LFA Newsletter Volume 42, Issue 2 (Fall 2015)
From LFAwiki
1283 Logan Avenue
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
board@livingstonfamily.org
| Volume: 42 Issue: 2 | Date: Fall 2015 |
Contents |
Adding To Your Family Tree
by Dana Rogers
The sacred work of family history research continues through the work of Jaynann Lillywhite and Lori Livingston. They were able to find more than 600 individuals related to the Livingston family this year, and because of their desire and efforts these people are now having their temple work completed.
- To sign into Family Search, use the username and password that you use to log into your ward’s web site.
- If you do not have an account, ask your ward clerk for your membership number (also on your temple recommend)
- Go to FamilySearch.org, put in your user name and password (or create an account).Click on Get Help in the top right hand corner.
- Under Self Help, click Help Center.
- Under Select A Topic, choose the partners icon.
- When that displays, click Our Partners. Ancestry is the first on the list, but that is only the beginning.
- Click on Other Partners and you will find several categories of helpful topics. There are
- 38 apps for Finding Ancestors
- 27 apps for Family Tree Software
- 47 apps for Photos and Stories
- 27 apps for Charts and Tree Views
- 34 apps for Tree Analyzing.
If you desire any assistance, you can find a Family History library near you by clicking in the top right hand corner, Get Help, Then Contact Us, then local help and put in your zip code. You can choose an icon that tells the address and hours of the library closest to your home and there are volunteers there to assist you.
New Board Members
We are pleased to announce three new board members. Eric Epperson has joined to contribute to the reunion planning efforts as Reunion Co-chair. Celeste Livingston has also joined as Reunion Co-chair. Mickie Lewis will serve as an Assistant Treasurer, working with Enid Cox. We are excited that they are willing to share their talents and to serve on the Livingston Family Board.
 | Eric Epperson has joined the board as a contributor to the reunion planning effort. His Mother, Winifred Leslie Livingston Epperson, who passed away in 2005, is from the William line.
Eric and his wife Sally have six children and reside in Sandy, Utah, just two miles from his brother, Dwight, who has been active with his family in past Livingston reunions. He has 25 years in the health insurance industry, and has been self-employed for over 12 years. He is fluent in Spanish (Guatemala 1979-81), a graduate of Utah State University, (1984 BA, Public Relations) and The University of Phoenix (1990 MBA, Business Administration). |
 | Hi! My name is Celeste Livingston. I'm married to Gary Livingston and have four amazing kids, Carson (15), Marley (12), Tess (9) and Mac (6). We live in Lindon and love it there! I love gardening, traveling and being a cheerleader to my kids in all their activities! My maiden name is MacNaughtan so I stayed in the Scottish family. We got married and moved out of state for 10 years. When we moved back, I was constantly asked if I knew this or that Livingston. I knew none. After attending my first Livingston Reunion this past summer, I was amazed and thrilled at what has been accomplished and continues to roll forward. I am so excited to be a part of this incredible board and learn more about our heritage and get to know more wonderful Livingston family members! |
 | My name is Mickie Lewis. I am descended from James Campbell Livingston, and am married to Trent Lewis (who did such an awesome job with the children’s activities at the last couple of Livingston Family reunions!). I will be working with Enid Cox, helping her with her treasurer duties on the board. I used to work as a medical transcriptionist, but have recently completed a 1-year college course in medical coding, and am currently studying in preparation for the coding certification examination before I work on re-entering the work force. I am enjoying getting to know the other members of the Livingston Family Association board! |
2015 Reunion - Heber Valley Girls Camp
by Daidre Francom and Dana Rogers
It is always a delight to reconnect each year with cousins we haven't seen since the last reunion or create new friendships with those we are just meeting. In just 24 hours, over 150 Livingston cousins made new friends and memories participating in challenge courses, canoeing, making s’mores and visiting around the campfire.
The Livingston Rap and the Campfire Program were great. We learned about the life of the Livingston’s in Scotland and Isabella Livingston Aiken, a valiant granddaughter of Granny.
