Week 74 More travel...

Monday we had Joao Antonio Oliveria Dos Santos and his wife Maria Da Conceicao De Jesus Calado,   a couple of friends from the Archives, over for dinner. (We call them Joe and Marie)  They are from Portugal, and due to the economy in Portugal, they choose to leave their home and find work in London.  He is a professional photographer and she has worked as an insurance adjuster for 20 years.  They are both cleaning at The National Archives and just glad to have work.  They have an 11 year old daughter still in Portugal, she is with family there and has been away from them for about 1 year.  They now are able to have her come to London and be with them.  They left this week to go and get her and will be back the day before we leave to return to America.  It will be exciting to see them return with their daughter.  We had the opportunity to give them a Portuguese Book of Mormon.  We pray that the day will come that they read and pray about what they read. They deserve to have the gospel of Jesus Christ and enjoy the blessing of the restored church.

Joe and Marie

Tuesday through Thursday, we spent the days helping patrons at the London Family History Center, getting ready for our weekend, answering letters, helping with preparations to receive new microfilms and finishing up the evaluation of some additional collections for possible digitizing.

Tuesday evening Annie entertained the Carter family at the swimming pool.  The Carter's will be returning to America in 2 weeks.  Paul went downtown to the Fellows SOG meeting.  He surprised Annie with more research on her Windus line found at the SOG library, when he returned.

Fellows Meeting @ Society of Genealogists
L-R: ?, Frank Hardy, Paul Blake, ?, Ian Waller (LDS), Colin Chapman, Geoff Swinfield

Wednesday evening we drove to Horsham (about 1 1/2 hrs) to see our dear friends, Paul and Helen Baden. They have recently moved from their home in the Staines Ward to Horsham, part of the Crawley Ward.  It was so nice to share the evening with them.  They seem so happy in their new location. It was located in such a beautiful and peaceful area.  We will  miss them very much.  A visit to America and the Smart home is on their agenda someday in the not too far future.

Paul and Helen and their new house.

Thursday evening we started the packing process again.  On Friday we headed North for more Family History teaching in Norfolk County.  We traveled on many tiny winding roads through forests and green farms.  Annie thought she was in Heaven it was so beautiful!

We found another fun B&B just outside of Swaffham for Friday and Saturday night.  While we were there, Paul spent any free time he had helping the owner, Carole Dawsen Gransden trace her genealogy. You'll notice from the picture he also found a new vocation.

Whole New Meaning to Behind Bars!!!

Beachhamwell Ancient Parish Church
Close to B & B

Great Dane B & B

The owners of Great Dane B & B
Carol and son,  Robert

  

Saturday morning we drove into King's Lynn for Family History Discovery Day at the King's Lynn Ward Chapel. Elder Smart and Sister Smart taught classes and helped patrons. Everywhere we attend and help with the family history fairs, we leave with more love for the people of this country.

King;s Lynn Family History Discovery Day

Elder Smart teaching at King's Lynn

Sister Smart teaching at King's Lynn

Mayor of King's Lynn Opens Conference

Sunday morning we drove to Dereham, where we spoke in Sacrament meeting on the topic........you guessed it, Family History and why we do it.  During Sunday School we spoke with the Bishop and his counselor and taught them a little more about the responsibilities of each family history calling.  We stayed after church and Elder Smart worked on their family history computers.  He got one working again, but their second one was such a dinosaur that it would not handle the FamilySearch internet program.

It was Sunday evening before we got home.  We are glad to relax after a very busy week.

We have been so blessed thus far on this mission.  We have had so many different opportunities for growth and opportunities for helping others and for doing our own family history.  We feel the love of our Savior and Heavenly Father.  We have strong testimonies of the Church and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We love you all and look forward to being with you all soon.

