I Want to Be a Missionary--part 2

Pass-along cards

But I never stopped trying to serve a mission by befriending and loving those who were not 
active in the Church or non-members. Whenever Ed and I traveled, a brought along a Book of Mormon or two, pass-along cards and Article of Faith cards, but I never used them. I felt more of a failure as a missionary than ever.

As I grew older, I began to consider a family history mission after I retired from work because I loved genealogy. I recall clearly when I was 12 years old and visited my Grandmother Hansen in Monroe, Utah. (As far as I can determine, I was the only grandchild who ever stayed a week or so with her, and I don’t know why I was so blessed.) She taught me to do genealogy and sew!!! An avid genealogist, she had done family work for about 50 years and researched her line and her husband’s line extensively. I caught the genealogy bug from her at that time.

My Grandmother Hansen

I copied many of the family histories she had, and any time I was in Utah, I would try to get more genealogy from my grandmother’s family. After we retired to Utah, my cousin and I went to southern Utah and got two boxes of my grandmother’s genealogy from my father’s cousin, Agnes Holgate. I also attended all the family reunions and gathered more information and family histories. Reluctantly I copied my grandmother’s genealogies and sent them to my sister Ann, because I was working full-time and didn’t have time to do more with them.

When Ed and I retired from work in 2009, I still hoped that we could serve a couple mission, but six months before our

Ed right after his lung transplant

retirement, Ed’s health declined rapidly, and six months after we retired, we moved to Los Angeles for him to get a lung transplant. It took us nine months before we could go back home, but it gave Ed four good years of life. We were able to travel as we’d hoped to do after retirement, but a mission was not in our plans.

When Ed died two-and-half years ago, I considered a mission again, but so many things interfered. It took a year to settle things from his death, and my health continued to be a major problem.

Ed and I had traveled a lot in the four years he was healthy and we set aside a monthly savings account to pay for these trips. After his death, I

Ed and I on one of our vacations

decided to take my grandchildren on a trip somewhere when they graduated from high school, college or finished a mission. I had grandchildren on both coasts of the country and this was a way I could bound with them and continue to travel. I took two grandchildren to Costa Rica where my grandson had recently returned from a mission in 2016; I brought along my standard missionary stuff, but the closest I came to talking to anyone about the church was on a snorkeling excursion when a lady in our boat and I talked about family history, and I gave her my card, with information about family

Snorkeling with my grandkids in Costa Rica

search.

I recall very clearly where I was sitting in one Sacrament Meeting when Stake President Blair Morris issued a challenge for every available individual to serve a mission. He told of a couple serving a mission when the husband died, and President Morris felt inspired to call on a couple in our stake who’d never considered a mission, but who had been praying to serve in some way. They quickly adjusted their schedules and took the place of the couple who had been released.

Me

I received the inspiration as he talked that I MUST serve a mission as a family history missionary, and I should prepare to do so. It had been in the back of my mind since my husband had died to serve a family history mission, but President Morris’ talk confirmed to me that now was the time.

I worked on my serious health problems, and I volunteered to work at the Bountiful Utah Family History Library. I set the deadline to begin missionary service as June 2017. I planned on taking my granddaughter, Kira, whose father and everyone in his family were inactive in the church, on a cruise in May 2017, and I felt like that since the next grandchild to graduate was three years away I could complete a mission in the meantime.

But it wasn’t that easy; in March 2017, I had my gall bladder removed, and had complications; I ended up back in the hospital for two days. No one could figure out why I was having so much trouble with my breathing, and I was on oxygen, first all day, then after a month or so, just at night. I felt worried that I couldn’t serve two full days a week as a missionary in the Salt Lake City Family History Center if I was still having health problems, but I kept praying for reassurance that I should serve as a missionary.

