LFA Newsletter Volume 42, Issue 1 (Spring 2015)
From LFAwiki
1283 Logan Avenue
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
board@livingstonfamily.org
| Volume: 42 Issue: 1 | Date: Spring 2015 |
2015 Livingston Reunion at Heber Valley Camp
We are looking forward to the 2015 Livingston Reunion to be held at the Heber Valley Camp on June 19-20, 2015. Each reunion we are focusing on one of the five siblings that Granny brought to Utah. This year at the reunion, we will be highlighting the Isabella line. We are so pleased that so many that attended the last reunion at Liberty Park were from the Isabella line. We invite you to bring photo albums, histories and photos of your ancestors to display that other family members may never have seen. If you have a photo that you would like us to put on the Wiki or on Family Search, bring it with you and we will scan it for you. (We will be happy to scan a photo from any line.)
WE ARE SO EXCITED TO HAVE THE NICEST CAMP AT HEBER VALLEY CAMP. We will enjoy an enclosed, heated pavilion for meals and hours of catching up with your favorite cousin. There will be great activities, like the Challenge Courses which include (ropes courses, zip line, pole climbing, a swinging pole, a giant swing), canoeing, games, displays and presentations and more getting acquainted with family. Don’t miss it! Friday night is pot luck, please bring a side or desert. If you would like to be part of the planning, please email us.
Reserve a Cabin, a Challenge Course or a Canoe ride soon-- If you would like to reserve a cabin that sleeps 16 for $65.00 or part of a cabin at $4.00 per bunk, send an email to board@livingstonfamily.org. We have reserved 9 cabins so rally your extended family, reserve a cabin or part of a cabin, mail your check and plan for a fun filled event. Challenge Course is $5 per person, Canoe $2.
Online Books and Digital Revelations
Submitted by Mary Ann Swalberg, LFA Co-Chair
Do you want to search for your ancestors names in books and articles that you have never seen right from your own computer?
Did you know that FamilySearch is in the process of scanning all the books and genealogical papers that have been donated to the Family History Library? This is a wonderful effort that few people know anything about. The books themselves are being removed from the library, scanned into a digital format and audited twice to see that nothing was missed and the images look as good as possible. The images are then put through a process using Optic Character Recognition (OCR), where the names of people and places are taken out of the books and placed on Family Search. If the book is copyrighted, it will still be available on a digital format to search at the Family History Library. The process to see what information you can find on these digitized books is to “sign in” to FamilySearch using your FamilySearch account user name and password. If you haven’t registered for an account, it is very easy. If you already have an LDS account, you use the same username and password. On the top of the screen, you can see a tab marked “Search”. Hover the mouse over “Search” and you will see a drop-down menu. Scroll down and click on “Books”. A search bar will come up where you can put any family name or place you are interested in searching and you will see the results. You may be surprised at what you find. More items will appear as we scan over 300,000 images a month in our facility alone and there are others.
My husband and I are serving a mission at the present time one day a week scanning books. It has been a very interesting and rewarding service. We have scanned all kinds of books including history books, yearbooks, genealogy charts and notes, journals, and a myriad of books in different languages. I wasn’t able to find much on our Livingston Family when I put the name “Livingston” in the search bar, but I have found a wealth of information on my other family lines. I have found the histories of aunts, uncle and cousins and their families, along with more information about our shared ancestors. I found the following poem in one of the histories I read.
The Stick-Together Families
The stick-together families
Are happier by far
Than the brothers and sisters
Who take separate highways are.
The gladdest people living
Are the wholesome folks who make
A Circle at the fireside
That no power but death can break.
And finest of conventions
Ever held beneath the sun
Are the little family gatherings
When the busy day is done.
It's the stick-together family
That wins the joys of earth,
That hears the sweetest music
And that finds the finest mirth'
It's the old home roof that shelters
All the charm that life can give.
There you find the gladdest playground,
There the happiest spot to live.
And, O weary, wandering brother,
If contentment you would win,
Come you back into the fireside
And be comrade with your kin.