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

ps  Have a happy Fourth of July (they don't celebrate it over here  :o; )

Back at Home in London -- Week 73 (Less than 5 to Go)

Well, it’s happened.  We are thinking it is really is getting close to time to come home.  We got a telephone call a few weeks ago asking when we really wanted to leave and what route, airlines, etc.  We had a confirmation this week that we are booked.  Our flight details are as follows:

SERVICE               DATE  FROM           TO             DEPART  ARRIVE

_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______

DELTA AIR LINES       23JUL LONDON         LAS VEGAS NV   1125A   210P

DL 4394           WEDNESDAY GATWICK        MCCARRAN INTER

T ECONOMY                   TERMINAL S     TERMINAL 3

           NON SMOKING      LUNCH                         NON STOP

                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         10:45 DURATION

VS 0043                    FLIGHT OPERATED BY VS VIRGIN ATLANTIC

            AIRCRAFT OWNER: VS  VIRGIN ATLANTIC

                  AIRCRAFT: BOEING 747-400

DELTA AIR LINES       23JUL LAS VEGAS NV   SALT LAKE C UT 445P    703P    

DL 2639           WEDNESDAY MCCARRAN INTER SALT LAKE CITY

T ECONOMY                   TERMINAL 1     TERMINAL 2

           NON SMOKING                                    NON STOP

                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         1:18 DURATION

                  AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320

                            SEATS 14D/14E NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

RESERVATION NUMBER(S)  DL/GMPUVJ

Looks like we’ll be watching the Days of 47 Parade (use to be held on 24 July) from the front seat of our own Draper home.  Whoops!  We probably won’t be watching anything.  Although we have a television, we don’t have any tv hookup – like cable or satellite, etc.  Oh well, we’ll still be home.  We also heard from our bishopric.  They have invited us to speak on 10 August at 11 am. 

We probably haven’t mentioned how much we enjoy our home teaching and visiting teaching.  We are home teaching companions and for visiting teaching Sister Smart’s companion is Katja Goodlet.  Since we also home teach the Goodlet’s we have a few benefits such as enjoying their new baby.  Thought we’d give you an idea of this rather tough(?) duty.

Jonas Goodlet

The rest of the week has been pretty much the same kind of a week.  We mostly did a little cleaning on Monday, and we helped at the Family History Centre during the rest of the week.  On Saturday we had another wonderful opportunity to give a presentation on FamilySearch and indexing.  Both of us gave presentations to a stake group of Relief Society sisters.  We were just a part of the program as another part dealt with getting more out of the scriptures.  Anyway, it was a powerful program and we were both impressed with the abilities of the Stake Relief Society President.

Wandsworth Relief Society Conference

 

Following the meeting we had another opportunity to help put the family history computers, at the same stake building, back into operation.  We were successful, but we almost feel that someone is sabotaging the computers (this is about the third time that we have had to do this).  Guess if Heavenly Father blesses us with the ability to fix them, we should be pleased to use that ability to benefit the saints.

Today was another wonderful Sabbath.  We so enjoy our wonder and the wonderful and humble people that attend.  The Bishop happened to mention how many people were leaving in the next month.  He mentioned us and was very kind and humble in his remarks.  Did we mention that the second counselor was changed in our bishopric today?  The former counselor is one of the moves.  They replaced him with a 75 year old man that was our high priest group leader.  He is a fantastic person and will do a wonderful job.  He is so kind and selfless.

 

As we wrap up this week we want to pay respect to Aaron and Audra who have an anniversary on Monday, 23 June.  It’s actually our anniversary tomorrow, as well – one month until we fly.

Happy Birthday to Simon on Tuesday, 24th.

Simon

In case you think we are getting “trunky”, perhaps we are – at least a little.  However, we love our mission and we love the Lord.  We have so much go do in our remaining time.  Seems like we are getting lots of dinner invites from wonderful members.  We also have appointments every weekend to help at family history events.  Next weekend it is Norfolk, about 120 miles from here.

We hope that each of you feel loved by your Heavenly Father.  We sure do!

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Sister and Elder Smart, Annie and Paul

Believe It!  It Really Did Happen!  Car is Still in Working Order!

Six Big Babies & Mother

New Flowers @ Archives

Week 72 To Scotland!

Monday morning we were off to Scotland.  Absolutely beautiful drive.  On suggestion of our former supervisor and the Johnson's, we took a small detour to visit Bamburgh Castle.  As we drove into it, we were awed at its size and grandeur.  It sits on a hill near the ocean with white beaches below.

