I was looking up my family tree on both my grandpa and grandma side and saw that both of their grandparents or great grandpa did polygamy "I am so embarrassed! Their names were George baker my grandma great grandpa and a Frenchman my grandpa great grandpa, I hope they were not early Mormons

But you never know, I felt sick to my stomach and though why!

Don't feel badly. It isn't your fault. We can choose our friends but not our relative.

Be glad you didn't grow up in a plyg compound like I did. Once we're adults we can run our own lives and do a better job than whoever controlled us in the past.

Every day is the first day of the rest of your life.

You are right and that is what they did and I won't do it, it still is embarrassing

His gr gr grandparents all around were polygamous. (Mind you, we all have 32 gr gr grandparents). This is not at all an unusual thing in Mormon culture. I would imagine that this is the case with many Mormons with significant family history in UT.

We hate having this as a part of our heritage but we can't change it.

It's kind of shocking at first. The more you learn about them will reveal how well it worked out for them.

My polygamous ancestors fared poorly in plural marriage. For them it was disastrous. They shoulda coulda stayed monogamous, but that would've violated their early covenants with the church, instead of the oaths they took in marriage. It resulted in breaking up families, alienating wives and children in the process. Those women had nowhere to go, unless they had families to move back to after they deserted their "husbands" or their husbands deserted them.

The men made out better than the women, IMO. It was the women and children who suffered the most from polygamy - speaking of my two ancestors that I'm familiar with their history.

Neither of my ggggrandmothers were polygamous, only their husbands were. One died before her husband took on additional wives. The other wife was deserted when her husband took on wife #2. They lived apart, and he did not support her. It was more like bigamy than polygamy IMO. The church did its own thing in the early Utah days apparently. There was no need to divorce so long as the man could just marry as many women as he was able to.

Wife #2 had 5-6 children. Most of them starved to death soon after they were born from lack of nutrition. That's how Brigham took care of his flock in southern Utah. GGGGrandpa was a cotton farmer in what is today Washington county. All their proceeds went to support the church. While Brigham lived in the lap of luxury with his winter home in St George, summer home in Swan Lake, ID, and SLC quarters the rest of the time. My ggggrandpa wasn't even able to feed his family from his own labor for the growing of Zion. Out of app six babies, four died within 1-2 months of being born. Some within days. Only two made it to maturity. One baby choked to death on the alfalfa that was all the family had to live on for long stretches at a time. My heart sank when I learned that. I wept for them. He'd been a bishop, and is commemorated as an early pioneer in Washington county. And yet he had a choice in the matter. It wasn't like it was forced on him to do that.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2018 08:09PM by Amyjo.

Replying to Lovinland - Watching the Warren Jeffs: Prophet of Evil documentary on A&E today, and it made me google my maiden last name, Loveland and polygamy to see what comes up. I knew there was polygamy in the family, as there is a small museum north of Boise, think it may be Council, not sure, where there is a portrait of one of my paternal gg? grandfather's with portraits of his 6 wives. I've always made a joke of it, being exmo myself (although still need to do their 'official' paperwork). I've heard stories of a gg? granduncle who was a captain in the calvary that brought Brigham Young across the plains to settle in Utah. I know that my father's side were homesteaders in Idaho. Chester Loveland's name comes up a lot in my family, and 2 of my sister-in-laws are deep into genealogy. What struck me was your comment about the incestuous niece marriage. Disgusting... I would really like to have more information regarding what you've found, and present to my one 'pious' sister-in-laws.

As my mom nears very old age she has been relentlessly trying to bring her black sheep (ex-mo kids) back into the fold. After a recent bout of non-stop phone calls and letters, I cracked and told her I was NEVER EVER coming back because the church was wrong and leaders have been lying to her to get her monthly 10%. I asked her if she knew about the recent essays...rocks in the hat, change in 1st vision, age of joseph's wives, and most importantly to me; the change in blessings and baptism for children of gay parents. She kept telling me it was all anti-Mormon lies and wasn't in any real Mormon sites. Talk about isolationism! At the end, when she couldn't shut me up, she simply said, "All my relatives are good Mormons and good people." That is basically the crux of her commitment to this moron nonsense.

So yesterday I was doing ancestry searches looking at data on her great grandfather Colonel Chester Loveland, who I always heard many positive Mormon faith promoting stories about. The truth available to the modern researcher reveals his deep involvement in the Mountain Meadow Massacre and information of all the plural wives and children he had. 6 identified wives and 32 children so far. With only minimal checking I already found at least one of MY Loveland grandfathers brothers was a real interesting guy, producing three children with his niece plyg wife. Didn't expect to see that...and it certainly wasn't in any of the stacks of ancestral written histories or the stories my mom told me about her uncle's values and Mormon contributions. HMMM...which came first the chicken or the egg?? ie plyg wife married before or after eggs planted? At any rate....ewwwww....just NO!

DW recently found out her zillion times great grandpa was a man named Lott Smith, a polygamist. She was pretty shocked. Figured her ancestors were converts. Nope. Pure Pioneer Stock. Not sure if they were related to Horny Joe, but Lott and his parents were with him from the beginning in New York. Old Lott was an interesting guy. Died after he got shot in a dispute with a Native American. These old pioneers were a lot more interesting than the milquetoast Mormon men of today.

