I was curious to see how many believe they were born of parents, through grand parents and great grand parents and so on through polygamists? Not me.

If you are and know it, how does it make you feel and what is that like knowing that, now that you're an exmo?

Do you believe it wouldn't make any difference if you were or not? I don't think so personally, because everyone has their own individual paths.

I just think it would be interesting to hear how many of you wouldn't be who you are today without the aid of polygamist relationships from long ago.

I am.

And knowing that.. helped me leave Mormonism.

K



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 11:05PM by AnonyMs.

Good old great grandpa married 2 sisters, and I come through number 2. Without polygamy, I wouldn't be the man I am today, well at least 1/16th of me.

because you're the result of a particular sperm and egg coming together.

I am.

My maternal grandmother just turned 100 last week. She remembers polygamist family members from her family as well as my grandfather's family. So, I've got polygamy down both those lines on my mom's side.

I believe there's polygamy on my paternal grandmother's line, but don't know for sure.

my guess is the only thing you can thank them for is bringing other ancestors into this world passing down life all the way to you. knowing that couldn't be all that bad, and it's a wonderful thing to know we as individuals can break that cycle and start again with our own lives which ever way you choose to go and values you pass down to your own kids if you have them or plan on having some.

My ancestors were polygs, but it's not big deal.

One of the early prophets, as a matter of fact.

Still occasionally get family newsletters and stuff reveling in our heritage, (which is contrary to all the mo's who try to distance themselves from it.)

I've been to great great grandpa's grave, with all his wives buried around him.

Already too much IRL.

I have a Polygamy Porter t-shirt I wear on special occasions. Lol... "Why have just one?"

It's not a subject I overtly share with nomo's very often, lest people consider me a product of incest or something....

But, in my line it stopped long ago, so it's not like I want to head off to Colorado City or anything. IOW... no real effect except for comic value like now.

did you mentioned Porter Rockwell? was he one of your ancestors? I've heard really bad things about him and good things about his character. never really studied him much, but interesting fellow. He kinda reminds me of Black Beard of his time.

I think my wife has. she has the Smith side on her family tree genes on her grandpas side. she wasn't born as a smith though. plenty of Mormons on her side of the family. Mine mostly started out as catholic, methodist, christian. I know there are plenty of Smiths out there, her Grandpa only heard rumors he was a part of the Smith clan, not positive though. There's a 50/50 chance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 11:37PM by experienceheals.

From a family line that despised polygamy. Husband and Wife had many children die, two daughters lived. Husband and wife divorced, then joined the church. Ex wife came first. A polygamist married one of the daughters (15 at the time). Then he married the ex-wife. The other daughter was 9. When she was 16 he married her too. Neither of those daughters had children that lived into adulthood. That line died.

I'm from the ex-husband whose daughters were pulled into that shit with the ex-wife.

When he got to America, his daughters and ex-wife were already in polygamy. Another woman whose husband died in Europe came and got pulled in with an old polygamist. She left him and married my ancestor. Neither of them had any use for polygamy. Their great-grand daughter was my grandmother. She left the church at about 16 years old. She always told me that polygamy was a liscense for lust. My grandpa was non-mormon (great-grandson of a non-LDS Irish immigrant). My grandparents had no use for the church and hated the polygamy history.

If anyone were to say that marriage of old men to teenage girls is an anti-mormon lie it would really piss me off. The marriages are right on the LDS IGI. The fact that the old bastard raised the daughter from 9 years old to be his wife is sick by any standard. There is a lot of info in the endowment house records.

wow! that's crazy! sounds very confusing too! sick as well. Good reason for the swearing!

Since the beginning of life, there are ... I don't know, probably billions of things that had to happen as exactly as they did in order for me to exist. Polygamous marriages are only two of them.

BTW I have at four great-great grandfathers and at least one great-great-great grandfather, maybe two, who were polygamists. There's one I don't know about.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2011 01:20AM by munchybotaz.

(DH comes from fancier stock, and there are 14 polygamous families in his lines. Only 1-2 families passed on it.)

The jerk was my great grandfather, and my grandmother grew up in it. It was hell, and she left home and the church as soon as possible. An ex mo granny was a great role model even though she was not allowed to talk about the church to us.