The Livingston Legacy of Example and Service Lives on through Blaine Livingston
Submitted by Mike Livingston
Dad was raised in Spanish Fork until he was 11 when his family moved to Springville, Utah. He graduated from Springville High in 1961. After a year and a half at BYU he served a two and a half year mission in the Central German Mission for the LDS Church. I served as a missionary in some of the same areas as my father. I had the privilege to serve in a ward in Mönchengladgach with a husband and wife who Dad married while serving as a branch president many years earlier.
Upon returning home from his mission, Dad married LuJean Harward in the Salt Lake Temple on December 3, 1965 and completed a Bachelors degree at BYU. His love of teaching took them to Idaho where he taught German, History, and Sociology in Aberdeen, Idaho and early morning Seminary in American Falls. The following year found them in St Anthony, Idaho where he taught full-time seminary for a year and then returned to BYU to complete a masters degree in Educational Administration.
Life took a turn when he decided to get his real estate license and spent the next 34 years in the real estate field. After selling his Century -21 Real Estate franchise in Mountain Home, Idaho in 1985, the last 24 years were spent with the LDS Church real estate department where he retired in 2009. During his time in the Church real estate department he was for a number of years Manager of Records and Training. He endeavored to train the other real estate agents throughout the U.S. and Canada to incorporate spiritual principles of success as well as the “nuts and bolts” of corporate real estate.
At the time of his retirement Mom and Dad resided in Tooele, Utah. They were blessed with six sons, Michael (Jennifer), Stephen (Mendy), Darin, Richard (Heather), Curtis (Eliza) and John (Grissel), and one daughter, Diane (Trever) Cotttrell. They have a wonderful posterity of 21 grandchildren and one great-grandson. Mom passed away from cancer on February 1, 2011.
Over the years Dad has been active in the LDS Church and has served in many positions including Bishop twice, High Councilor three times, and as counselor in a stake presidency. He currently serves as a counselor in a bishopric in Tooele, Utah and as an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple.
Dad has served in the community as a state delegate and presently as a county delegate to the Republican Party, and also as the president of his local condominium association. Dad served on the Livingston Family Association Board for two six year periods. During one of those periods, he gathered a descendancy database of thousands of the descendants of Archibald Livingston of 1808. This added many names that are descendants who were born and/or married since the publication of Ron Livingston’s “green” book in the 1980’s. Ron is Dad's brother.
In 2014 Dad married Brenda Palmer in the Salt Lake Temple. Brenda was raised in Grantsville, Utah and is the mother of two sons, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Dad, we are grateful to you for your continuing legacy of example, and service.
New Histories from the families of James, Charles, Isabella, Archibald and William
Future newsletters will include a history from each Livingston line. There will be a detailed history from the line being highlighted and an introductory paragraph of the histories for the other 4 lines and a link to the complete history on FamilySearch.org. We are asking for help in providing new histories. If you have or would like to write a history with a photo of your parent, grandparent, etc, please email to board@livingstonfamily.org or mail to Mary Ann Swalberg at 5541 s 235 E, Murray, 84107
ISABELLA LINE - Sarah Jane Aiken
Written by sister-in-law, Elizabeth Elmira Aiken. Submitted by Jaynann Lillywhite
She took advantage of the opportunities afforded her and made her life a fruitful one. Her life has been rich in experiences and progressive and extensive in service. She was born generously endowed with talents and leadership capacity. Her knowledge of the gospel, her sincerity, her courage to stand for her beliefs, her sympathetic heart, her exemplary life and her influence for good has been felt by all those with whom she associated.
She was a true and loving mother, excellent neighbor and a good homemaker. She met each day with a keen interest in its affairs with judgment and courage and responded to the requirements made of her. All the organizations she was called to assist were strengthened by her good deeds.
