Family History Answers

So a while back Justin had a bunch of questions regarding when some of our ancestors made their way to Utah and when they joined the church and why they didn’t have land in Nauvoo and all that.  Well, after some searching I finally have some of the answers.  Here is a pdf file on familysearch.com that largely deals with the Nancy Smoot and her husband John Freeman.  It goes in depth as to where they joined the church, the missionaries that taught them, when they joined the saints, etc.  I found it to be quite informative.  It’s about 13 pages, so feel free to download it and read it when you have time.

Another pdf file that focuses more on John can be found here.  This one goes more in depth to the childhood of John, including his becoming an orphan at an early age, as well as accounts from Wilford Woodruff’s journals concerning the probable teaching of the Freeman family.  It mentions the North Carolina years for the Freeman family (which occurred prior to the birth of John) but I don’t know what those years held for the Freemans.  Perhaps this could be something Justin could look more into?  The majority of the Nancy Smoot file is repeated here, but there are quite a new number of stories/facts told, largely through the journal accounts of others.  The file also contains the patriarchal blessings of John and Nancy as given by Isaac Morley.

Be sure to read the footnotes, you can learn a lot of really interesting things (ie: did you know that some U of U medical researchers were made aware of a condition called “Freeman’s Syndrome” which apparently began with William Hamblin? see footnote 61 for details on what it is).

Family Crest

Here’s the sticker that started it all. Becky saw it on the back of the entrance door at Red Iguana.

And here’s our conversation on twitter:

Relative Finder

So, inspired by Steve’s post, I made an Extended Freeman Family group, so if you and your spouse both join, you can see how closely you’re related (if you dare)! Ex. Andrea and I are 9th cousins, 4 times removed.

So you (and your spouse) should hover over “Groups,” and select “Find” and search for “Extended Freeman Family.” Then click “Add,” and it will ask you for a password, which is “Freeman” (case-sensitive). Then go to “Relatives” and select the applicable box and “Show Relatives” to see how closely-related you are.

Independence History

Here in time for Independence Day is a list of 25 signers of the Declaration of Independence that according to this BYU/Family Search thing we are related to.  If for some reason it doesn’t work, try signing in with your Familysearch info and register with the site to see the list.  You can check out how you are related and what the exact relationship is (ex: 12th Cousin 8 times removed is……Samuel Adams)

Enjoy!