Bamburgh Castle from a distance

Outside the Bamburgh Castle
 overlooking the beach

Elder Smart and Castle guns

We entered Scotland on Monday afternoon.  It rained most of the way in.  We arrived at our Holiday Inn and we drove around downtown Edinburgh for a short while.

We were really in Scotland!   

We drove up to Pratt's Peak or Arther's Seat, as it is known by the Scots.  Pratt's Peak is where Orson Pratt climbed and dedicated the land of Scotland for the preaching of the gospel.

Pratt's Peak

We went to dinner with one of Elder Smart's long time friend, Jimmy Thompson.  He is a stalwart for the Church in Edinburgh and a long time genealogist.  After dinner we drove by the LDS church and mission home.  Paul and Jimmy had a lot of old memories to share.  Years ago Paul stayed with the Thompson's for a while during one of his trips to Scotland.

Paul and his friend Jimmy (age 80)

Tuesday we spent the morning walking the streets of Edinburgh.  We walked to the Castle and witnessed the guards and Scottish band.  For Annie's benefit, we window shopped in several of the tourist souvenir shops.

Annie likes the Scottish Men

Scott Monument

"Wanna Be" Guard

Edinburgh Castle

We tried to get into the records office to obtain records of Annie's Ferguson line.  The records are  now controlled by "ScotlandsPeople".  This organization works with the Scottish Archives as a commercial entity. However, they let a few people (supposed beginners) in each day without paying.  We were not one of the lucky ones and so we decided to just pay for Paul to go in and research and obtain the records.  He found many documents on the Ferguson line and Annie did what she does best and did more window shopping.

Wednesday we went to the National Library's Maps Library in Edinburgh and located a "Hillhead Farm". This is the name of the place that Alexander Ferguson, Annie's ancestor, and his family resided on the 1871 census and the address where Alexander lived when he died in 1880.

Elder Smart at Maps Library

We put the address in our SatNav and started for Holytown, Scotland.  We drove to where we thought the farm was. Local people directed us and drove with us to find the actual farm.  We could see it from where we thought it to be, but had to drive around (about 10 minutes around) to actually get to it. A kind Scottish historian was our guide and when we arrived at this place at the end of a small dirt road, we showed him a copy of the certificate that mentioned "Hillhead Farm"  He said that this farm was "Hillhead Farm" but not the one on the certificate.  It was listed in the district of Holytown and this was out of the district.  He sent us to the record office in Airdrie.

We arrived arrived  in Airdrie and were then told we had to go to the record office in Motherwell.  We had 45 minutes  before it closed.  It was a 25 minute drive.  We just hoped the SatNav would get us there with no errors or we would not make it.  We arrived with 15 minutes to find our farm on the map.  Thank goodness that the record keeper had been notified by the previous record office that we were coming.  She had found a "Hillhead  Farm"  on an 1870 map and compared it to the current map to find a high school built on that property.  Elder Smart asked about any cemetery indexes for Holytown.  She produced some and we found the cemetery  that Alexander Ferguson and his son George were buried in. Alexander was in a group ("common") grave and would not have a headstone but George did have one.

We drove to the cemetery and found it on the grounds of an old Parish Church.  We walked through and sure enough found the Head stone of George and his wife and two children and son in law.

Wrangholm Church Graveyard

Headstone for George Ferguson
 and family - died in 1889

We felt like our chase all over Scotland had paid off.  We found the church and graveyard of our ancestors. Then one more finding happened.  We passed a fairly new neighborhood close to the church and one of the streets was called "Hillhead Lane".  We feel quite confident that this is the "Hillhead" we had been looking for all day.  The housing development had been built on the farm.  It was right next to the church that some ancestors attended and were buried there.

We continued on to Chorley England. Arriving quite late, we went straight to bed at the temple accommodation center. The next morning we were on an ancestral track again.  Annie has been trying to find her ancestor, Fanny Rimmer, for quite some time.  We put together a big lead a couple of weeks ago when we visited this area.  We now had put more together and were searching for her records in Lathom.  This is about 15 miles from Chorley and the temple.  We had a meeting with the Ormskirk local history society chairman.  He was a great help and then suggested we go  to Preston for more research.  His assistant was also very helpful. In fact her knowledge of Annie's family was much more than we could have asked for.  We found she was a distant cousin.

