January 19 - 26 - Sunday to Saturday

For those of you who missed the Lunar eclipse on Sunday night the 19th (due to cloud cover it was not visible in Salt Lake and Phoenix) here is a view from Sedona, AZ

Sunday Jan 19

We attended Music and the Spoken Word as per our normal routine.   Today the Bells at Temple Square joined the choir and orchestra.  We try to get to the tabernacle by just after 8:30am and then get to hear the broadcast twice.  During the rehearsal we can take pictures as long as we don't use a flash.  So the picture below was taken before the actual broadcast which starts at 9:30am.  The length of the broadcast is supposed to be close to 28 minutes.  Their goal is 27 minutes and 56 seconds.  I time them most Sundays and they are normally within a few seconds.

Notice the interesting light reflection on the organ pipes

We attended our branch meeting at 1pm.  Sister Tolman had arranged for us to feed dinner to six young Elders. We had to rearrange our dining room table and this enabled us to seat all eight of us at the table.  Sister Tolman fixed a large batch of taco soup and most of it was gone at the end of the hour.

We had arranged to pick up Sister Tolman’s parents and take them to the Church History Museum on Monday morning but based on the forecast for snow they agreed that we would not try to visit if it snowed.

Monday Jan 20

It started snowing at 6am and continued for most of the morning.  We received about four inches of wet snow.

Not the snow in Salt Lake City but in Sedona looking at Cathedral Rock

We postponed our visit to the Church History Museum until the first week of February.  The exhibit with President Eyring’s water colors has been extended for several weeks.

Elder Tolman went to the Branch Presidency meeting and Sister Tolman went to the Church History Museum and picked up the brochure to share with her parents.  We had to be careful walking due to the snow especially around the crosswalks as the water was puddling there.

We attended the Hail and Farewell in the evening where we recognize newly arrived missionaries and those who are returning home.  Sister Tolman fixed her tasty wonton salad.  One of the missionary sisters made sure that she brought this salad and wanted to know which table it was on so she could have some.  It was all gone at the end of the night.

Tuesday Jan 21

We attended the Mission Devotional at 7:30am.  We were happy to learn that President and Sister Fenn are going to be staying one more year and not leave the end of June so they will be our mission leaders for our entire mission.  Many of us were wondering what was going on as the recent Church News announcing new mission presidents did not include our mission.   The Fenn’s were asked to extend to the full three years as they were at first only scheduled to serve for two years. 

I helped Sister Mary Anne Clarke.  She and her husband came into the library looking for Sister Howell who was not here today.  I helped her find out more about several ancestors.  We looked at one woman on her temple list and she wanted to find her death date.  We used ancestry.com and found when she died.  We also looked at a census record with her parents and started to add then to the tree.  They were already there so we resolved the duplicate records and when we finished the temple work was already completed for the woman.  It was good we found this before she started completing the work.  She and her husband were recently called as Family History Consultants in their ward, so I shared my family history blog with them.

We attended training for RootsTech 2019 from 1 to 3pm in the JSMB.  There was a lot of material covered but we are starting to learn what will be expected of us.

Wednesday Jan 23

We went to the Jordan River Temple and attended an Endowment session. My leg is feeling much better so I was able to walk up and down the stairs easily.  The temple was not as busy as it has been. We are looking forward to being able to go to the Salt Lake Temple next week. 

I helped Sabrina Cowley.  Someone had made some changes on an ancestor that she didn’t agree with. I explained to her how she could contact the individual who made the changes to find out more about any new information that they have.  I also showed her how to search in specific record collections on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. I explained how Descendancy research worked.  We also found the genealogy that her aunt had submitted.  I shared my family history blog which has come training on descendancy research.  She is volunteering at the Church Office Building (COB) and her husband works there.  She will probably come back to the library as they are staying downtown during the week and returning home on the weekend.

I helped a member Robin who is visiting from Billings, Montana.  She has been here this week and last.  She has done a lot of research for many years.  I helped her with several items including doing some merges and attaching some sources from outside of FamilySearch.  I have helped her off and on over the past two weeks.  She thanked me on Friday night for all of my help.  I like to become acquainted with those who visit the library for a week or two at a time and work at remembering their names.

I helped Cheryl Adams.  She has been doing some research on one of her aunt’s relatives.  I helped her find a lot about the family using ancestry.com as well as FamilySearch. She had found a lot of historical records but hadn’t attached them to the family.  We added several family members using the records she had found and reserved the temple work for a family consisting of father, mother and daughter.  She was so happy to have found this information.  She indicated that it has been a while since she had found family to add to the tree and reserve temple work.

A group of about 10 or 12 young men who belonged to a teacher’s quorum in the valley showed up in masse just before 8pm.  Their leaders wanted to make sure that they all had FamilySearch accounts.  Sister Tolman organized this effort and we were able to either get their accounts setup or re-connect to their existing accounts.  She did a great job making sure that were all successful as they had only about 30 minutes time at the library to get all this done.

Thursday Jan 24

We had some shopping to do as we need some specific color clothes for working at RootsTech.  So we went to Deseret Industries.  I needed a pair of black pants and found a new pair (never been used) for $8.00.  I also found a really nice sports jacket to wear for less formal occasions.  Sister Tolman indicated that I needed a pair of gray pants to go with the sports jacket as the black pants were not a match.  Sister Tolman found two shirts and two pair of pants to wear at RootsTech plus a couple of other items.  I couldn’t find a good pair of gray dress slacks so we tried J.C. Penney at the Valley Fair Mall where we found a reasonable priced pair of pants in the closeout section.   I looked up the difference between gray and grey and found out that grey is the common spelling in England.