She was first counselor to the YLMIA for several years, member of the ward choir and active in genealogy. She had her endowment at the age of 18 so she could go to the temple with her father to assist in endowment work. She had a wealth of knowledge and understanding of life's purposes and she stimulated her associates to greater efforts in well doing. In her spare time she read the scriptures but never cluttered her mind with shoddy literature. She chose to reach out willingly to help a friend or neighbor. She was always humble, sub-missive, gentle, full of patience and a real companion of her father. Her devotion and watchful care to her father endured as long as he lived. There was no effort too much, no sacrifice too great to protect her brothers from evil in order to preserve them in righteousness. She was dearly loved by all her brothers and when separated from them she shed tears of sorrow and upon their return she shed tears of joy.
While still in her teens, along with two of her brothers, James and Charles and a girl companion, Hannah Adler and her brother, Otto Adler, she came down by the request of her Uncle James C. Livingston to serve as a cook for a group of men under the leadership of her Uncle James who had taken out the contract at the granite quarry, to quarry rock for the Salt Lake Temple. They had a beautiful resort known as The Wasatch and they lived there all summer until the late fall. Before coming home they went into Salt Lake and completely furnished their new home with carpets, furniture, window blinds and curtains. It gave her pleasure in being able to make a new home for her aged father and mother and six brothers. She was a beautiful and very popular girl and was always selected as our queen for every May Day. She had a very good complexion, brown eyes and pretty brown curly hair.
(The remainder of this history is taken from Daniel T. Thomander's diary, husband of Sarah Jane.)
During the summer of 1893 I belonged to the baseball team in Ephraim. We played a game on July 4th with Mount Pleasant. During the dance that evening I met my future wife, Miss Sarah Jane Aiken of Spring City. I saw her on the floor dancing and I was so attracted by her beauty and modest personality that I sought an introduction. We got on the floor and began walking around as was the custom. Before we knew it the music stopped and we had not made a turn in the dance. That was the beginning of our courtship.
In the summer of 1895 I became engaged to Sarah Jane and on September 18, 1895 we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. After our marriage we lived in Chester, Utah where I, Dan, taught school. In 1896 we moved to Castle Dale, Utah, where I was principal of the school. We lived there until 1902. Then we moved back to Paris, Idaho. By then we had three children: Lucia, Weston and Veron. She really thought a great deal of her children and was a real wife and mother. I, Dan, taught school at the Fielding Academy.
It was August 23, 1904 that Wm. L. Rich came to the ranch about 8:30 a.m. Said I'd better hurry home as my wife Jane was ill. I therefore hastened as fast as I could ride a horse arriving home,found my beloved wife in convulsions due to uremic poison. A girl child had been born (Jean). The mother lapsed into a coma and could not speak or recognize me or any who attended. This was about 9 a.m., Dr. West attending physician. He did not give me any hopes for her recovery. At 3 p.m. she passed peacefully away, leaving me a lonely husband with four small children, away from our relatives but not our friends. For we had scores of devoted friends. None anywhere could do more to assist and alleviate the pangs of sorrow at that time. She was interred at the cemetery in Paris, Idaho.
 | JAMES LINE - Clive Livingston Jeffs Submitted by Karolyn Hall Clive Livingston Jeffs was the only son born to George Nephi and Ethel Livingston Jeffs. He spent his first years in Castle Dale and then moved to Mohrland, Utah where his dad worked in the mine and took care of the mine horses. Clive had an older sister Hazel and much younger sister Enid Cox. He spent many years doing chores for the family farm When he was a teenager He fixed up an old buggy with a friend to be guided by a steering wheel in the middle and ropes to each front wheel. He had many, many successes in his life and click on the attached link to read his fabulous story at FamilySearch. |  | CHARLES LINE - Daniel Harrocks Submitted by Bob Folsom Charles Livingston had two wives who were sisters. Daniel Harrocks is the father of these two women. He was born December 15, 1804 in Aughton, Lancashire, England. He was driven to join the saints in Zion. He died January 13, 1855 in Achinson, Kansas just as their company was departing for Utah. For pictures and a detailed history of what happened to his wife and children click here. |