Thank you to those who came and enhanced the reunion experience. Be sure to mark your calendar each year on the third Saturday in June for the Livingston Reunions. Our next reunion will be held June 17 - 18, 2016.
If you haven’t joined us because you don’t know anyone, please come and we will help you identify others from your line so you can connect with them. We loved getting to know those who came for the first time this year!
 Zip Line |
 Campsite #2 |
 Team Work |
 Dining Hall |
 Challenge Course |
 Canoeing |
 Entertainment |
The Livingston Legacy Lives On Through Ron Livingston
by Doug Livingston
An inherent desire within each of us to understand how we relate to one another was a significant factor in Ron’s initial motivation to create the book.
Years ago, a family reunion was held during which someone distributed copies of our family tree. Pedigree charts organized by the six main family lines were printed on newsprint for family members to take home. It was a great idea. As family members chatted and got to know one another at the reunion, they could refer to the pedigrees and “map” their relation to one another. It was understood that a knowledge of one another’s “lines” helps provide context to better appreciate each other and strengthens family ties.
Ron understood that, but he also understood something else.
The parish register for Dalgetty Parish, Fifeshire, records “Archibald Livingstoune” and “Christian Muire” in “Coal toune” giving up their names to be proclaimed on June 25th, 1725. This marriage announcement is the oldest record we have of Archibald Livingston, our family’s earliest known ancestor and of the Livingston family.
Note: Genealogical records regularly attribute Archibald’s birth to 1702, but this is purely speculative. An original source which records the date of his birth has not been located nor does there appear to be any surviving evidence of his parentage.
Archibald’s oldest surviving son was James [b:1734]. In keeping with established naming tradition in Scotland, James named his oldest son Archibald [b:1760] after his paternal grandfather. Likewise, this Archibald named his oldest son James [b:1783] and that James in turn named his oldest son Archibald [b:1808].
This last Archibald is the one memorialized in the title of the green Livingston book, 1808 Archibald Livingston, Descendants & Ancestry.
Little is known about Archibald, but he named his oldest son James [b:1833]. Orphaned at a young age, James and his siblings were raised by their grandmother, Christina. After joining the LDS Church, James was the first in the family to answer the call to “come to Zion”, preparing the way for others in the family to emigrate. These stories are recorded in the Livingston Book.
Perhaps affected by his life in this “new world”, James named his oldest son James [b:1858]. James had a son he named Arthur [b:1881]. Arthur had a son he named Arthur Burnell [b:1908] and he had a son named Ronald [b:1935].
And that’s the other thing Ron understood: He is the oldest son of the oldest son, extending back through ten generations to that first Archibald Livingston. With that knowledge comes a sense of responsibility, the need to contribute to the family, and Ron rose to the challenge. The family had long since outgrown what would fit on pedigree charts printed on newsprint. They would need to be replaced by a large volume of family history.
I was just a teenager when the work to assemble the book was conducted. I witnessed many, many hours of effort spent seeking out genealogical data that others spent lifetimes researching. It took years to locate and gather all of those sources. Family histories were solicited. Perhaps most difficult of all, copies of those highly prized, closely held, irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind pictures had to be obtained. In that pre-internet era, every available source was explored; long distance phones calls were placed, personal visits were made, letters were written, reunions were held; any means imaginable were used to find the most accurate information possible.
All of that information then had to be organized and numbering/indenting method employed. With a family already in the thousands, the painful process of editing then had to begin. A limit had to be established. There was just no way to include everyone’s story and picture in the book. Even with that editing, the resulting book was still very large.
Printing did begin, but just when the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was in view, a major setback occurred. The printer’s business failed. With it went all of the advance funding family members had provided for their copy of the book. The incomplete book sat as unbound pages while solutions to the problem were explored. The determination and perseverance required to complete this task was immense.
The bank required additional funding before it would release its claim to the material that had already been printed. Family members stepped forward and the necessary funding was secured. The original order of 1,000 books was reduced to 500. The books were assembled, bound and distributed.
