A
GENEALOGY LETTER
4 August 2015
What if you received a letter
like this----------
Dear Wally,
You do not know me personally
but you and I are related. I live in a peculiar place. The picture of my humble
abode is shown above. It is a granite mountain some 20 or 30 miles south of
Salt Lake City, Utah. We are a fairly large family. Actually there are about
seven million families, which make up more than a billion of us. I have been
waiting since 1776 for someone like you to find me. I have only lived in my
present location a short while comparably speaking. If you were to find me and
add me to your Data Base a lot of great things could happen to my family and I.
It is not really a difficult thing for you to do, because I am trying to help
you find me. It is just something I cannot do myself. It is just a matter of
gathering up my vital statistics and putting them in your Data Base or giving
the info to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Many times you
have started working on what you call “my line” but something always seems to
get in the way. I have learned that “Families are Forever” while I have been
studying here, while I wait for someone like you to find me. All I need is a
little help from you. Of course some people think of a family as just the
people living with us, but you and I know that family means ALL of our
relatives, all the way back------. Well Wally you know I need your help and I
am ready, so I urge you to do this as soon as possible. I am sure that you are
aware that there are hundreds, or even thousands of people on mine & your
family line waiting here for you to find them.
I sincerely Thank You for
your help!
William John Baldwin
Born 12 Dec 1722
Died 17 Jun 1776
(this is not a real person)
If you got a letter like this
would it motivate you? I would hope we could all imagine one of our relatives
sending us a letter from the Little Cottonwood Storage Vaults. I would hope a
letter like this would motivate all of us to do something about connecting with
our Ancestors. I am almost positive that none of us are finished with the task
of finding the lost ones.
Our immediate family has a
little joke about me and my Quest. Comments such as, “well Grandpa did you find
any dead ones today?" Or they ask where I
am and someone answers, “He is in his computer room looking for dead people."
Genealogy or Family History
does not have to be all seriousness and hard work. There are light times and
things that really make you laugh. Here are a few comments out of letters, or
things people have said to me over the years as they ask for help with
genealogy---------..
We do not know what to do with them, so we are sending you these five children..
In this family the Father and five Daughters were never born..
I guess I got so excited over finding my Great Grandmother that I have now lost her. Will you send a copy of her to me?
For the running
down of the four Hamilton’s I will charge $10.00 more.
Further research
will be necessary for us to eliminate one of your parents.
Enclosed please
find my Grandmother. I have worked on her for 50 years without any good
results. Please see what you can do.
results. Please see what you can do.
And now I send
you my husband. He died a year ago so now he can be worked on in your
Temple
Contrary to popular opinion, Genealogy or Family History as it is now being called in most circles is not boring. Yes it is time consuming and repetitive but definitely not boring.
I have been working on this
project now for 50 or 60 years (off and on) and as I was thinking tonight---
what do I and my family know about our ancestors? Were they involved in early
U.S. History? Were they immigrants? Have they been in the many Wars in the last
several decades? Were they first generation Latter Day Saints, French
Huguenots, Greeks looking for a better life, Starving Irishmen or, Handcart
Pioneers to Utah. Were they Gray or Blue in the Civil War?
Well as the old saying
goes—“TRY IT YOU MIGHT LIKE IT!”
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