This year we would like to collect pictures of family treasures and heirlooms that we can share through slides and post online. By sharing these treasures, we will gain additional knowledge of our family history.
As you send these pictures, please explain important information about the item and how it came to you. This would be the ideal way to send it. If there are concerns about safety and protection, we can post photos o f treasures anonymously.
Quoting Doctrine & Covenants 21:1, noted LDS Historian Marlin K. Jensen said, “’Behold, there shall be a record kept.’ There are many ways to keep that record, and one of the ways is to preserve a place, a building, an artifact that represents history.”
He noted that an artifact can be powerful “because it is tangible, tactile, something that can be lived and experienced.”
Quoting Alma, who taught that records “enlarged the memory of this people,” Jensen explained that it can also deepen and solidify our faith.
“There’s something very fundamental about reflecting back on where we’ve been in God’s economy of things,” he said. “If we have the stability of history, if we can enter into the peace of the Lord, the rest of the Lord, that can come from a knowledge that our history is secure and solid.”
To share an heirloom with the family or ask questions, contact Frances Orton (ortonfrances@gmail.com).
Emma received a lock of Joseph’s hair during a reburial at the Homestead. It is possible Mary Fielding also received this lock of Hyrum’s hair [hair at the top of the book] at the same time.
