My student this week had carefully researched an ancestor who was taken from New York City to Illinois on an Orphan Train. She had obtained documents regarding the girl’s family and we organized and prepared the family to receive their temple ordinances. It was fascinating to see NYC death certificates, Jewish orphanage records, census records and learn about the tragic events. The mother, a Russian-Jew who immigrated to the USA five years before, lost a two-year-old little girl to cholera and then a year later died leaving her four children in an asylum as orphanages were called at the time. Because of severe overcrowding, the two older girls, barely into their teens, were sent on a train to the “West” to be given to families there so they might be used for household help or farm labor.
As my student worked in new.FamilySearch, she noticed that she was listed as a contributor on other records with her name followed by several digits. She clicked on the link and indicated that she was that person and thereby claimed her legacy so that she could go through and make any corrections or additions to other records she had previously submitted. The following day when she looked at her list of temple ordinances which she desired to do she was very surprised to see more additional names there. She checked at home and discovered that she still had cards with temple work on them that she had completely forgotten. When they moved to Utah from another state, she hadn’t even thought about them. She and her family will do the work quickly now.
John had a related experience a couple of weeks ago. He has been doing lots of work on the Rogers lines in England. He reconciles the census and parish records of Kent to make sure all the children are connected to the correct families. Some of the temple work has been completed, some work has been reserved, and some is ready to be completed. He has been watching some of the people for a long time who have their work reserved to be done by other people and no work has been done. He sent emails to two people asking if they were planning to do the temple work for certain people since they had them reserved. One person quickly responded that the work had been forgotten and it would be appreciated if John would please do the work. The names were released and John reserved it so the work is now in process. There was never any response to the other email because the address is dead. When John asked about other ways of contacting the person or having it released to him, the answer was that current church policy is that if it is reserved by someone, the church can’t “un-release” it. This work may remain undone until the Millenium or policies change. If there is a possibility that you reserved work with Temple Ready or new.FamilySearch, check to see. You may be surprised. If you can’t do it, release it so that it can be done.
Kristilyn with Thing 1 (Lillian) and Thing 2 (Amelia). We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday, of course. That is a holiday for every child who goes to school!
Ready for bed--Lillian in front and Amelia trying out her fingers instead of a pacifier. They are seven months old and sit up well. They both like to stand with support and Lillian loves to bounce. 
West Jordan Park is a favorite spot to play hide and seek and go on the slides. 
Kira and Talisa stayed overnight on March 23. Kira loves the Fisher-Price toys and both he girls love reading.
Grandpa took the girls to the park on Saturday morning then Keith and Kim had the grandparents over for dinner in the evening to celebrate Kathryn's birthday. It is fun to hear the children talk. The boys are all about construction and trains and building. The girls are about princesses and homes and relationships. They are all a delight. 