Family History

Last night I found a booklet that I had received when Brad and I went up to Oregon for my grandmother's funeral. It was written by a distant cousin who wrote about our ancestors and their adventures traveling from Denmark to join the Saints in Utah in 1867. To illustrate my relation to these ancestors here's a little diagram:

Upon arrival in Utah, after loosing their 19-month old son in Nebraska, James Peder Jensen and his wife, Marie Christina Nielsen Jensen, quickly traveled up towards Brigham City. There they lost their second son just after he was born. The Jensen's then moved to Newton, Utah where other Danish emigrants were settling. James Peder Jensen assisted in surveying the "New Town", the cemetery, and the first reservoir in Utah. Here, they had seven other children-one of them being my great-grandfather, James Peter Jensen.

Anyway...to get to the point of this post-I found this book last night and as I began reading it, I realized that James Peder Jensen (my great-great grandfather) was buried in the Newton cemetery, a mere 20 minute drive from where Brad and I live. I turned to Brad and said, "We should go try to find his headstone tomorrow after church" to which he agreed. So, today after church we made the little trip out to the Newton cemetery where we began exploring. After about 5 minutes of searching, I chanced upon his headstone! It was a very exciting experience to see his name and dates. There was also a gold label on the side recognizing that he was an early church pioneer that traveled across the plains to join the Saints. Under his name there was an inscription saying, "The Angels have called him".

We think the layer of stone on the bottom was part of the original headstone but was replaced by the one you see now.

Newton Cemetery-his headstone was about in the middle of the middle

Then, on the way home we found a bridge that crossed the reservoir that he had assisted with the surveying on. It was really interesting just to be in that area of Cache Valley. Neither Brad or I had ever been to Newton and it was absolutely gorgeous! Then to think of my family history in that area definitely made this experience special. I've always enjoyed family history but I've never really gotten into it before. James Peder Jensen's wife, Marie, is buried in the Brigham City cemetery (she went and lived with her daughter after James died) next to their second child. After talking to my dad tonight, he informed me that his grandfather (James Peter Jensen) is also buried in that cemetery along with other family members...looks like I'll be dragging Brad to another cemetery soon (only 25 minutes away).

This really was a wonderful experience and has strengthened my knowledge of eternal families. I am in debt to the sacrifices that these ancestors made for me so that I could have a knowledge of the Restored gospel. I can't even imagine all that they endured and how they must've had to rely on their testimony of the gospel to get through some of their trials. The only words I can think of to express my gratitude are thank you.