Blessed Honored Pioneer - Lucy Simmons Groves

 

Lucy Simmons Groves is my 4th great grandmother. Though she endured many hardships in her life she pressed onward and forward and always maintained her strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today I want to share the story of the births of her children (that touch my heart as a mother) and her journey to escape persecution.

Lucy and Elisha were married 14 January 1836 in Kirtland, Geauga, Ohio. From there they traveled to Clay county, Missouri. Lucy traveled with her friends and family and Elisha traveled separately preaching along the way. He met up with them before they reached their destination in the summer of 1836. They moved in the fall from Clay county to what would become Far West, Caldwell, Missouri and their first child, a daughter, Mary Leah Groves was born 30 October 1836.

Two years later in the fall of 1838 the mob drove them from their home in Far West. In either October or November their second child and first son, John Simmons Groves was born. He only lived a few months.

The images below are from the LDS Church History Library. They are Mormon Redress Petitions (aka Missouri Claims) from 1839-1845. These are statements pertaining to grievances suffered by the Mormons in Missouri, 1833-1839. The majority are petitions collected for the purpose of presentation as redress bills before the United States Congress. These 2 images are Elisha's petition for redress. 

The mob drove them from their home and took all of their property and left them "without a shelter to cover from the storm." It is assumed that their son John Simmons was born during this time.

Image: MS 2703_b0001_f0012_00043

Image: MS 2703_b0001_f0012_00044

The family then moved to Columbus, Adams, Illinois (this is where the above redress was written) and where on 14 September 1840 their third child, another son, Samuel Elisha Groves was born.

After Samuel's birth, the family moved to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois where 11 months later their fourth child, another daughter, Patience Sibyl Groves was born on 18 August 1841. Some records list her birth as 1843. Though she is quoted in family records as saying she was 7 years old in 1848 when she walked to the Salt Lake Valley.

The fifth child, another daughter, Sarah Matilda Groves was born 14 February 1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, A mob had come to their home and told them that they must either renounce Mormonism or they had only one hour in which to leave. If they were still there at the end of that time the mob would kill the whole family. That night, during a terrible storm, without shelter or protection Lucy gave birth to Sarah. They then crossed the frozen Mississippi River less than two weeks later on 26 February 1846. Can you imagine four young children, with one of them being a 12 day old infant in those conditions? They reached Council Bluffs, Harrison, Iowa in late July 1846 and Sarah Matilda died in October 1846 of cholera.

Now Lucy has three living young children. Her half brother Samuel Thompson enlisted with the Mormon Battalion at Winter Quarters and left his two young children with Lucy to care for and take to the Salt Lake Valley. The Groves family stayed in Winter Quarters until late Spring 1848.

During the preparation to leave Winter Quarters for the Salt Lake Valley Lucy gave birth to their sixth child, another daughter, Lucy Maria Groves on 7 May 1848. Ten days later at 2 pm they left Winter Quarters in Brigham Young's company. Can you imagine six young children the youngest less than two weeks old?

The following took place less than one month later and this excerpt is taken from Thomas Bullock's Journal:

So my dear ancestor Lucy, having just had a baby 4 weeks previous, is sick and she fell out of the front of the wagon and the wheels of the wagon crushed her breast breaking ribs and then breaking her leg.

Nine days later, her eldest daughter Mary Leah was helping take care of the family and accidentally stumbled over her mother's leg breaking it a second time. The pain was so severe that Lucy told Elisha that he would have to pull the wagon out of the train and stop because she could not go on further.

The following excerpt is from Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young:

Brigham Young would not leave them alone on the trail. He helped her so that she could ride in a little more comfort. They made it to the Salt Lake Valley with their four young children and the two young Thompson children and Lucy continued to heal. She had a limp and used a cane for the remainder of her life.

I am so grateful for her courage, patience and long suffering. Often when my days seem difficult with my two young children, I remember her and her trials and I take courage that my life isn't as difficult. I have a home where I can exercise my faith and my freedoms. For these reasons and many more, I thank Lucy and all those who traveled the trail.

My Family's Visit to the FamilySearch Discovery Center

Our family visited the FamilySearch Discovery Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 15, 2015. I had previously visited by myself in February as part of a media visit during RootsTech. You can read about my visit and about how to navigate the various stations in the center at this link: 
FamilySearch Discovery Center

Today's post is about my family's visit and my observations with having my young family there.

In the FamilySearch area of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, you can get a free souvenir photo taken as though you are on the dock arriving in New York City. I especially love Matthew's closed eyes in the above photo. It must have been a long and tiring journey for him. Once the photo is taken, you enter your email address and it is immediately sent to you. Anyone visiting Temple Square should go get a free photo; it is separate from the Discovery Center experience.

In the Discovery Center, when you arrive you are given an iPad and you Sign In with your FamilySearch account and then take a picture of yourself for the adventure. FamilySearch accounts are available for anyone over the age of 8 years. My children are not yet that old; my daughter is getting close though.

Here is a picture of my husband for his Discovery adventure.

Children are then given these items: A hat and a bag containing a map, magnifying glass, binoculars, pencil, notebook, and according to my daughter "wooden circles about families". This is my 2nd visit and I still haven't figured out exactly what is in that bag and the activity that goes along with the map. I am too attached to the iPad stations. I know the map matches the iPad stations that the parents and older children are using. I just don't know what the entire activity is about. The next time we visit, I am going to figure this out.

At one of the iPad stations you learn about your name. Here is information about my husband's name. My information is in my February blog post as mentioned above. I was intrigued that it gave Scott information for both his first and middle name.






