Ormskirk Family History Society Cousin - Kate Hurst

Paul & Ormskirk Family History Society President
Bill Huyton

This meant that we needed to stay one more night, and so we did. Friday morning we headed to Preston and researched wills and what parish records that we could.  It helped some, but we are still trying to put a few things together.  Annie thinks she has her family found in  Lathom, but Fanny is not there.  This small parish church did not keep its own records, but periodically added their records to Ormskirk's.  There is a great chance that some of the births and marriages did not get safely recorded. We learned a lot and feel more sure of this family in Lathom being the probable family of Fanny Rimmer.

We really were there!

Lathom Chapel built early 1500s

After spending most of the day in Preston Record Office, we drove home Friday late afternoon, arriving about 7:30 p.m.  It was a very long, fun and fruitful 10 days.

We spent Saturday getting ready for future conferences and getting a hair cut, groceries, etc.  In the evening we went to another concert with Helen Baden and enjoyed the Jazz and the evening.  We shared a table with the Maytham's from the Staines Ward.  At any rate it was a great evening.

Sunday, today, we were back at church in Staines.  As usual, it was wonderful.  We sure love the people in our Ward.

We feel we are so blessed to be here and serve and learn.  Our last month here is booked solid with family history activities.  We love our work.  We love the Lord and feel so very blessed.  This is God's church and we are excited to feel that we are part of "Hastening the work.

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

Elder Smart entering
the Carvery

Our favorite eating place
near Chorely

Eating a "Scot Burger"

Week Number 71 - Writing from Northern England

Yesterday (Saturday) and today, we are in the beautiful north of England.  We've been teaching and enjoying the company of the Bart and Val Johnson family in Billingham.  Bro Johnson is an American from Monticello, Utah and Sister Johnson is a native born English woman. When we say we've been teaching, we mean "us".  Sister Smart taught a class dealing with Family Tree and then spent the day helping individuals with their family history.  Elder Smart taught six classes rotating back and forth between Scottish Research and Irish Research and in a spare moment, helping in the family history centre.  Needless to say, we were very tired at the end of the day.

Johnson's Billingham

Sunday we spent the day at Billingham Ward.  We enjoyed meeting with the members in this area.  Seems like there are always few Americans around.  At least one member of the stake presidency was from Provo and had been here for about 15 years.  His name is Gill and his son reported on his mission to the London South Mission.  We had actually met his son at our mission home in London.

Tonight we speak at a fireside and then we'll spend our last night here in Billingham before heading off to Scotland, Chorley and back to London.

Guess we got a little ahead of ourselves.  We should have started with Monday and Tuesday.  Basically we simply spent the days getting ready for our trip.  It actually started about early on Wednesday.  We started out about 10 in the morning and made it to Northallerton, Yorkshire by about 3 in the afternoon.  We found out that the record office in Northallerton was open until 8:45 so we stayed until we were too tired to stay any longer.  We spend time getting acquainted with how they did things in the office and we began trying to verify information on the Ward family.

Northallerton Record Office

Thursday came and we were still hard at it.  We were at the record office by 9 and spent the day there until they closed at 4:45.  It was a really nice evening so we decided to visit the actual village of where the Wards had come from, Ravensworth.  The drive was about a half hour, but the countryside was "brilliant".  It was so picturesque and so green and so rural.  We drove to the little parish church (which was locked) and again admired an old church.  We almost decided to eat there, but went back to the village of Ravensworth and had another pub dinner. Then we headed back to our base at Northallerton.

Countryside Kirby Hill 

Countryside nr Ravensworth

 

Kirby Hill/Ravensworth Parish Church

Parishioner @ Kirby Hill

Dinner @ Ravensworth

We were going to head out Friday morning to Billingham, but thought that since it was only a half hour away that we would spend some more time at the archive in Northallerton.  We ended up spending nearly the whole day at the archive and still got to Billingham in time to have dinner with the Johnsons and to get over to the ward building and set up things for our presentations on Saturday.

