Joseph and Emma Smith’s posterity will gather August 5-7 from all parts of the globe in Salt Lake City, UT to commemorate Joseph Smith’s 200th birthday.
Michael Kennedy, a 3rd great-grandson of Joseph Smith, through Alexander Hale Smith, and president of the Joseph Smith Jr. Family Organization, has sent nearly 600 invitations to Smith relatives.
Born in the lowest ranks of poverty,” continues Quincy, “he had, without book learning, made himself at the age of 39 a power upon the earth. If the reader does not know what to make of Joseph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty since I myself stand helpless before the puzzle.”
“Today,†Mike explains, “200 years from Joseph Smith’s birth, we, Joseph’s descendants, gather to celebrate his contribution to American History and to our lives.â€
Why the celebration? Mike Kennedy quotes Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts in 1844. “It is by no means improbable that some future textbook …will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer†to that question will be: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.
The celebration will include entertainment, gifts, and family bonding. Descendants can learn more or register at the web site for the Prophet Joseph Smith’s family organization:
www.josephsmithjr.com
(note the “jr†in the address differentiates it from the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family site)