Not only is his first, middle, and last name Scottish, his heritage is 28% Scottish and he chose this photo in the photo booth. I love the look on his face; I giggle all the time when I see it.

We had our children also take pictures in the photo booth using our logged in iPads. Here is Emma in a German outfit; though her heritage is less than 24% German (my login). It will be fun and interesting for her when she is 8 years old next year to visit the Discovery Center under her own login.

At the photo booth you can also switch to other heritages to see what you would look like. Emma really liked this outfit and had fun becoming "Ukrainian" for just a moment.

I call this photo "The One Eyed Ancient Roman"! It can be really hard for a young child to hold still while the computer takes the picture. In many of the images you have to tilt your head to match the picture and it is hard enough for an adult to do, let alone a young child. Still this photo makes me giggle.

I found this interesting thing when my iPad was docked at the map station. In February the program showed that my first chronological ancestor to convert to the LDS Church was Lucy Simmons on 8 March 1832. During this experience in June the program showed that my first convert ancestor was Elisha Hurd Groves and it shows the same date! Lucy and Elisha later marry on 14 January 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio.

Elisha was living in Indiana when he was baptized on 8 March 1832 by Elder Calvin Beebe. He had been taught about the Book of Mormon in September 1831 by Elder Samuel H. Smith (brother of Joseph) and Elder Reynolds Cahoon. The gospel also came to Lucy's home in the fall of 1831 in New York and she was baptized on 8 March 1832 by Elder Samuel H. Smith (brother of Joseph). It is amazing to me that they were both baptized on the very same day and that Elder Samuel H. Smith had influenced both of their lives and then later on 14 January 1836 they marry by the counsel of the Prophet Joseph.

Here are some photos of my children playing with some of the activities that are just outside the Discovery Center room. They enjoyed this area the most.

Again, I hope you are interested in visiting the FamilySearch Discovery Center on your next trip to Salt Lake City. We chose to schedule our visit with the Discovery Center to guarantee that we would be able to get in at the date and time that worked for us. While we were visiting the center, others were able to walk-in without an appointment as there were openings at the time they arrived. You cannot count on having walk-in time available. The center can accommodate larger groups up to 30 people. Follow this link to schedule your visit and learn more about the FamilySearch Discovery Center: https://familysearch.org/discoverycenter

#DiscoverMyStory     #FamilySearch

My Story

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. 
Explore. Dream. Discover.

 - Attributed to the mother of H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When I am teaching others about family history and they are concerned about how to get started, I tell them to "start with themselves".  I have been wanting to write a family history related blog for a long time and today is the day that I am finally starting it.  I have struggled with what I wanted my first post to be; as I have a long list of topics I want to blog about.  I finally realized, just as I tell those I teach, I need to start with myself and my story.

As a young teen in the early 1980s, I loved playing computer games. We had a Commodore 64 and my all-time favorite game was Dungeon of the Algebra Dragons.  In 1984, my father acquired a copy of PAF 1.0 for him to start electronically keeping track of his family history.  In order to have more time for computer games, I was enticed into entering family names into PAF.  My father was a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had spent nearly two decades (at this point) trying to track down his family history. I quickly entered in the information he had for his family and then moved on to entering in the information my mother had on her family.  She had LDS pioneer ancestors and some amazing biographical sketches and photos about them.  I was intrigued to learn about their lives.  They quickly became my friends. 

One day as I was reading a story about my 4th Great-Grandparents, Elisha Hurd and Lucy Simmons Groves, I was amazed to find out that they were called to settle and establish the area in which I was living.  My parents had individually moved to this area to attend college and they did not know the story of these ancestors.  I promised myself as a young teen that I would know the history of all my ancestors and I would pass those stories, lessons, emotions, and memories to my children. That my children would know their heritage.

Also during this time, and perhaps even earlier as a young child, I would listen to amazing genealogy stories told during testimony meeting by Hilda Mary Woodford Fife.  She had a deep Australian accent and was in her early 80s and her stories were captivating to me: climbing high churchyard brick walls in Scotland, chasing down a copy of William Shakespeare's will, and doing research for Church President David O. McKay.  I was amazed that a little old lady could climb walls!  It wasn't until just recently that I learned that she had these amazing adventures when she was much younger.  Her stories were captivating to me like the Nancy Drew mysteries I was reading at the time. Wow! To be a real life detective and mystery solver.  I chose to do a school biography project on Hilda and I loved being in her home interviewing her about genealogy. Looking back over all my experiences related to genealogy and family history, I feel that Hilda was unknowingly my mentor.  I will share more about Hilda in another post.

My love for "genealogy" - what I prefer to call "family history" - grew and when I was 14 years old I attended my first genealogical seminar. My mother dropped me off at the conference as I was too young to drive. I still have the conference flyer, program, handouts, and some of my handwritten notes. I took classes on using a computer to do genealogy, using the branch genealogical library, basic genealogy for beginners, and German individual consultation.

In the past 30 years I have created family organizations, planned and carried out large and small family reunions, hunted for cousins all across the country, designed and installed a headstone, taught the LDS Institute Family History course (piloted it in 1995), served for numerous years in ward and stake family history callings, and have taught others the ins and out of family history for 20 years.  In this past year I have begun presenting (teaching) at regional and national family history conferences.  Next week, I will present a session at RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I look forward to sharing on this blog all the things I have learned in the past 30 years and the things I am still learning.  I hope you will join me in this adventure.