Don't know if DW's Great Great Great Great Granny was wife #3 or #4 (of nine total). He married both on Valentines Day of the same year.

Which leads me to this question: Would he have married both women in the same ceremony?

Have you ever found not a wife but a mistress who had childrren? Or 4 misstresses with children?
Does it make a difference in genealogy except for inheritance?

One of my ancestors was the daughter of a mistress, whom her lover later married. They lived several centuries ago, from England. Her niece and namesake became Queen of Scotland.

They were a wild bunch! We're talking Wars of the Roses era. Real family feud kind of thing to the nth degree.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2018 04:17AM by Amyjo.

Same here! Only we had divorces,multi divorces, misstresses, etc. I guess that is why polygamy ancestry wouldnt bother me. What sas it Prince Charles said? He did n o t want to be the only king of england without a misstress.

Poor Diane! She really suffered married to that brute. He was carrying on with Camilla before and during his marriage to Di. She was so young, innocent and naive when they met. He robbed her of that and her youth. She only thought she married her handsome prince. Instead he turned into a toad!

She was gifted with the charm he utterly lacks. Since her death I haven't really noticed much change in him other than he came out openly at last about Camilla. Diane used to say her marriage was crowded by all three of them.

I was going to add to this that Charles never loved Diane. That crushed her soul more than his affair did with Camilla.

He married her for the children she could produce for the throne. That was all he wanted her for, and the image she would project as his 'princess.' He is and was about as shallow a human piece of work that exists on the face of the earth.

Maybe he's found happiness at last with Camilla, now that he can be out in the open about his true love. Age does have a way of mellowing even the hardest of hearts.

Shocking!

Even my boyfriend's great grandfather was a polygamist, who left the church and went back to live in Ohio, but is supposedly buried in Cedar City. My boyfriend is NOT mormon and his family is not mormon (well, except for some sisters who joined, but are no longer active).

I have a great grandfather who was a polygamist and died in about 1940. He married my ggrandmother and her sister the same day (for someone who asked the question above). I wonder which one got to share his bed first? My ggrandmother ran the family farm with her children and he and his other 2 wives went to St. George and came back on visits. My ggrandmother had 2 deaf kids (one was my grandfather).

My grandfather went back to the Colorado Springs to find my grandmother, who he met in 3rd grade. Her father said she couldn't marry him if he was from polygamy and he lied and married her. I'm glad as they were really great people. My grandmother was like a second mother to me and I can't imagine my life without her.

When I was talking to my parents about this again not long before they both died, I asked my dad if any of his family were polygamists and he said, "No, they weren't that stupid." I have ancestors on both sides who were in from the beginning. I never got the over the top mormonism example from any of my grandparents. They were just really honest and human, and many didn't attend church any more.

My great-grandfather had approximately the same amount of wife's as did B.Y., plus the same (approx.) number of children.

When the U.S. was hounding polygamist in S.L. City, where he set up housekeeping with his last wife. (The rest of his wives didn't want to leave civilization, so didn't go with him.) But, their kids went back and forth (using buggies and horses).

He couldn't read or write, (his last wife, a redhead, did that for him), but he was a brilliant and outstanding--and wealthy-- business man.

As pioneers (not necessarily Mormons) moved from the East to the West, he traded his well-fed horses from his pastures, for their worn-out one's (plus some money, or trade items), and then put their worn-out horses in his pastures to fatten them up, to trade them with the next heading-West people who went past his home and farm.

His wife made straw hats for the women heading West, as the sun and wind beat down on their heads. (These sold fast).

He sent his sons up into the Arizona hills with wagons and straw, where there was snow, and he buried the bricks if ice/snow in a deep hole in the ground (next to his house), the bottom of which had been previously filled with straw, to keep the ice from dissipating. Therefore, he always had ice for cold drinks, and ice cream in that hot area.

Church genealogists warn people not to look up his wives and their children on their computer, for computers can't accomodate so much connected data, and will shut down.

Some of his children wrote a book containing all this information, of which I have one. (I descended from his last wife.)

Sorry, I got ahead of myself when I wrote: "When the U.S. was hounding polygamist in S.L. City, where he set up housekeeping with his last wife." (The rest of his wives didn't want to leave civilization, so didn't go with him.) But, their kids went back and forth (using buggies and horses).
---
Correction:
He moved from SLC when the U.S. was hounding polygamists in SLC, and only took one wife with him to Arizona, as his other wives didn't want to leave civilization. Besides, actually, B.Y. sent him to colonize the area with Mormons.

I used to spend my summers with my grandmother. She was the
second wife of my grandfather. They were "married" about six
years before the manifesto. So polygamy has been part of my
family story as far back as I can remember.

When I was a kid growing up in the Church in the 50s polygamy
was something that was going to come back. Now it's the crazy
uncle that we lock in the basement to avoid embarrassment.

Sam Taylor had the best characterization of the current Mormon
relationship with polygamy. He said it's best summed up in this
well-known children's nonsense poem:

As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
O, how I wish he'd stay away.

When I was a kid I used to spend summers with my grandmother.
She was married in 1884 (at age seventeen) as the second wife of
my already-married grandfather. Grandpa died long before I was
born but his picture stared down at me from the bedroom wall.

I didn't have to do any genealogy to find polygamy in my family
tree. Family gatherings were interesting. lots of "aunts" and
"uncles" who weren't exactly my aunts or uncles.