone realized it then. She and Uncle Monk and my own grandparents were gone by then. While the books were around, there wasn't the same familiarity with them. That came later.

As it is, my family lore of Monk and Mary is one pretty funny invitation to a family reunion they threw that had happened long before I was born, which I found looking through a box of family history things. There is also a story of young Mary telling a relative that she never wanted to have children, and that elderly woman responding that she hoped Mary would have a dozen.  And she did!

Diaries and things I have seen from that time period when they refer to Mormons are always about how weird they are with all the wives. It is a miraculous thing to me to know that two sons of Aubrey and a grandson of Monk's would separately find their way into the church, and yet they did.

I mention this because it's interesting, but also because as important as it is to know that we are all connected as children of God, it can also be delightful to find the many other connections. There are patterns and combinations that are easy to miss, and then precious to find, and we find them by looking in our family history. 

As I prepared the talk, I did think about how the legacy of the Utah pioneers is important to me. To have time to grow in strength and knowledge, going out beyond the borders was necessary. That is how we were able to get temples and growth and continuity. That has benefited me.

In addition, I see effects on my family outside of the church. 

When Elijah came and turned the hearts of the fathers to the children, my extended family did not know about it. Despite that, there was a cousin of each side of my father's family that was bitten by the genealogy bug. Marguerite collected all of the Harris information, and Maxine collected all of the Stone information. Because my grandmother was interested in it too, even though she was not the researcher she collected it.

That is why years later I could submit names to the temple. I might still have been able to do some things on my own, but they laid a broad and strong foundation for me.

They also inspired other cousins, so at times other information would come from me. It was still not from people in the church, but it still blessed our common ancestors and me.

And because I keep track of that and submit names, I sometimes get contacted by other distant cousins:  Can you release this name so I can do it... ? Do you know anything about.. ? 

And I find I am connected more.