Every day, for the next nine weeks, I will be posting a picture of something that makes me happy. Along with these photos I will include a thought about happiness to share with anyone who is interested.
Here is my first photo:
See that leaf? Know what it means? It's from the Ancestry.com website. It's telling me that there may be more documents and files pertaining to some of my ancestors.
My mom was very much into family history. I remember as a small child going to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with my mom as she did genealogy. I mostly wanted to go so that i could soon around in the big computer chairs. As genealogy became available for use in the home, my mom would commandeer the computer every Sunday to do family history work. She would tell stories about my ancestors that she'd found, and I remember the feeling of curiosity about those people who have gone on before me.
After my mom passed away, no one in my family really did a lot of genealogy, or family history work. Every once in a while someone would find something, but that was the extent of it.
In my final semester at Snow College, I decided to take the Institute's Family History class. For for months I would spend an hour, two days a week, at the Family History Center in Ephraim. During that time I would search out names and dates for my ancestors.
I learned that one of my ancestors lost his first son while living in England. After the death of their child, he and his wife moved to the United States. I felt a small twinge in my heart, wondering if these parents were ever able to go back to England and visit their son's grave. That twinge grew into a desire to locate exactly where he was buried, with the hope that one day I could go to his grave myself and pay my respects.
After reading my ancestor's personal history, I tried to search for the cemetery where his son was is buried. When my own searching did not provide any results, I reached out to some clergymen in England that I thought might be able to help me. They were able to forward my information to a gentleman who worked with the archives for the area, and, I'm happy to say, I was able to get the information I needed.
Ever since then, my interest in the stories and histories of my ancestors has grown. When I signed up for Ancestry.com, I had no idea the excitement I would feel as I found more and more information about my ancestors and their families.
So, there's my happy moment for today. We'll see what tomorrow has in store!
P.S. I encourage all who are interested to participate and create their own #becauseimhappy campaigns. Feel free to post how it's going. I'd be happy to hear about it!
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