After reading this talk, I was humbled to learn and then research some interesting points. He mentioned that Gerrit de Jong, Jr. was an influence on his mother Jean Gong. I remember well brother Gerrit de Jong as he taught Portuguese there at BYU and during the one semester that I was there, he was my teacher and I was able to test out 16 credit hours of A in Portuguese.
Our family should know a few things about us. Sunday, November 21 will the the birthday of Nonny Allen’s grandfather, Charles Marsteller Alexander. We should all have a party for him in our family that evening! Before calling Mom and Dad, on Wednesday, I checked for birthdays in our line and found that Charles Marsteller Alexander was born on November 21, 1846. On the phone call, Mom was pleased to remember this and told me that he lived with them in the Palm Lane house for many years. This is her grandfather. His wife had died in 1913. He used to get up and fix toast with sugar for Mom and her siblings. He also liked to sit on the porch and chew tobacco, spitting it in the bushes nearby! Dad said that his grandfather also had that habit and that it was not uncommon among members of the Church in that time. I’m sure they have both kicked the habit where they are now. Grandfather Alexander would get on the street car and go get his haircut. One day he fell from the street car and no one saw him so he laid there until an acquaintance of the family who knew him helped him get home. He had a broken leg which then never fully mended and he died from it.
Now some perspective about the eternal nature of what we are about in this earth life. Brother Gong said that he is in the 33rd generation of his direct line. Well the software that I use has an icon labeled “treetops.” This creates a report of all the direct lines from any person to the earliest ancestor in the record. I am in the 26th generation of that oldest treetop. The treetop person is Johannes De Kawode of England, born about 1200 AD. I could list all of those direct line people, all 26 of them but you would put this aside for “later.” Just a few points:
John Cawood, a Printer was born in1514 in Cawood, England. The appellation, printer was somehow attached to his name. If you know a little history, you know that this was the time that printing was changing the world. Now copies of one document or book could be made after one “setup.” People began to be able to read the Bible and other important things. This began the turmoil that caused many of our ancestors to leave England shortly thereafter and set the stage for the Restoration of the the Church of Christ.
Some generations later, Mary Virginia Marsteller, another direct ancestor in this line, married Henry Samuel Alexander on October 12, 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The rest is history or so they say.
Now, that is a lot of people when you look at the 26 individuals and all of the children born into these families and their families down to today. Every one of them had a story. Can you imagine the stories! Many were part of the great historical events that changed their lives and of course ours too. Because of the love of the Savior for all of us and them, they can all repent and be baptized in our time. What a blessing.
This information was at a dead end for many years until Rick Price engineered the break-through with some help of others. That is another story in and of itself.
When I listened to him speak I wrote that we should make our first honeymoon last 50 years and then begin our 2nd honeymoon. Which was advice he gave to a couple being sealed in the Temple. Temple Mirrors of Eternity, you cannot see the beginning or the end! Jim, I loved your remarks - what a history to be apart of!
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