Single What? Female...

My Favorite Mormon

4/16
Ahhhh...Salt Lake City. I arrived two hours late into town but my hostess, Pat (a childhood friend of my mother-in-law) was up when Wes, the ever personable Haitian/Mormon cab driver pulled up in her driveway. I was sent straight away to bed and within minutes I was out cold.

Speaking of gracious people, my friend Doug (surely you know Doug Shapiro!), made a last minute call to a friend of his with whom he worked many moons ago, in order to procure me an interview. As genealogy and heritage are so important in the Mormon faith, I felt I had to interview a Mormon, and what better place than Salt Lake City!

And I could not have had a better Mormon with whom to speak than John. He is thoughtful and witty and explained how heritage is important so that they know who they are through their families and their history, therefore, through sharing and joining this information and history they are more like one big family. Like with folks on the east coast who like to claim Mayflower roots, Mormons like to be able to claim pioneer roots, but, of course, it's hard for all to claim as such as not all are descended from such beginnings. John has never been asked "What are you?" (more likely he's been asked "What ward are you?"), but if someone did, he could tell you his and his wife's history for some generations back and be proud of it.

Of course, with all this talk of genealogy, and being so close to the Family History Library, how could I not stroll on over there and do some searching myself?

An Elder talked me through the process and then various other Elders (all SO helpful...there is no denying just how nice they all are) helped me get to the International microfilm and I started looking through a very long reel of records from 1860's Grenada. Thanks to a new cousin in New Jersey, I have seen a family tree of my paternal grandmother's side, and found a few records on the Neckles side of the family in the microfilm, but as for the de Suze side, these folks are hard to find. I spent about two hours looking through a reel of tiny, tight script and not one de Suze to be found. My husband says that on his Dad's side, he is descended from a group of Irish horse thieves who changed their name, so Bratcher isn't even really the family name...I had a moment where I wondered the same about the de Suze's but I do know, thanks to another potential cousin, the names of my great-grandparents, and that they are indeed named de Suze, so, I figure they got to be in the record somewhere. If I'd had more time, I may have actually found them. As I sat in front of my microfilm machine, surrounded by others with papers, notes, pencils and hopes of doing the same thing, I can understand the addiction of the search and after even seeing the name of a Neckles relative, understand the elation of finding someone; some connection. While I had to leave without seeing my name amidst the squished yet elegantly written handwritten records, I did, at least, leave with a better idea of how to search and may eventually find that history yet :)

Fun facts about Salt Lake City:
*Like the majority of streets in Boston lead to the Boston Common, the streets in SLC lead out from the Temple.

*There is a very wide street designed by Brigham Young. It was made so wide so that a wagon with a team of oxen could turn with ease.

*Utah is named after the Ute tribe.

*The mountains are EVERYWHERE! It really is just amazing to turn out of a driveway and there before you, purple mountains majesty for sure. And they are the mountains where the SLC Olympics were held as well as the Sundance Film Festival over in Park City.

All right, time to finish this and get going to Winnemucca!

P.S. Pat and her husband Clete's son is name Brian. Brian is on his second tour in Iraq. He has 89 days to go. Please send your prayers, thoughts, get-home-safe vibes, etc to Brian and his family.

posted by funkweee @ 9:54 AM