Ancestry

The church is known for family history, tracing family lines back to decades, hundreds, even thousands of years before our birth, to discover our heritage and gain a better understanding of where we came from. We know that we are children of Heavenly Parents who love us and want us to return to them again one day. But many don't know who we are as a matter of earthly lineage.

Gma B (dad's mom) and Papa (mom's dad) were the genealogists of the family. Gma B had tons of family history from hers and Gpa B's families, and Papa had done some research into his family line as well. Papa and Nana adopted mom after she was born, and all we have on her biological families are the names of her parents. We do have some work done for her adoptive family, but I would like to know more about her biological family, especially for medical reasons. One of these days I may break down and get a subscription to Ancestry or something like that and trace her family lines.

Gma B had a lot of family history work done before she passed. From her side of the family come some French and Native American lines, among others. The Native Americans in our family are of the Kaskaskia tribe, which from what I understand originated in Wisconsin, traveled to Illinois, then eventually became a part of the Peoria tribe in Oklahoma. My 9th-great-grandmother, Aramepinchone, was daughter of a tribal chief, Mamenthouensa, and an unknown mother. She was a key element in helping members of her tribe convert to Christianity, namely Catholicism. She married a French fur trader, Michel Accault, according to her father's wishes. She initially rejected the idea and was thrown out of her father's home, because she wished that her heart only be given to God and not any mortal man. But when she realized that she could help her tribe learn from the missionaries and convert to Christianity, she consented.

My family line comes from her second marriage to Michel Phillipe, another fur trader. It has been said that she eventually married one or two other men; quite a turn around from a woman who wanted only to belong to God! But her heart was still with Him as she helped others find Christianity. When she passed to the other side, she was given the honor of being buried under her pew in the church she attended, an honor that no other woman in that time had been given.

Of all the heritage in my family, I know more about the Native American lines than any others, mainly because we have such a great tie to that line. You could probably fit all the Native American blood in my body into my pinky finger, but it is there. I love learning about the culture of the Kaskaskia, even though there's little to be found. Along with a Kaskaskia-to-French dictionary, my dad has some text, I think a book, on his computer about the Kaskaskia, but I haven't read it in a long time. I'm grateful to the Catholic church and the records they kept, so my family could know more about our Native American heritage, and so we could have their work done in the temple.

Happy Father's Day

Dance Hall Days

Ok, so they were cultural halls, but we still danced in them.

I have a diverse list of music on my prefered player (Musicmatch Jukebox), and just for fun, I've been listening to some 90's dance music. It struck me how many of these songs I heard as a youth at those dances (spring 1997- summer 2001). Not familiar with 90's dance music? If you've ever seen the SNL skits with the Roxbury Guys, the song heard in the background is Haddaway's "What Is Love?, a song that came out in 1993.

Whenever I think of the kind of music they played at our stake dances, that song is one of the first to pop into my mind. I also think of "Where Do You Go?" by No Mercy, "Another Night" by The Real McCoy, and especially "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex. We also listened to dance standards like "Electric Boogie (The Electric Slide)" by Marcia Griffiths and "YMCA" by The Village People. When they became popular, we also danced to the "Macarena Remix" by the Bayside Boys, and the "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper.

I sometimes wonder if any of these songs are still played at the dances, and if any will endure to when my future children attend. I know we'd get a handful of disco songs that my parents listened to when they were youth, so maybe it's possible.

So I went to a wedding last weekend...

And the Spirit was so strong! It was easy to feel the love of God pouring out over the young couple, my friend Athene and her now husband, making their vows of love in front of family and friends.

But it wasn't a temple wedding, the couple aren't members of the Church, but the Spirit was all around us in the beautiful garden where the ceremony took place. I can't think of another time where I've been to a non-LDS church function and felt the power of the Holy Ghost so strong.

Athene, her sister Moueska, and their brother Tarrith lost their mother to breast cancer about five years ago, and I know for a fact that she was there. It was easy to picture her standing next to her daughter, with a smile on her face and her eyes beaming with joy, as she watched her eldest daughter marry the love of her life.

The reception was almost rained out, but with prayers by staff and guest alike, we only got a few drops. The chef and co-owner of the bed and breakfast where the wedding and reception took place told some of us later that he and a few others remembered that Jesus said (Matthew 18:20 KJV) , "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them", and prayed in His name that the rain would come again some other time. I think I would be in big trouble with my Father in Heaven if I were to say that it was pure luck, or "just a coincidence" that the rain stopped soon thereafter.

I wish Athene and her husband the best of luck and many years of a loving and prosperous marriage. I know God loves you both and will bless you!