Author: Julie Maddox

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Lucy’s Shawl: Wrapped in Her Love

Budd Porter (recently deceased) and Debbie Porter Nelson wrap themselves in Lucy’s shawl and feel her love around them.

Sarah Milikin owned 3 shawls originally belonging to her grandmother, Lucy Mack Smith. Upon Sarah’s death, the three shawls were found and later given to dear friends and relatives. The first went to her daughter-in-law Jennie Peterson, who eventually donated it to the LDS Church History Museum.

The second went to Jennie’s niece, Kathryn. When Kathryn became very ill, the shawl was given to her youngest sister Helen. Helen sent the shawl to the LDS Church History Museum via some friends.

The third shawl was given to Helen. Before her death she asked her son to safeguard it. Faithful to his promise, in 2005, he returned the shawl to the Joseph Smith Jr. Family.

Large enough to cover a bed, this shawl helped inspire our wish to cover the “Build a Bed” bunk beds with an embroidered coverlet.

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Family Service Project

Join with your Smith Cousins in Salt Lake City
August 2 – 5, 2018!

Sleep in Heavenly PeaceOn August 2-5 we will gather to celebrate our heritage and help current refugees that have been driven from their homes and lost all of their worldly possessions. We will be building bunk beds for refugee children and their families. We are working with Sleep In Heavenly Peace for our summer’s service project. Their mission is to ensure that no child in their town ever has to sleep on the floor.

We would like to give each refugee family a history of the Smith Family so they might know that God is aware of them and that our family understands to some degree what it means to be refugees. With this gift, perhaps they too can dream of a heavenly home.

Sleep In Heavenly Peace was featured on a program called Returning The Favor in February 2018. Join host Mike Rowe (Discovery Channel Series Dirty Jobs) and see why their team stopped into Twin Falls, Idaho, to meet SHP founder Luke Mickelson.

Any donation helps. You can sponsor:

  • Whole bunk bed $300
  • Single bed $150
  • One mattress $50
  • Comforter $25
  • Sheet set $15
  • Pillow $10

You can also contribute by mail with checks or money orders to:

Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association
c/o Frances Orton
381 W 3700 N
Provo, UT 84604

Make a notation on the check: Sleep In Heavenly Peace.

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Share Your Treasure – Share Your Story

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.

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Nauvoo Reunion: 25th Anniversary of Cemetery Dedication

The 2016 Reunion marks 25 years since the Smith Family Nauvoo Cemetery was improved, beautified, and dedicated. It also means that for the last 25 years, Smith family members have helped pay for cemetery maintenance and upkeep. What a blessing it is for us to care for this hallowed ground and honor our beloved ancestors. Each year many thousands visit our sacred family cemetery. Meet your Smith family cousins this year in Nauvoo for a wonderful reunion that includes socializing, presentations, historical insights, sightseeing, service projects, food, and fun!

Register online at www.JosephSmithSr.org/reunion/registration

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Sacred Ground: The Smith Family Cemetery in Old Nauvoo, Part II

By Julie Maddox, Joseph Sr & Lucy Mack Smith Family Association Newsletter Editor

For many years, the Smith Family Nauvoo Cemetery was almost forgotten. Few graves were marked, all Smith family was gone from Nauvoo by 1879, rising waters threatened to submerge gravesites,  and  communication between descendants had faded.

UNMARKED GRAVES

As family and close friends were buried in the Homestead yard beginning in 1844, “none of these graves were marked except by lilacs which Emma planted nearby.”1 Even the location of Father and Mother Smith became lost. Caring for the yard became challenging as Joseph III, Alexander, Julia, and David Hyrum moved from Nauvoo. In 1867 Emma wrote Joseph III:

Joseph, I should like if you are willing to extend that fence so as to enclose the graves of your two little brothers. I have got twenty five dollars that no one has any right to but myself…. I feel anxious to apply that money on that graveyard, after I have done that… I think I can ask our Smith relatives to help mark Fathers and Mothers graves if no more.