Tonight ends another section of a great trip.  We can only hope that things continue to be as good as this.  The Johnson's are great hosts.  They have a very nice house.  The meals they served were absolutely wonderful.  The whole experience has been great.

Tomorrow (actually today, since it is so early in the morning) were off to Edinburgh.

Just want to bear witness that this is a great mission.  This is the work of the Lord and we love it.  We miss our families and friends more than anyone will ever know, but our mission is "brilliant"!

Love to you all,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Sister and Elder Smart, Annie and Paul

Missionaries with former supervisor, Chris Norton

Week 70 and Oh so Busy!!!

Monday we visited sights of the Stagg family ancestors.  We visited Ramsbury parish church where the wife of David Stagg was christened.  Her parents are buried there according to a cemetery index that we found in the Wiltshire Record Office.   It rained all morning and we got wet and cold looking for graves, but we could not locate the headstones even though we had found the index. 

Ramsbury Parish Chapel and cemetery

Ramsbury Chapel inside

Burbage was next on our tour.  We found the Parish church with much effort.   Usually the Parish church is very easy to locate in a small town. but we had a real challenge finding it. Thanks to Elder Smart"s navigating ability for finding Parish churches , we found it.

Burbage Parish Church

We then set out for Westcott.  This is the part of Burbage that Mary and John Stagg actually lived.  In our research we discovered that Westcott was known by various spellings, but more recently was actually Westcourt.  We followed the signs to Westcourt -- or what there was of it.  It is now just a few fields and a couple of buildings.

Christening and marriage records records reveal that the John and Mary Brown Stagg family first lived at Culley's Farm.  Their first son came a little early at Culley's Farm.

Sign "Culley Farm" at top of road
leading to old farm house 

Old Culley Farm House

When they finally got married they gave their residence as Park Farm, with their next child being born at Tarrent's/Terrance Farm.  For their next child they are back at Park Farm.  We set out to try to find these locations.  With the help of locals, we found Park farm first and found that Culley farm was just a short distance from Park Farm.

Stagg Home is Sign-posted

Old & Remodeled Park Farm House

The roads did not cut through the field to connect these two farms. We had to go around a hill and then up and over the hill to find it.  The people living in the old farm house were very gracious and invited us in and shared history of the house with us.  They pointed out where Terrant's Farm had been, but there is nothing left of it now.   This  is all part the Savernake Forest area.  The christenings for this area took place in Preshute. We found the Preshute old parish church and we once again were able to go inside.

Preshute Parish Chapel outside

Preshute Parish Chapel inside

What fun to walk where ancestors had walked and find their homes and christening places.  After a long and exciting day we drove home to London arriving at about 7:00 p.m.

See if You Can Find -- Culley, Tarrant, and Park Farm

This week we have spent many hours at the LFHC.  The center has 5000 new films that  need to be  labeled and organized.  We worked all week with the patrons in the center to allow one of the missionary couples to work on these films. Friday we stayed for the FHC staff meeting and then joined the other Senior Couples at one of their flats for waffles.  Mmmmm a taste from home!

Waffles!!!!!!!

Saturday we were free and ended up back at the LFHC to work with the mission office senior missionaries and help them with their family history.  They left happy and encouraged.  We located what we think is an ancestor the family they had been searching for, for many years.

helping to research

Today we attended our Staines Ward for the first time in a month.  It was good to see everyone again. Many of the Ward members thought we had already gone home since they had not seen us for some time. We will be gone again next week, since we are heading north for another week long event.  We have a Family History Conference in Billingham on Saturday and then we speak at a fireside on Sunday.  While there we will look into ancestral sights in Yorkshire and hopefully cross over the border for a short visit to Scotland.

We are busy preparing power points and talks and getting genealogy together for this event,  We only vaguely remember when we had free time.  Life is good!

Happy Birthday this week to our twins, Emma and Addy.

Always remember that we have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We love the Lord and we love all of you.

Grandma and Grandpa, "Mum" and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

And the cycle of life starts over again at
The National Archives