Me & my granddaughter cave tubing in Belize

During my Caribbean cruise with my granddaughter Kira in May of 2017, I continued to pray daily to be a missionary and again brought missionary stuff with me. I tried to talk to people about the Church, but had little success. One night I was again praying for a missionary experience, and expressing my thoughts of failure, when the thought came to me that I was being a missionary to Kira, who along with her family wasn’t active in the Church. I often had the opportunity to share spiritual experiences with Kira that my mother, my grandfather and I had had in our lives. It wasn’t in a “Here is the missionary message I need to give you,” but in a relaxed and casual way as we talked about our family. It just came naturally. I had the reassurance that there are many ways to be a missionary, and this was one good way.

I wish I could say I started my mission in June 2017, but I discovered I had bad cataracts in both eyes, and surgery to repair them was scheduled during June and July. My lung problems seemed to be resolved; I no longer needed to be on oxygen, although they never determined a reason for my problems, and there was no positive assurance that I would not have a relapse. But I knew that it was time to put in my paperwork to serve a mission in September 2017.

I know that there is a time for every season, and this is my season to serve a mission, and I am looking forward to it!  I am excited about going on a mission—even if I am in my mid-70s.

Computers are Miraculous!

I love computers! I think they are the most outstanding invention of our century. But then I am an

Howdy Doody 

early adopter of technology! My father had one of the earlier televisions in the Wasatch Front, back in 1950 when there was only one station---KSL channel 5. I remember watching Howdy Dowdy on it when I was only six years old. Maybe that was why I love technology!

My Trusty Apple II-E

I worked with the first “computer” in 1982 when I took a basic programming class from Enterprise State Jr. College. It was very basic, but I remember making stick people who waved as well as mathematical computations and other things. It was not made for personal computers, mind you, but for main-frame computers, which were the only thing available at the time.

In 1984 we moved to Vicenza, Italy and it was there we purchased the first “personal computer”—an Apple II-E. I loved it even though it didn’t have a hard drive, but had to boot up with large 5 ½ inch floppies, and then run from other floppies. I used it mainly for word processing and kept my journal on it and many other writings, including letters from 1985 on. All my letters to my oldest son, Marlowe while he was on his mission to the Rome, Italy Mission were written on it. And my journal entries from 1985 to 1990.

Computers can also do things you are too cowardly to do. It was on that Apple II-E, I wrote to my father telling him I was pregnant with my fifth child, when I was in my 40s. I called my sisters and my Aunt Ruth (my mother’s sister) to tell them about my newest addition to my family, but I didn’t dare tell my Dad. Why?

My Father who I notified by computer about
about my late-life baby and My Deceased Mother
whose example I followed

My Dad had always thought it was because Mother had her seventh child, my youngest sister Ann, after having breast cancer, which weakened her so she had her second bout of breast cancer when Ann was a baby. Mother died of metastatic cancer when she was 48. I had had breast cancer six years before I became pregnant with my “40s baby,” and I could imagine Dad yelling at me at telling me I was killing myself having a baby at my age if I called him; so I copped out and sent him a letter written on my trusty Apple II-E and he had time to adjust before he wrote me back. And I am still alive to tell the story.

My children used it for games. I recall that my oldest, Marlowe, bought a computer game based on the book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, he’d left his book in storage in Alabama, so when he played the game, he couldn’t remember the answers. So Marlowe did the logical thing--he hacked into the program and discovered the answers, popped back out and put the answer in. (I think that’s called using a “cheat sheet” long before there were “cheat sheets.”)

We brought back the Apple II-E we moved back to the Chicago in 1987 and used it even when we lived in Sacramento, California. But when we moved to Centerville, Utah in 1990, and the Personal Computer was becoming ubiquitous, the Apple II-E wasn’t good enough, I had to have a PC. Luckily I had a step-brother who helped me convert all my Apple files into Windows files so I didn’t lose any of my precious files.

It was then I started using WordPerfect for word processing when I started working soon after we moved here. I loved WordPerfect, and I subscribed to a magazine that helped me learn all the tips and tricks of WordPerfect and later Word--or word processing, another love.