Although no action took place at this time, this letter became significant many years after Emma’s death. Joseph, Alexander, and Julia buried their beloved mother on May 2, 1879, and Joseph III erected a tombstone for Emma.

Lewis Bidamon was the last to be buried in the Homestead ground in 1891, and by 1900, tenants occupied the property. Four gravestones and a scraggly lilac bush were the only evidence of a graveyard.

Continue reading “Sacred Ground: The Smith Family Cemetery in Old Nauvoo, Part II”

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Walking in their Shoes

By Steve & Frances Orton and Joy Ercanbrack

We extend a heartfelt thank you to the many family members who went the extra mile to help make the 2014 Reunion such a great success! Please log on to the website to see pictures and read the full account of the reunion.

The family gained a deeper respect for our ancestors who lived in the Independence, Missouri area as we toured Far West, Adamondi-Ahman, and the sacred Liberty Jail. We learned that God does not abandon us, just as he did not abandon Joseph and Hyrum when they were unjustly imprisoned in the Liberty Jail. Truth does prevail and the mercies of God will be revealed.

The family met in the beautiful Community of Christ Stone Church and received gracious welcomes and family news, history, website, iDig info and news of upcoming events. Lach Mackay read a welcome letter to the family from Cousin Wallace B. Smith who was recovering from surgery.

Continue reading “Walking in their Shoes”

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Smith Family in the News and in Story

IDigNauvoo is in the news! Visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk9_EqEhFtQ

This year IdigNauvoo volunteers are working at both the Joseph Sr. Homestead and the Samuel H. Smith home site.

Significant events at the IdigNauvoo site include the restoration of the stone steps on the east side of the Joseph Smith Sr. homestead, discovery of an 1835 half dime, and a bone bead that is 2000 years old. Recent finds have led archaeologist Paul DeBarthe to question whether the Smith homestead could have been an 1805 trading post.

The Dig is looking for participants and volunteer host couples.Learn more about the iDigNauvoo archaeological project by visiting their website www.idignauvoo.legacyshare.org.

Watch lectures on Mary Fielding Smith and “Letters from Joseph F Smith to his Sister Martha Ann” at this online site:
history.lds.org/article/men-women-faith-2014-schedule

See Reunion.JosephSmithSr.org to read Lachlan Mackay’s Stories About Joseph III from the Reunion. See http://reunion.josephsmithsr.org

CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR DETAILS OF OUR UPCOMING 21 SEPTEMBER 2015 WEBINAR
Joseph’s Miracle Run Scholarship Presentation to Dartmouth

Many Smith family members contributed to the Sons of the Utah Pioneer tribute to Hyrum Smith. Cost is $5 per magazine. To purchase, visit www.sup1847.com or call 801.484.4441.

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Joseph Smith Sr. Genealogical Website

http://www.josephsmithsr.com

Take advantage of the Joseph Smith Sr. Genealogical Website’s many features! It can help you & us keep accurate information and extend that information more readily to your family and extended family. It can also help those who are related to many of the  family’s thousands of ancestors.

This site contains Joseph Sr and Lucy Mack Smith’s ancestry and posterity and Emma Hale Smith’s ancestry and posterity. To view the posterity information of the living, you must be a direct descendant and register on the website. That information will then be available to you.

All family branches are connected into the same database which provides statistical information, biographies, media images, geo locations synchronized with google maps, world history timelines and much more.

Please login to check your family for accuracy and contact us for any errors. We would appreciate any submissions of family stories, pictures, histories, etc.

Clicking any of the buttons takes you directly to the genealogical information of that branch of the family:

  1. Joseph – ancestors of Joseph Smith Sr.
  2. Lucy – ancestors of Lucy Mack Smith
  3. Any of the children – descendants of that branch of the family

Be sure to register on the site to take advantage of all the genealogical features. There is no cost to use this site. The Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society website is also interconnected with the genealogical information on this web site.