Ancestor Research
From LFAwiki
Back in the 70's and 80's, a professional genealogist was hired by the family association and much research on the Livingston lines was completed - both by the professional as well as by dedicated family members. Eventually, those working on our lines came to road blocks that halted our progress in uncovering our ancestors further back in time. Research, from an association standpoint, came to a standstill.
Then, in spring of 2009, a sequence of events set in motion additional research on our Livingston lines. Kay Livingston Larsen recounts the events of "The Miracle" as follows:
- In April 2009 my father Lewis Livingston was visited by one of the missionaries who served under him 30 years ago in Anaheim, California. The missionary is from Scotland near where Archibald Livingston lived and was visiting Salt Lake for General Conference. She asked her friend Brenda who is also from Scotland to drive her to Dad's house. While she visited Dad, I chatted with Brenda about Scotland. I learned that not only was Brenda from Dunfermline but she was LDS, she knew where the coal miners had lived, and she was a professional genealogist. I asked her if she thought there was work that could be done for our family which had joined the church and come west, leaving some of the family in Scotland. She was quite confident that she could help us find the Scottish descendants of Granny. I presented this proposal to the Livingston Board who agreed to hire her to do some research. Brenda's reports of Granny's children who stayed in Scotland became the basis for the temple work we did at the family reunion in June 2009.
During the April 2009 meeting of the board of directors, Brenda's research proposal was discussed at length. Later, through email, it was agreed that we should retain Brenda to commence research on our lateral family lines. Her research reports are linked below.