Sports jacket and gray pants

On the way home we completed our shopping by stopping at Lucky and Smiths for food shopping.  Sister Tolman fixed a nice lunch/early dinner of waffles topped with blackberries, blueberries and whipped cream.

We both ended up helping some individuals at the library as we worked there from 6 to 9pm.  I helped Sister Cheryl Adams find some more sources for the family she has been researching.  She is really good at researching and I continue to help her learn how to attach the research results to the individuals on FamilyTree.  We reserved temple work for two more members of the family that we worked on Wednesday night.  We found a possible wife and children for one of the children Paul in the family but she needs to find a document that confirms this information.  I helped her again on Friday night and while attaching a source found that someone had already added Paul and his wife to the tree so we completed that connection.

A couple with two young daughters came into the library about 7pm and didn’t have much time as they wanted to go to the Tabernacle choir practice at 7:30. Sister Tolman helped the two young girls get set up to play some computer games while the father helped.  One of the missionaries helped the wife.  I sat down next to the daughters and asked the father if he had the name of an ancestor.  He gave me his grandfather’s name and within a few minutes we found all kinds of records about this ancestor and his family members.  We found him on the 1940 Census with the grandfather’s parents.  We found information about his great-uncles and great-aunts, an immigration ship manifest for his great-grandfather who arrived in New York in 1909.  He was really amazed to see what we found in such a short time.  I gave him our short handout which explains how he can find information at home.  The couple may be able to come back to the library on Friday.  Here is what our handout looks like that we share will many of the people who visit for the first time.

I heard from Ira Gentry and he hopefully be able to visit us in the library on Wednesday night next week.

Friday Jan 25

We completed our weekly cleaning, laundry and garbage detail.  Sister Tolman cut my hair which she does about once every six weeks.  The weather is a little warmer today and much of the snow from Monday is melted.

Before going to the library Sister Tolman mentioned that we had not gone out to eat for a meal this week.  We normally have lunch somewhere on Thursday.  I decided that I could take care of that problem and suggested that we go to the City Creek Mall Food Court for dinner during our 5pm dinner break.  We both enjoyed a chicken sandwich meal at Chick-fil-A.

I helped an older man Joel Bauman from San Francisco who was here with his son who lives in Salt Lake City.  He wanted to find out more about his grandfather Louis Bauman who was born in the United States but emigrated to Germany where his family was from.  We found the immigration record for Joel’s great-grandfather Philip Beer who changed his name to Bauman when he came to the United States from Germany in 1853.  We found the ship manifest that listed his name.  Joel’s son already had an account on FamilySearch and had already added some of Joel’s family to Family Tree.  We set up an account for Joel and added the ship manifest as a source for his great-grandfather.  Joel indicated that he had some records at home such as his grandfather’s marriage certificate listing his marriage in Germany in 1899.  I suggested that he scan that document and get it added to FamilyTree.  When I first talked to Joel and his son, I thought it might be better to take them to the international floor and then I felt that I should help them.  I am glad that I followed the prompting to help them as we found a lot of information about their family.

Saturday Jan 26

This week I have been working on straightening out and adding to the family of Charles Rosby Martin LYVP-JL2 and Maggie Eugenia Fletcher.  They are distant cousins.  You can see them on the tree with this link. There were duplicates records on the tree of this couple and eight of their 10 children (possibly 11).  I found a lot of records for them and connected most of their children to spouses for a total of 37 individuals including the parents.   This has been satisfying to be able to get this family finally sorted out.  I was sad as I recorded the death and burial of one grandson Jesse N Loren who was killed in action in WWII in Europe.

Just before our dinner break one of the young Elders asked if I could help him with some translation and when I went over to his computer, he had a copy of one of the missionary magazines published by the missionaries in Tahiti from 1907 to 1961,  It was fun to read and interpret what was written.

I helped a woman who is about Sister Tolman’s age.  She is an independent flight attendant meaning that she works on private aircraft.  I helped her several times this afternoon and for the last while she was in the library, I helped her attach sources and add more people to her tree.  We talked about adding some pictures and some certificates that she has at home so I was able to help her decide that she wanted to install the FamilyTree mobile apps.  She is not very good with her phone, so I helped her get both apps installed.  She was very grateful for the help.  She plans to attend the choir broadcast Sunday morning.

Robin from Montana left the library today and she thanked us for all the help we have been to her.  She is an experienced genealogist so I was able to help her with some technical things over the past two weeks.  She gave me a hug before she left (it was alright since she is at least 10 years older than me).  It is always enjoyable to help the out of town visitors who spend a week or two in the library.

Groundbreaking for the Thailand Temple
The groundbreaking for the Thailand Temple happened earlier today in Bangkok.  David and Shell
were there.  Here is the link from the church newsroom site.  I wasn't able to see them in any of the pictures.
https://www.mormonnewsroom.hk/eng/article/church-leaders-break-ground-for-temple-in-bangkok

Artist rendering of the Bangkok Thailand Temple

David and Shelly Senior in the third row on the right side