I'm a product of 3rd polygamous wife of a GGGFather and 2nd polygamous wife of another GGGFather both on my mother's side. They were busy.

I think it's pretty cool.

Not knocking your heritage, but could you elaborate why you think it's cool?

First off, I am against polygamy.

But why is it cool? I dunno, maybe it is because I'm a rebel- the rest of my family thinks it is something to try to hide 'cuz it detracts from the image of the church being a pure and holy thing.

And besides, out here in 'the field' where mormons are sometimes associated with Amish or FLDS, it is kinda fun to tell people that this third wife was the "married" to my ancestor whose sister was a secret wife of Joseph Smith who then got taken by Ezra T. Benson for his seventh wife in Utah, and yes I was a mormon.

If my geneology makes the church look bad, then how can it not be cool? And how many nonmormon friends does one have that can make such a claim?

Yep. both sides. My kids got in on all fours.

Yes sir--straight from the "legal" polygamy of the Mormon Mexican Colonies.

A great grand parent on one side had 2 wives, an other had 3.

My great-grandparents--my mother's father's dad was a polygamist. He married my great-grandmother and her sister (2nd and 3rd wives) in 1908--after the manifesto. He died in the 1940s. None of them were excommunicated. My mother knew her polygamist grandparents and very much admired her grandmother for what she went through.

When I asked my dad, he told me his family was too smart to do something like that.

LOL! It's nice to come from a family who uses common sense, isn't it? I appreciate my mothers side being spiritually in tune and my Fathers wisdom he passed down.

I used to think this was so cool because I was a convert. Having children who were descended from pioneer polygamous ancestry somehow made *ME* more Mormon!

Now I just think it's disgusting.

;o)

I wouldn't exist if the church actually lived up what it said and stopped polygamy in 1890.

There was polygamy on both sides of my family tree. At least one ancestor did prison time for having too many wives. My brother has a picture in his office of that ancestor in the prison yard - I should get a copy.

I've learned to laugh about it. When I tell people about my Mo background I say that my goal is to overcome my genetic make-up, and do better than my ancestors, which is admittedly a very low bar.

He's Muslim.. his Grandfather's first wife was "barren" so after 10 years of trying he married her cousin and they had six kids. Wife number one was always in the picture and my husband has very fond memories of both women.

My mother proudly tells us that we're from Wife #8 of Christopher Layton...never mind that our ancestors were also pilgrams and signers of the Declaration of Independence. The pioneer ancestors are the only ones she bothers to research.

son of a second wife

In the church I was proud about it, but now I have to leave the room or think happy thoughts when grandma wants to share with everyone the great new faith-promoting fact she just learned about GGGgrampa John Taylor...

The biggest impact it's had on my life was my commitment to marry a never-mo and bring a little depth back to the gene pool.

What I always wonder is how many of us are related. I imagine quite a few.

On most sides. In fact, all sides of the family except one.

Once someone is born they are deserving of respect and human decency regardless of their parentage. Of course I realize that this isn't part of the discussion but just a side issue. Hopefully, no one would hold it against anyone if their parents weren't legally married or whatever because only in flim-flam mormon theology can a child choose the circumstances of their birth.

I understand you being gun shy about it. bottom line, respect goes both ways regardless. If people want it, they have got to be willing to give it.

My parents joined the church when I was 9, but my dad's side of the family were originally Mormons that settled in Nevada. When my parents did their genealogy, we learned that my dad's side were polygamist pioneers. I need to figure out more about this guy.

My great grandfather had three wives who were biological sisters. Sounds inbred, doesn't it? It's a poor legacy, because the combination of thirty-five children(!) with poverty was not good. The family is scattered far and wide. I think it was very damaging to the bloodline.

No, that is not inbreeding, just a lot of genetically very similar kids. The sisters did not have kids together.

At least according to the LDS database. Which doesn't have my grandmother's birthday listed correctly. Can I even trust this? I'm guessing it's another whole $hit ton of B$.

of the generational, cultural, religious, familial tribe element of Mormonism and why, in my opinion, it will continue for more and more generations.