In 1993, I started working for the editorial offices of the Liahona magazine. It was an international magazine published in 40+ languages and I worked as liaison between the editorial and production/design departments. All of the people in our office used MacIntosh (Apple) computers, but I also communicated and converted files from all the translation offices throughout the world and they all used PCs; so I was using both PCs and MacIntoshes!!! I loved them both.

Liahona Magazine where I worked
with both PCs and MACs

I was always trying to learn new technology and I even learned Databases; I created a program to track all correspondence that came into the office, through all the processes, until it was rejected, answered or purchased for publication. Those purchased would then be tracked through the publication process. If anyone had any problems with their computer, I loved to solve their problems.

In 2000, My husband was working for the Davis School District as a School Technology Specialist (teaching teachers how to use technology) when a new opening came for another STS. He and my middle-school son Bryan convinced me I wanted to work for the school district so I’d have the same working schedule (including school vacation) as they did. I applied and got the job.

Working as an STS was fascinating because it was two jobs in one—I was a computer trouble-shooter; if a computer had problems, I had to fix it. Often I was intrigued by the puzzle and loved to figure out what was going on and why. Then I figured out how to solve it. I was much more comfortable with software problems than hardware problems. My husband loved to get into the computer hardware and dissect it. I was trained to do that, but it intimidated me. I much preferred de-coding the software to find the problem.

The second part of my job (and the most important) was teaching the teachers how to use the many types of technology that is now available for them to use!
 

I loved learning how to use everything that was available from projectors in each classroom, to interactive computer games to teach children, and everything in between. I loved learning all the software as well as tablets, phones, laptops, podcasts, electronic storytelling, Photoshop Elements, etc. I could go on forever. All of these items just made teaching fun!!!!!

I have always loved using computers for writing; it simplifies and makes writing faster and easier. Whenever I think of writing with my crippled arthritic hands, I bless my computer. Whenever I remember the ubiquitous, “wonderful” (then) but obsolete typewriters, I want to kiss my computer and my laptop. You can erase and redo and rewrite at the speed of light with computers.

But my favorite thing to do with a computer is something I’ve been

The page in the parish record showing my great-great-great
grandmother's christening in Denmark

doing for over sixty years—genealogy research and family history. To be able to research original parish records in Danish on the internet with a computer is like flying to that country in a second. To look through the original ancient parish records is to see your ancestors’ lives come alive in front of you. No microfilm, or microfiche to tediously scroll through hoping not to get dizzy; because with the computer, the records are indexed.

The same grandmother's grave and headstone in
St. Joseph's Cemetery, Logandale, Clark
County, Nevada in the Great Muddy

You want to know about your great-great-great grandmother Ingeborg Christina Jespersdatter born in Vester-Marie, on the Island of Bornholm, Denmark in 1802, you put her name in the search box, and within minutes you are looking at the record of her birth, baptism, confirmation, vaccination, engagement and marriage in the parish record. It shows when her first husband died and she married again, was baptized into the Mormon Church and immigrated to Utah and died in Nevada. It is truly like going back in time and meeting your ancestors.

My dad used a computer until he died—even if it was just playing Solitaire. I guess I will be playing with technology (but NOT solitaire) until I am too old to use my hands—but by then it will be voice-activated software like “Dragon” software that decodes your voice and translates it into type. But technology makes life fun. At least it will keep my mind active and I can keep up with my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren. 

Everyone Has a Role In Family History

My Grandmother Hansen infected me with “genealogy fever” when I was 12-years-old and was visiting her home in Monroe, Utah for a week. She showed me all the genealogy she had worked on, and showed me how to make my own large genealogy chart, telling me their stories as we worked. She gave me copies of their histories, on mimeographed paper.

When I went home, I kept my histories and my large genealogy chart and my life-long love affair with family history had begun. When my grandmother’s health began to fail, she moved in with my Aunt only a few blocks from our house. I now had two “collaborators” to assist me with my genealogy. I went with them to family reunions where I got more information, met more relatives and learned more about genealogy and family history. My Grandmother Hansen died when I was 15-years-old, but I never recovered from “genealogy fever.”

