Family History Kick

So I'm on a Family History kick right now. I'm not sure what got this started. Wait yes I do. I was reviewing the April 2020 General Conference talks, and in his "Hear Him" talk, President Nelson gives us quite a few promises, including this: 

"While worshipping in the temple is presently not possible, I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and indexing. I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him."

So I do want to be able to hear the promptings of the Holy Ghost more, so, off to do family history I go! I thought I'd start with my Grandpa Hibberts family and other things on the Hibbert line. There were 5 kids in his family - Sarah, Melvina, Abraham Owen, then my Granpa Julian, and his little brother Mark. I just wanted to get my bearings of who they were, dates of when they were born, died, etc. I had it all for Sarah, Melvina, and Mark, but I couldn't find where Owen was buried. Here is Owen.

So then I started looking for his obituary, nothing. I can't even remember what led me to what... I'd have to go look back at my notes, but somehow I found the obituary of his daugher Joye, and that gave me names of her children, then I found one of their obituaries (Kenneth Gunnarson) and that gave me names of his siblings and grandchildren, and I looked on facebook and found some of them! They told me to talk to Robert/Bob, and when he messaged me back this week, sad story, he told me that Owen abandoned his wife and mom when they were very young. So shoot, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring up painful memories. Bobo actually said that his mom and grandma both never talked about it, so no leads there. But then I found his other marriage, found his two kids Jereld and Steve (I found their yearbook photos on ancestry, so that was fun!) and I found Jereld's obituary, he died in 2014. That listed the names of his three kids, one of whom is still alive, lives in Vegas, and he messaged me back on facebook, yay! So I have another connection, we'll see if we find out any information there. But it's been fun. Here is a photo of my dad's uncle Mark - we don't know who the baby is

Another one of Mark.

Mark and Owen both moved to California, and since they didn't have the internet and facebook it was hard to keep in touch? So then I just started going crazy and messaging a ton of people on facebook if they were Hibberts and we either had mutual friends, or if I could tell they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ (pic of temple on their facebook or something) or if they were from Utah-Idaho-Wyoming, cause that is Hibbert country. And so I've got a lot to research and figure out, and it's fun! And this is just for my Grandpa's immediate family with Ambrose and Mary Williamson, not to mention the 8 children that were his step-siblings from his dad's first marriage with Sarah Nield. I've been on ancestry and familysearch a lot looking for stuff. The only bad thing is that this has taken away a little bit of the wind in my sails for playing violin or exercising. Cause now all that I want to do is try to find another piece to this puzzle! But it's good. Hopefully it will help me keep out of the kitchen, even if it does prevent me from getting onto the treadmill. But mostly, I hope that this does help me to hear the Savior more and draw closer to Him. I feel like it has happened a little bit already, cause I am getting an eternal perspective of how short life is, of the legacy we leave when we die, of the importance of decisions we make, and how I want to make the right decisions. I am glad to believe in life after death. I think Ambrose and Mary are on the other side, working to gather in their children - teaching those that have passed on into the spirit world that might not have had the gospel to guide them while they were here on earth. And working to prompt and gather those of us on this side of the veil to find each other. It's like my own version of Relative Race. I think it will be fun to find cousins and second cousins that are still alive! Family History isn't just a work for deceased family, it's for us living souls too, it's fun. Man, I wish I didn't have to sleep, there is so much I want to read and learn and do. But I mostly want to be present with my own children. I sure love my kids. I should go be a mom for a little bit. I need to keep kids from fighting -  O and D making up yesterday after a squabble

And stop Peter from drawing on himself! Thankfully it hasn't gotten on the walls or new couches yet, knock on wood.