Being the first member of my family to join the Church, I have found unlimited family history to do. My parents both came from large families. I had searched long and hard on my own until nine years ago when my parents both joined the Church. Sharing the search with my parents really made it come alive.
Tracing my father's family has been like walking into brick walls. Being the youngest of 11 and having lost his mother at age 12, he just did not know much about his family, but what he did know led me to Van Wert, Ohio.My first trip there was 12 years ago, and I gleaned some information, but not what I had expected. A second trip yielded more information. My parents went there four additional times, finding small amounts of information.
My parents and I decided to relocate to Cache Valley, Utah. Things for the move came together rather fast. My father was recuperating from surgery, and there had been a death in the ward.
All of these circumstances seemed to deter us from going to Van Wert just one more time, where all three of us had planned to enjoy a search. We decided to overcome the obstacles and go anyway.
The library [in Van WertT was being remodeled and was not in its usual location. We were told to go to a shopping center that was temporarily housing the library.
A woman who usually did not work in the library was filling in for a friend that day, and she was familiar with the Harker, McQueen and McClure families that we were searching. She led us to a very out-of-the-way farmhouse where a woman kept an entire room full of genealogy. Much of it was our family.
We spent several hours with her, and she allowed us to copy pages and pages of material. We returned home completely overwhelmed with our blessing.
We are now comfortably settled in Cache Valley and have submitted our first set of names to be held in the family file in the Logan Temple.
Returning time after time, listening to the Spirit and never giving up, even when it appeared impossible, has brought us the most wonderful reward we have received since embarking on this exciting journey of discovering our ancestors.