After all of those years of effort, Ron’s vision was finally realized. A book that tells our story, a means to know a little more about who we are, was available. Family members could locate themselves and trace their line. In addition, they could reference another family member and identify common ancestors. Family members could better visualize how they fit into the family structure.
Anyone who knows Ron will recognize his commitment to excellence in everything he does. The rush to press was a distinctly dissonant note to the disciplined approach he had employed for so many years. In all of the rush, errors were missed. This is something that bothers Ron a great deal. Now, 35 years after the original printing, he still faithfully records the corrections in a copy of the book he maintains for that purpose.
In this modern era of computers that provide access to Internet sources for research and can be used to build genealogical databases containing literally millions of names and dates, the green Livingston book still remains a valued reference and keepsake in many homes.
Learning About Our Ancestors
by Jaynann Lillywhite
Wouldn’t it be great to know more stories about our ancestors? Here are a couple ways you might be able to find out more about them. Log on to the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org. Go to your ancestor’s detail page and click on memories. Perhaps another relative has attached pictures or stories about your ancestor. If you have pictures and stories, consider attaching them to share with others!
Another possible resource for stories is the Pioneer Overland Travel site at history.lds.org/overlandtravels. Here you can search by name for your ancestors who crossed the plains as Mormon pioneers between the years 1847 and 1869. The site searches by exact spelling only so try spelling their names in different ways if necessary. Click on all the blue words to find all the information. Click on the name of the wagon company for a list of sources. For the Richard Ballantyne Company (the company Granny Livingston and her family traveled with) there are almost 3 dozen sources listed. I like to read the sources that were journals entries. From these entries I learned about the encounters the company had with the Indians wanting to trade their ponies for white girls, the herds of buffalos they saw, the stampedes, the accidents along the way, and the grasshoppers that had devoured the crops in Utah which were now on their way east.
A similar site but for the ships bringing the emigrants across the ocean is mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu. After clicking on an emigrant’s name, click on “Read about the voyage.” Granny sailed to America on the “Charles Buck”. Elder Ballantyne was their priesthood leader on the ship as well as their captain of the wagon company. Elder Ballantyne’s journal records his instruction in keeping the ship clean, managing the cooking schedule, and how to keep them safe as they crossed the ocean. The journal gives insight into some of the challenges they faced and how they generally stuck together to have a pleasant voyage.
What can you learn about some of your ancestors that will help you appreciate the sacrifices and hardships they endured in life? Are there stories worth sharing with your family members that will draw their hearts closer to their ancestors? You might be surprised at what you can learn if you start searching.
If Lori Can Do It YOU Can Too!!
by Lori Livingston
I have been interested in family history for a while - ever since I heard a speaker say that the best way one can come the closest to the Savior is through doing family history work. I found it fascinating to think of all of my ancestors who had lived before me and I just didn't want any of these ancestors to have to wait any longer for their work to be done, especially if there was something I could do to help them. I asked my parents for help, but they really didn't know how to go about getting started. In fact, they both told me they were pretty sure most if not all of our family history was complete and up to date. I still felt like there was work for me to do...
In our ward and at a recent youth conference, there had been a lot of focus on doing family history so I listened to every talk I could about it. Several of the speakers had told us how to find names even when it appeared most of the work had already been done. So, I just jumped in and started to follow the directions I had heard.
I got addicted right away and found myself up sometimes as late as 2 a.m. on school nights searching for family members’ names whose temple work needed to be completed. I was just so excited to be doing family history! My fascination and addiction got so bad that my parents literally had to "ground me" from doing family history work until after my school work was complete because family history was all I wanted to do. I hated it when they did this but I did work quicker to get my school work done so that I could get back to doing family history...
I really became obsessed and felt such an urgency to find the names of my ancestors who were waiting for their temple work to be done. It was all I could think about and I was on the computer as much as I could be. It actually didn't take me long before I started discovering ancestors who needed their work done. I would say that within a two-week period of time I found 267 family names, of which more than 100 were from my Livingston line.
