9 // Learn more about my ancestors
Number 9 on my list is really important to me. One thing that has been really encouraged by our church leaders is doing our
Family History, or Genealogy. I've kind of had a bad attitude about it, but then I realized I was going at it all wrong. Instead of just searching for names, why not get to know these people I'm researching, and why not start with those closest to me.
For a while now, I've been really wanting to get together with my Grandma Norene and learn more about my Grandpa Stan. He passed away before I was born, so I know very, VERY little about him. In April we had a
Relief Society Activity where we learned a little about the importance of keeping journals and personal histories. I was so moved by it, that I made the decision to ask my Grandma if I could come over sometime and learn more about my Grandpa. For whatever reason, he was just not talked about a whole lot, so there is a lot for me to learn about him.
On Sunday, I was in Cokeville for my niece Lilli's
baptism. After the baptism we were at my parent's house eating brownies and ice cream, and my sister Shari started talking about how she hadn't been to the dentist in a while. This led to talking about teeth, and my Grandma just came out with, "Your Grandpa Stan had perfect teeth." As soon as she said that I got a little excited. She went on to talk about him and his perfect teeth. She told us that he never had a cavity in his life, but he did have a false tooth.
Grandpa Stan used to participate in Cutter Racing, which is a race featuring two horses, a driver and a chariot racing together down a quarter mile of track. When it is done on snow they use skis on the sleds, but this particular race, Grandpa Stan was on dirt, so his sled had wheels. As he was racing, a rock flipped up and split one of his teeth vertically. It was replaced with a false tooth.
It wasn't a long story, but it was a fun couple of pieces of trivia that I didn't know about my Grandpa: he had perfect teeth, except for his false tooth, and he participated in cutter racing. I also learned what cutter racing was. Then I was able to learn a little about my dad and uncle. Apparently my Uncle Stan also has perfect teeth, while my dad doesn't. Thanks dad!
As I was getting ready to come home, I gave my Grandma a hug and she said, "I'm looking forward to you coming over so I can tell you more stories." It made me incredibly happy. I plan to write stories here that I learn about him, or any of my ancestors, as well as posting them over on
FamilySearch.org. I am so dang excited! I want to eventually also put them together in a scrapbook, which could just be one of my goals for next year.
