On my father's side, I inherited a charming some-what reprobate grandfather, who had two women friends while still married to my father's mother. He was a character, and told large tales.

We called him "Pop". Pop encouraged we children to call his current mate (at that time), "Anna-Banana" (who was, after all, a very kind woman to we children).

We lived a half block from the L.A. river (which is a funny thing to call it, as it usually had but a stream of water passing by). On the other side of this river, ran railroad tracts. Pop assured us the "toots" we heard were from ships passing by.

We would beg him to take us to the beach, but his standard reply was that the beach was closed that day, for cleaning.

Anyway, you get the picture.

What about your family?

Next time, I'll give you a short rundown reg. my great-grandfather, who was a polygamists. He had the most wives and children of any other man in the church, save it be Brigham Young. He couldn't read or write, but this was not a problem for him, as his last wife (and youngest, and a red-head) did these chores for him.

Now-a-days, genealogists are warned not to look up his "line" on computers, as the computers can't handle it, and close down.

Any one in your family that you care to "brag" about?

My mother was raised strict Roman Catholic by a strict Catholic father. Who was raised Amish. How does this happen?

Great-great-grandpa was a polygamist, and I'm from the wifey #2 line. This ggg came from England (his father had gone there from France) as a mormon convert, losing his mother, father, and two siblings on the way (to disease). Did the handcart crossing thing, settled in Parowan, and was best buds with the MMM principals, even naming his oldest son "William Dame". He set off with a couple of other families to found Panguitch. Although I can't document it, I'm fairly certain he had a role in the MMM.

I also have an uncle who was the official church spokesman for a number of years, lying his ass off for Hinckley and other "servants of the Lard."

Hardscrabble, polygamy, more hardscrabble.

What did your now infamous dad do, professionally?

Family sailing from NYC to SF on the LDS chartered ship "The Brooklyn". Then they went logging or farming in CA and UT. No polygamy at least none was mentioned in the family history book "A History of The Burr Pioneers". There are some good people and then there are rat bastards like my paternal grandfather who was a lazy horn dog and left grandma to chase after a first cousin in Idaho Falls.

One of my dad's brothers married a first cousin in SE Idaho. They had two boys and a daughter. The daughter is elderly and infirm these days. She has shared how horrible the children were to her in the pioneer town she grew up in because of that fact. As soon as she was able to, she moved far away.

My dad's bro and his wife were happily wed for over 50 years before she passed on. He was the next to go. They weren't active LDS for most or all of their married life. His parents (my grandparents,) were pretty devout. They served a mission together in their golden years @ Blackfoot, Idaho. Family lore tells of grandpa going off on drinking binges with his boys during years they tended and sheared sheep. He was a cook for cattle herders during part of his life. He was a very good cook!

My dad had nothing good to say about his own father but doted on his mom. When grandpa died in Payson, Utah, dad didn't attend the funeral and a far as I know, never visited the grave on trips to Utah. My dad was the antithesis of his father. Loyal, loving and honest to a fault.

My gggrandmother left England with her parents (who were newly converted) when she was 5 years old. They went by ship and while they were out to sea, her parents got sick and died. They were buried at sea on the way to America. Relatives met her at New York, they then went to Ohio where they were from, and then went with the handcart companies to Utah. Pretty rough life for a little 5 year old,thanks to the belief of her family in TSCC.

The father of one of my great-great grandmothers was English nobility who came to the states to remarry after his first wife passed away. Existing church records make it easy-peasy to do that branch of the family clear back to the 4th Century. The most interesting name in that line was Archibald "Bell-the-Cat" Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus.

At least three ggggrandpas (& grandmas respectively,) I know of were with Joseph and company from before Nauvoo, and after reaching Utah. Two of those were bodyguards to Joe. 2-3 sons of one of them were bodyguards to Brigham, later on.

2 out of 3 of them were polygamists. Had pretty hard lives where Brigham would send them. One on a mission to Canada once or twice. He was bishop in SLC for a stint before moving up to help colonize a settlement in Idaho, where he lived out his days. He'd been a brickmaker & blacksmith. One of his bricks is in a museum either in Nauvoo, or SLC.

One gggrandpa migrated from Wales, 1860's. He was Ogden, Utah's first tailor, sent there by Brigham because Salt Lake City already had its quota. He had at his prime 20 employees working for him, and his fine men's clothing was in demand up and down the whole corridor between Idaho, Utah, WY, MT, and NV. He wasn't a polygamist, but both of his wives were daughters of polygamists. His first wife, and my gggrandmother, died following childbirth with their ninth child. His next wife had 11 more. Her sister was a polygamous wife to one of my ggggrandfathers.

Two out of three of those third generation great grandpas fathers served in the Revolutionary War, that I know of. At least one of their wives fathers did. That was interesting to find out. I believe they were Anglicans or Protestants prior to becoming Mormons.

My dad's family came from Mormon pioneer stock. Some were among the earliest settlers and farmers throughout Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2017 12:02PM by Amyjo.

My great great great grandfather was murdered by Bill Hickman at the direction of Brigham Young. So said Hickman in his "confession". Gggggrandpa joined tssc in 1838 in NY and was with the saints in Nauvoo, well they were too poor to live in Nauvoo proper, they lived across the river in Iowa.

Grandma and Grandpa were proud of the polygamous roots, but did not live it because the church had given it up by then.

My parents checked out many plyg groups in Utah and chose a prophet to follow. My father dated a few women and planned to take on more wives which never quite happened. Still, polygamy meetings and this "dating" meant we all had to tell lies to outsiders every day. My older brother did marry more than one wife and reared his many children to be polygamists which they still are. And so it goes on.

My family mormon history? Let's see.....

1) Dad meets a mormon on a park bench in Hawaii during WWII and converts from being a life long Lutheran to a mormon.

2) Dad drops/ shun's all his friends and family, and breaks off his engagement to my mom, because he has found the truth!

3) After a period of time, maybe about a year?....my dad realizes his bungle and marries my mom in the Lutheran church they both grew up in.

4) Off to college and dad returns to his gung-ho mormon ways, my mom meets a nice sister missionary that she bonds with and she joins the church.

5) Dad attempts to raise all 6 kids to be turbo TBM's....doesn't work with a few of us, so dad pays double tithes and offerings to gain gods favor for the kids, getting a job, etc......he gave everything to the church, he had no retirement saved until the last few years when he worked as a consultant and made really good money. They had plenty thanks to my moms inheritances from parents and other family.

6) Dad spends all his free time on church stuff, no time with kids, and didn't have any real friends, buddies, pals, etc......and all his food storage went to waste.

7) Dad is near death and scared as heck to go, which makes no sense in mormonism. Dad dies.

That's so sad.

Reading this made me think of "Cats in the Cradle" song.

So far nobody hung as a horse thief.

DW's family follows the history and is connected with the major players of the church. Sharon,VT, Palmyra, Nauvoo, Zions Camp, Mormon Battalion, SLC.

Me? I got nuthin'.