Brigham Young's Summer Home

We went to St. George on Spring Break.  The one thing I most wanted to do was visit Brigham Young's summer home, as I never had.  Kirk and I went one afternoon.  This portrait was hanging in the home.  Toward the end of his life, he stayed in St. George.  He had a lot of problems with his feet (not sure if hips and back were also involved.)  Anyway when he had an addition built onto the main home, he had his bedroom on the second made large enough so that he had an office and a dining table in it.  At times in order to get upstairs to his room, two men would carry him in a chair up the stairs.  There was a balcony outside his room so that he could spend time sitting there.  At times he would visit with people from there.

His bed was a tall four poster.  Most interesting item there to me was an upholstered stool next to it for him to kneel on to pray.

My relation to him --- his 3rd great niece.  Two of his brothers, my 3rd great grandfathers -- Lorenzo Dow Young and Phineas Howe Young.

Xadrian visits Grandma Hunny at work

Xadrian visits Grandma Hunny at work, originally uploaded by hunnygrams.

A Family History Pioneer

As I spend some of my evenings working on indexing records online for FamilySearch, I often think of my mother-in-law, Vera. Other times I am sorting through boxes of photos and family papers, dividing and filing them into categories so they can be more easily accessed. I ran across some information that made me realize that Vera was indeed a forerunner to the online indexing program.

Vera Cook Hunsaker was called on a mission by President Spencer W. Kimball. This mission was "not to be more than three years and to be served in the Family History Department of the Church. Seventeen years later she was released from this mission.

The assignment she was working on was called INDEXING/SPECIAL PROJECTS UNIT.

The following is an excerpt from Evan Evans, supervisor of the unit helping to bring this to pass.

"The volunteers who have worked on the Welsh-will project....produced such an impressive sample of the quality and volume of the work that Volunteers can accomplish, that 40 volumes of Welsh-will abstracts together with a five-way index for each volume, were recognized in 1976 by the Priesthood Genealogy Division....which was later included in a presentation given to the General Authorities.

"...The following year a special new unit was organized in the Genealogical Department consisting of volunteers with one full-time employee....

"The groups of volunteers working on the We;sh-will project were supervised by Sister Vera Hunsaker, whose capabilities, dedication, and countless hours of work were largely instrumental in bringing this to pass.

"This...set a precedent at the department...and was the forerunner of the "explosion" of volunteer work that is beginning and will transpire in the future."

Along with her service in the church, Vera had deep closet shelves filled from floor to ceiling with pedigree charts and family group sheets she had researched in her life.

We love and miss her!

Photo from the Early 50's

Grandpa Willard Day, in his dapper hat, Cousin Karen Gibson, me, cousin Kathy Gibson, and brother Byron. At Grandpa's house on Denver Street.

Trek ready

Trek ready, originally uploaded by hunnygrams.

Three of my grandchildren are on a pioneer trek for four days. Natasha, age 17 and Austin, age 15 are in Wyoming at the Martin-Willey memorial. Alec, age 15, is in the mountains somewhere above Heber City. All will learn a little bit of what almost all their ancestors experienced as they came from England or the Eastern United States to settle the Land of Deseret. I hope to have some photos to add from all three. .

Hair wreath

I bet it smells great., originally uploaded by lampwik.