Does anyone personally know any descendants of Joseph and Emma Smith? And if so, what are their thoughts on Joseph and Emma and any/all of the branches of Mormonism?

I've heard of a descendant (male) of Joseph and Emma in the SLC area that joined the mainstream LDS church. However, I'm not familiar with any of the details.

Google found me this:

http://gentlyhewstone.com/2008/12/27/a-fireside-with-joseph-smiths-great-great-great-grandson/

I have no other knowledge of this.

Thanks for the link. That's definitely the guy I heard of.

From the link, I was interested in the comment regarding some of Joseph's older wives. I knew there was more than one woman sealed to him that was in he 50s, but I wasn't certain of the exact figure. Here is the age breakdown of Joseph's 34 wives*:
Age range: # of wives in age range
10-19: 10
20-29: 10
30-39: 9
40-49: 1
50-59: 4
* www.wivesofjosephsmith.org

In reading the contents of the article I just linked, I see a link within it to the family organization site, which looks really slick and polished. I did not see an e-mail address of the sort I am used to, but there was a box you can type a message to them in, and can hit "send".

http://josephsmithjr.com

One day when I was visiting my grandmother she said she had some "exciting news" to share with me.. She said she had been working on her genealogy & found out we were related to JS.. she told me how but I cant remember now. I'm sure there must be a tons of others out there with some distant relation.

My Mom was excited when she found out we were related to Emma's parents. I used to be too, but now...not so much.

I meant a women whos a decendant of Sarah Pratt!! A Ver "SWEET" women. She told me the story of when JS "hit on her". And that he threaten to ruin her if she told. (I had read the story before, But hearing it from a decendant...!!!wow). HER account was identical to what I read! Shes an ex-polyg.. She tells people her hubbys dead;but relunctantly told me she divorced him. The 1 thing she REALLY Enthisized was.."Dont underestimate the Church!"

Dearest child, we are all descendants of Joseph and Emma (probably)

late 90s I knew some family of js back east that renacted him or them, dressed in period clothes, got their pics taken just sitting around reading, tending hearth, etc.
i often wonder about them,

a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago... the churchmag (Era?) had a feature about (memory) the 'first' living descendant of JS joining TSCC.

Don't remember the details (also don't know why I remember trivia like this, ha ha)

1. I met someone on a plane once who was a descendant, in line if he wished to be head of RLDS but refused.
2. I am, thankfully, not a descendant but a distant cousin and that I regret but it wasn't my doing.

A family in my childhood ward were related and every year they went back east somewhere for the big Smith family reunion. Every year they came back and all eight family members bore their testimony of JS in church.

Oh the irony! One of the children must know I was talking about them. No sooner had I posted this, I check my Facebook page and this is the top post in my feed by one of the family members mentioned above with a lovely picture of Joseph and Hyrum attached.

"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!"

The apples don't fall far from the tree...

Tell Joe's relatives to have another shot of the Kool Aid...


I almost blew my Coors onto the computer screen when I read your reply....

Hehehehe...

My nevermo mother once told me we were descendants of JS through her mother in some way, but I never cared enough to get details. None of her family were members of the morg.

...or at least, I *used* to be friends with her before I deeply offended her by going down the list of names of the Big 15 (this was back in 2005) and stating very matter-of-factly which ones I believed to be in on the scam and which ones I felt had been genuinely hoodwinked themselves.

This was while sitting around in our living room with her and her husband after dinner, making small talk. She was curious what my reasons were for losing my faith and so had asked me to elaborate. At the time I was still feeling very hurt and betrayed by the brethren, so I didn't hold anything back.

In hindsight, I probably could have been a little more tactful in my delivery out of sensitivity to the fact that she was a blood relative of the person I was implicating to be a scam artist. I knew what pride she took from being a direct descendant of "The Prophet" (her maiden name is Smith - I don't recall which of Joseph Smith's sons her line could be traced through).

My cavalier attitude and evil speaking of the Lard's Anointed was apparently more than she could abide, because a look of complete shock overtook her countenance when I told her that Gordon B. knew full well what a farce Mormonism was and that he had been trying to tell anyone with ears to hear that he was not really a prophet; at least not any kind that church members liked to believe him to be (receiving direct revelation either via personal visitation or otherwise unmistakable audible or visual manifestations of God's will).

Being quite an outspoken person, she stood up and stormed out of our house in a bit of a huff. I later apologized in an email, but reinforced the idea that, except for some lingering bitterness I felt toward the institution and those who knowingly perpetuate the fraud of it (which I knew would subside over time), we were much happier than we had ever been as believers trying to force something which just wasn't coming naturally (a testimony). Meanwhile, her and her husband who were faithful, tithe-paying members were having all kinds of marital problems and job-related dilemmas which forced them to move out of state.

My wife is still friends with this woman to this day, but things were never quite the same between us after that and I never did get a reply to my email apology.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2013 03:01PM by Son & Heir (of nothing in particular).

Well, I got curious and had some time on my hands today to do some research on my lineage through my mother. Through the modern day miracle that is the internet I learned that although I am NOT a descendent of the old huckster Joe, I am a descendent of his brother, Hyrum and Joseph Fielding Smith.

http://josephsmithacademy.org/inspira/genealogy/index.php

I got myself a pedigree! LOL

When JS was killed, a bunch of women had themselves posthumously sealed to him. One of those women became my g-g-grandmother. The day she was sealed to JS by BY, she was also sealed for time only to my g-g-grandfather on my mothers side of the family. He had a few other wives already.

Being a posthumous plural wife must have been a better deal, because it didn't involve sex with JS.