_(1).jpg) | ARCHIBALD LINE - Gladys Jane Olsen Livingston Taylor Gaspar Submitted by Adele Livingston Gladys Jane Olsen, Livingston, Taylor, Gaspar met her husband to be "Arch" (Archibald Livingston) while sitting on a flour barrel in his Los Angeles bakery while she was on vacation from SLC. Her friend, (his cousin) introduced them. Gladys married Archibald Livingston in 1927. He was the grandson of Archibald Livingston (1845). She and Arch had five children, but she mothered her siblings and their children as well. As Primary President, she had so many kids in her car to take home from Church, that she left her own son behind. She was cute, fun, unpretentious and natural. She was non-judgmental and was a friend to all and left a great legacy for many. You will really enjoy reading the whole story at FamilySearch. |  | WILLIAM LINE - Lewis Sears Livingston Submitted by Kay Livingston Larson Lewis Sears Livingston was born on September 1, 1923 in Holladay, Utah. He was born to William R and Afton S Livingston. During summer vacations he was sent to Colorado to work for Uncle Joe Livingston who had extensive sheep operations near Craig and Hayden, mostly along the Williams Fork of the White River. He enrolled at the University of Utah in pre-law courses and began working at Salt Lake Abstract Company after school. After Pearl Harbor he decided to take advantage of several Navy options. To read the rest of this great story please click here. |
News on the Discovery of More Cousins During Recent Research
Submitted by Jaynann Lillywhite
I would like to report that since the 2014 reunion, I have found over 400 cousins and thanks to many of you, we are in the process of completing their temple ordinances. If you would like to help, please contact me at lillywhitesonpixley@gmail.com.
I have created 2 trees on Ancestry.com. The first tree is named Isabella Livingston Family and includes the descendants of Archibald (1760) with over 1000 people. To find this tree, search in Public Trees for Christina Livingston, born 1796 in Dalgetty. In the search box put in the name of the person you want to view on this tree. The second tree is called Muir Japp tree and includes descendants of Christian Muir and James Japp with over 200 people.
Most of us are very familiar with the story of Granny Christina leaving Scotland with her two youngest children and her orphaned grandchildren to cross the ocean and the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1855. But less is known about the rest of the family that she left behind in Scotland. There were actually a few of these family members who also immigrated to Utah to gather with the Saints. Page 30 of the big green Livingston book refers to a cousin named Janet Brown Bell who moved with her 2 daughters to Salt Lake City. This was Granny’s granddaughter, the daughter of Janet Livingston and Andrew Brown. Janet Brown Bell’s 26 yr old husband died in Nov. 1881 in Scotland. She must have left Scotland soon after that as she died in Salt Lake City just less than 3 years later.
Another granddaughter of Granny’s who immigrated to Utah was Agnes’ daughter Christina Campbell. Christina was baptized into the Church in Dec 1849. In 1856 she married David Johnston. They with their 5 children immigrated to Utah sometime between 1866 and 1869 since the last 3 of their 8 children were born in Utah and Wyoming. A lesser known relative who immigrated to Utah was Isabella Japp. Her grandfather was a halfbrother to Granny’s father Robert. So Isabella Japp was the daughter of one of Granny’s cousins. Isabella married George B Edgar in 1851 and they were baptized a couple years later. They had all 12 of their children in the Fordell, Fife area and then left in the early 1880’s settling in Salt Lake City.
Financial Update and Board Member Information
Submitted by Enid Cox
We appreciate all the contributions we received this past year. If you would like to contribute for the 2015 year please do so at the upcoming reunion or mail your contributions to Enid Cox.
| Assignment | Name | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Co-Chairperson | Dana Rogers | 801-369-2093 |
| Co-Chairperson | Mary Ann Swalberg | 801-869-0735 |
| Reunion Co-Chair | Daidre Francom | 281-389-4764 |
| Reunion Co-Chair | Trent Lewis | 801-250-9323 |
| Family History Co-Chair | Bob Folsom | 801-821-8335 |
| Family History Co-Chair | Jaynann Lillywhite | 505-632-2514 |
| Technology | Mike Livingston | 801-850-3616 |
| Newsletter | Karolyn Hall | 719-661-4014 |
| Treasurer | Enid Cox | 801-706-2639 |