When we finally retired to Centerville in 1990, I worked full time for 19 years so I didn’t have much time to do anything about my family histories. However I kept collecting information. My cousin and I went to Monroe, Utah to get some histories from my great-aunt Agnes, where I was able to take a photo of a picture one of my ancestors had painted. My cousin and I shared what information we had and I kept going to my Grandmother Hansen’s Millers’ family reunion.

After I finally retired from work, I joined the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP), and I decided to write the biographies of some of my ancestors. I was grateful for all the histories I had collected throughout the years—even the mimeographed pages that were now so old that they were hard to read. I checked with DUP to see which of my ancestors did not have biographies in the DUP archives. I found one—my great- grandfather, Peter Hansen. I combined the information I had collected, being careful to cite where I got the information (I had obtained five biographies, including a short autobiography he’d written). 

Then I went to http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/. You can put in an ancestor’s first and last name, birth and death year and it will pull up which ship and wagon train they came across in if they came between 1847 and 1868. I discovered Peter Hansen, his sister, mother, and stepfather had come to Utah in one of the first groups of Scandinavians 1853. It also had journal accounts of others in the same wagon train so you could read what happened along the way. I was touched when I read the death of Peter Hansen’s stepfather in the journal of another pioneer: “Sunday, July 24. A quarter of a mile’s travel brought us to plenty of water. This morning Hans Andersen Pill passed away.”

 This same ancestor served in the Utah Blackhawk War so I was able to go to the Utah State Archives and get copies of his service in that war—when he enlisted, when he left and where he served. I discovered the letters he wrote in the 1900s trying to get a pension for his service in that war; however he couldn’t prove he was the same person who enlisted as Peter Allen (he was using his second stepfather’s last name) but was released as Peter Hansen (his real name). Even though he received a medal for serving in the war, he couldn’t get the Federal Government to acknowledge he’d served in the war. 

I was touched in researching another ancestor, my Grandmother Hansen’s mother’s father Henry Bucholdt Christensen. Grandmother’s mother had died bearing her 10^th child and her father had married two other times. He had three children with his third wife, but none of Grandmother’s family knew much of his second family and almost nothing about Grandfather Christensen. However my great-aunt Agnes wrote, “I’ve never heard very much about my great-grandfather. .  and wanted to know more about this grandfather . . . [I] called grandfather’s daughter Katherine . . .  and will now proceed to write his history as I understand it.”  It was this history, by Agnes, that was the most complete history of him that I found. I know without it, we wouldn’t have known nearly as much about him.

My saving all those biographies throughout the years--including those old mimeographed ones I got from my grandmother—were the basis for my biographies. I couldn’t have written the biographies without them. 

I turned in my history of Niels Peter Hansen to the DUP last year. I was touched recently when I saw it on Family Search submitted by someone I didn’t know. I was ashamed to think I hadn’t even thought to put it on Family Search. So I put my recently completed Henry Bocholtz Christensen’s biography on Family Search so others could learn about him.

There are many ways you can help in Family History: You can collect biographies and information (like I did for over 60 years); you can actually interview and write the histories (like my great-aunt Agnes), you can share histories; you can help others learn how to research and write histories; you can collaborate with others, whether it is family, DUP and or at reunions. You can encourage children, youth and the younger generation as my grandmother did. Everyone can share what they have in Family Search. Everyone has a role in family history.

Sharing My Love of Genealogy

Grandmother Hansen

When I was 13 years old, I went to Monroe, Utah to spend a couple of weeks in the summer with my paternal grandmother Hansen. As far as I know, I was the only one of her grandchildren to be chosen for such a visit, but I’ve always been so grateful for the opportunity that I had.

I remember getting up early in the morning to pick raspberries from her abundant raspberry patch; we worked in her flower garden with peonies and roses; we walked downtown; she taught me to sew and made me a chartreus green blouse with a Vogue pattern; but most importantly she taught me to love genealogy.

