Pioneers Identified

I just got an email today letting me know that Family Search had identified some of my ancestors as Mormon Pioneers. They sent me a link to a page with each ancestor listed along with the company that they had traveled with across the plains and a link to trail stories for that company.

Great to see they are pulling this information together for us just in time for Pioneer Day (July 24) in Utah. Maybe they got the idea from me? :-)  I created a site with the same kind of information back in 2010.

http://ourpioneerheritage.wikispaces.com

It has had a few additions over the years and still isn't quite finished in my mind but it shows my 21 ancestors - along with the years, where they began their journey from (including the ships they emigrated on if I could find them), images, dates and specific quotes about them if the company records or some other member in the company included them. Family Search only identified 11 of the 21, and is having some issues with the trail experiences link (which I'm sure is getting sorted out as I post this). But it is a great start for many who don't have someone in their family who decided to spend a Sunday afternoon (and a few more after that) to create a site like I did as part of my Personal Progress when I was a Young Woman's leader in the Richmond Ward.

If you have an account on Family Search (it is FREE), you may receive an email like mine. Go and check it out. If you don't see all the ancestors you think you should have, you may need to link up some families to get back a bit further. But if you are in my family, please do check out the wiki above and explore the pages and the stories.

Part of the grand design was to add the following:

A larger quiz / did you know? section of the site
Some Family Home Evening ideas (or lesson)
An interactive map
A slideshow presentation
A section of Faith-promoting anecdotes suitable for using in lessons or talks

Anyone have some free time and want to help with these?  Or you can all just wait - maybe tell me in the comments what would be most useful or interesting for you and it might be next on the agenda! If the Family History Centre is quiet tonight, I may get started.

That reminds me, I work every Tuesday night at the Family History Centre on 17th Avenue SW in Calgary. If you are interested in learning more about researching your family tree, please drop by and we can get you started. Or if you just want a place to work where you can ask a question once in a while, come and use one of our computers to add some names to your tree. Or if you want to look at some old records not even available online yet (while a lot if online - there is much that is still only available on microfilm), we can help you do that too!