It was so exciting! I just felt like Heavenly Father was helping me find every single name. I could hardly believe it each time I found someone else. I just felt so happy!
My older brother Drew was preparing to leave on his mission to Raleigh, North Carolina when I was finding all of these names, so my family decided we needed to go to the temple together as a family to start doing the work. On June 6, 2015, our family attended the Seattle, Washington Temple where we did baptisms for 50 of our relatives. And the neatest part about it was that my brother was the one that baptized and confirmed each of us. This was an incredibly spiritual experience for our family. We really felt the love of our Savior as we were together in the temple that day and there was no doubt we could feel the presence of our ancestors. I knew they had been waiting a long time for that day to arrive. I couldn't have felt any happier! It's as if we could feel the threads that bind our family together strengthening and we felt even more bound to our ancestors.
I am so grateful for this experience and for the opportunity I have had to be a part of our Livingston Family history. Knowing that I am in some small way helping strengthen our family and helping us be an eternal family has really been a blessing for me! I plan to go to the temple as much as I can this summer to do as much of the work as possible and I look forward to continuing to do family history work - for the rest of my life! I just love it!
Our Name: Livingston or Livingstone?
by Roger Livingston
Over the years, many of us have had the opportunity to meet and get to know our Scottish cousin, William Livingstone. Besides hosting several of us in his home and giving us wonderful tours of our family homelands in Scotland, our Association brought William and his wife to Salt Lake several years ago to attend and make a presentation at our annual reunion.
When my wife and I were visiting in his home in Scotland, we were discussing why some of our relatives spell our name Livingstone, rather than the more common Livingston. William's explanation was that the English clerks (pronounced "clarks") -- when they were taking the census or other government functions -- would inadvertently or mistakenly drop the "e", largely because they often could not understand the strong Scottish accent. I disagreed, suggesting that the added "e" was the aberration -- not the other way around since no "e" was significantly more common and that even though the Livingstons of that day were sometimes illiterate, they likely would have most often recognized a misspelling of their own name. William's father was listening to the discussion and I could tell was growing somewhat uncomfortable as the conversation continued. He then brought out an old family bible and showed us that he was born with the name Livingston-- with no "e". Likewise, his parents and all other family members were all Livingstons. William was flabbergasted and expressed dismay to his father, "Why did you change the spelling and add an 'e'?" In his wonderful Scottish brogue and with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, he said "Oh, as a young lad I just thought it looked better, so I added the 'e'." We all had a good laugh together, enjoying the warmth of their home and the wonderful common heritage we shared.
My view: Livingston --no "e"-- is the correct historic name. Whether English clerks or whatever reasons, over the years an "e" was on occasion added. But no matter how spelled, Livingston is a name of faith and family, courage and commitment -- and honor.
Board Member Information
| Photo | Name, Phone | Assignment | Line | Term Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dana Rogers, 801-369-2093 | Co-Chair | Charles Line | 2016 |
 | Mary Ann Swalberg, 801-869-0735 | Co-Chair | Charles Line | 2015 |
 | Enid Cox, 801-706-2639 | Treasurer | James Line | 2016 |
| | Mickie Lewis, 801-250-9323 | Assistant Treasurer | James Line | 2018 |
| | Eric Epperson, 801-599-4327 | Reunion Co-chair | William Line | 2018 |
| | Celeste Livingston, 801-885-7944 | Reunion Co-chair | Archibald Line | 2018 |
 | Bob Folsom, 801-821-8335 | Family History Research | Charles Line | 2016 |
 | Jaynann Lillywhite, 505-632-2514 | Family History Research | Isabella Line | 2017 |
 | Mike Livingston, 801-850-3616 | Technology / Newsletter | James Line | 2017 |
 | Karolyn Hall, 719-661-4014 | Newsletter | James Line | 2017 |
The PDF version of this newsletter can be viewed and downloaded by clicking here (847 KB).