Sweet February Days

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Dearest Family,

This has been a wonderful week to have our afternoons for personal research. I'm doing cleanup on my lines which is challenging but necessary. The new programs are wonderful but they have their problems too. What a privilege to be on the cutting edge with the latest tools for genealogical research. I've also been overwhelmed with appreciation for those who carefully extracted records where the original records are found on old DOS programs with cross references to films we have in the Family History Library. I've used both orginal Danish and Scottish records this week to document and correct records which have been incorrectly transcribed then copied numerous times through the years.

I had a different student every morning for three hours. It is amazing how the Spirit guides. "Sudden subtle strokes of revelation" come that give us ideas of which programs to search and wonderful things happen. I know that we don't work alone. As we found information for an African-American sister from Alabama, her comment several times was: "I told you they wanted to be found" as the information just popped up on the computer screen! It was amazing to work with records from Netherlands and again to just see the information come up on the screen. At first it was in English so I knew where to look for the information but later the records came up in Dutch and I could still read them. We have incredible spiritual experiences on a daily basis. We are only there to help others and what a privilege it is.

I accompanied Naomi Jergensen singing a difficult arrangment of "Oh My Father" for zone prayer meeting on Wednesday. It was a challenge but a sweet experience for me. She is an incredible musician. I can't believe that she will turn 80 next month and her voice is still clear and beautiful.

John continues to work very diligently on the Rogers and Hinchliffe lines. Friday, we did the work for John Rogers, John's 4th great-grandfather, and his wife Sarah Carter in the Jordan River Temple. This is work that John has personally researched. We did the intiatory work then went on an endowment session directly afterward. I haven't had such powerful spiritual experience in the intiatory ordianances in many, many years! We were the witness couple on the session and John and Sarah joyfully accepted the work. It was a marvelous experience and particularly tender for John to do the work for his namesake direct ancestor.

John has a real problem as he has worked on the Hinchliffe family. Our records listed a Mary Tinner as his John Hinchliff'e wife but there are no Tinners in the Pudsey area for decades in either direction. John was able to find a marriage for Mary Ann Reyner (various spellings) and John Hinchcliffe which corresponds exactly to the time and place as well as several children which are documented through four censuses. They lived in various places in an 12 mile area of Pudsey,Yorkshire but John Hinchcliffe always worked as a weaver. He is also working to find John's parents. He has found a good candidate--Samuel Hinchliffe and his wife Hannah. He has found them on two censuses and has documentation for every one of the children's baptisms. Samuel was a clothier. This seems like overwhelming proof but there are problems getting them into newFamilySearch and John isn't absolutely certain that this is the right family because the names are so common in that area. It is a real struggle!

Thursday night it was late and John was still working on genealogy on his computer. I was trying to work on mine but my computer would kick me out of my programs with almost every other click. I decided to watch the Olympics and thoroughly enjoyed watching the women's ice skating finals. It was uplifting to see all six break their previous records and to hear the uplifting commentary about each one. I was pleased that the one from Canada who suddenly lost her mother just four days ago won the bronze because the games were in Canada. It brought back delightful memories of the Olympics here in Salt Lake City.

Saturday John and I went down to Provo and went to the Provo Temple with Julie and Jason. What a precious day that was. I have many special memories of Grandma and Grandpa Rasband working in that temple. The last time we were there was when Melody received her endowments. Jason's father got tickets for their family to attend the big BYU basketball game in the afternoon against the New Mexico Lobos which sadly BYU lost 81 to 83.

Today Dayana Bynoe is singing "Yo tengo fe" (I Walk By Faith) in Sacrament Meeting. This song was her favorite in her YW days. She has a beautiful voice. She is from Central America and her family was baptized when she was young so she has been raised with all the church programs. She is in her early twenties and recently married in the temple. She is counselor in the RS and recently was responsible for a ward dinner when the other members of the presidency were gone. What an example of faith and the rising generation. The song "I Walk by Faith" is special to me for all the times that I have performed it with my daughters, family, and other loved ones. What a tender walk down memory lane to see the blessings the Lord gives us so freely.

We are so incredibly blessed with righteous children who strive to keep the commandments. We love the spirit in your homes and the way that each of you are striving to live the gospel. We are grateful for your faithfulness. Thank you for making our days happy and our memories sweet.

With much love and gratitude, Mom and Dad Rogers