I can remember making me own large genealogy chart and grandmother telling me about each generation and the people. I imagined that the British ancestors were pirates; that the Danish ancestors were Vikings, or maybe they lived in the two castles that our family lived near—Elsinor Castle (Hamlet’s Castle), and Fredericksburg Castle. Years later when my older brother went to Denmark on his mission, he wrote back if our ancestors were ever at the castles, they were the servants—we had no connection to royalty. And, we had no connection to English pirates—our ancestors were hard-working Manchester weavers, dyers, and other peons of the textile manufacturers.

My Grandmother Hansen began my love affair with genealogy. I have always loved history and have been fascinated with the people behind the stories. With genealogy, I get to discover the people behind the names and facts. Each detail that I located in the dry documents fleshed out the stories of these people that I grew to love. When I viewed the marriage ban of Joseph Heaton and Maria Consterdine in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1838, it shows that neither of them could sign their own name—but had an “X” and the comment, “his/her mark.” Yet, records of my Danish ancestor, Hans Peter Hansen Miller, a contemporary of Heaton, read Danish fluently as well as English and was the translator for their ship coming to America. I was confused by this, until while researching Bornholm, Denmark, the small island Miller came from, it said that Bornholm had the best educational system in all of Denmark, and put a great emphasis on educating every student—from 1400 onward. It is from my Miller ancestor that I read about the history of Danish/Swedish wars in a way that I’ll never forget.

My English ancestors all lived in a small area of townships in a six mile radius— Ashton-Under Lyne, Blackley, Chadderton, Newton Heath, Oldham, and the chapels they were baptized, married, and buried in were ), St. Michael’s (Ashton-Under Lyne), St. Peter’s (Blackley),  St. Matthew’s (Chadderton), All Saints (Newton Heath), St. Mary’s (Oldham).  If they weren’t found in those towns (usually one family would stay in that one township) I could be pretty sure they were not my family. 

The small townships near Manchester where my ancestors lived

My sister Ann and I share our love for genealogy, and we’ve worked together to do our work. Years ago I went down to Monroe to get a box full of Grandmother Hansen’s records from a Great Aunt, organized them, and when I was working full time and couldn’t do the work on them, I passed on the papers to Ann, who verified, researched and worked on them for years. Now Ann is working, and I’m working on the genealogy and sharing my discoveries with Ann. She documented all the farms on Bornholm where our ancestors lived, and put other things together. Now I work with Ancestry.com and online records (all the Danish parish records are on line), since I have better access than she does.

 

Bornholm, the tiny island where two separate families of my ancestral lines are from is a unique place. Although it is Danish, it is East of Sweden. It is now a summer resort. During the cold war, when Denmark was a NATO country, no NATO forces could be on Bornholm, because it was too close to Eastern Europe and Poland. Certain rights are given to Bornholm citizens that are not given to other Danish citizens. During the 1700, 1800, 1900s, all Danish males had to be on a draft list, and tracked wherever they lived so they could be conscripted into the army if necessary. This is a treasure for genealogists because they can locate males because of these army rolls, even if the men were not called up for war. However, Bornholm men were exempt from this rule. So if you are researching in Bornholm, you have a handicap. Because it is in the middle of the Baltic and has more visitors from other parts of Europe, it is more cosmopolitan than other parts of Denmark. 

Bornholm Island

Facebook Family History Groups

 One fun way to share pictures and histories is through FACEBOOK  groups. You can make a Family History group (see left side of FACEBOOK), share it with cousins, etc., then post pictures, histories, and encourage them to do the same and you can get lots more stories and pictures from everyone else.

Though my grandmother has been dead for 53 years, the love for genealogy that she sparked in me has only grown through the years! I hope I can share that love with my own children. 

I like to make family histories of my ancestors

I love to collect the family histories of my ancestors and try to make them available to other members of my family also. Where I once loved to imagine their lives, I now am obsessed with accuracy; I want to make sure every fact of their histories is correct! I think I learned this from the seven years I worked for the editorial offices of the Liahona magazine. Every fact was checked and rechecked. Even though the family histories are not to be published, I want them to be just as accurate.