Since becoming sick I haven't felt up to working on family history until the past few weeks. Ever since October's General Conference and then again at our Stake conference I have felt the urging to begin this process again. My mom also wanted to join me in this process.
When my mom and I first met at the beginning of October we decided to have a prayer together in order to determine where we should begin our family search adventure this time. We both agreed to start looking at our family tree more closely to determine if there are any errors in the ancestors that we think there work is already done. We decided to write down the questions we had and then take them to the family history center and ask the volunteer missionary specialists.
So after looking at all of our ancestors we had a few questions especially on a great(x5) grandmother to me. There were numerous disputes about her from many other people claiming whom she was married to. We felt really strong about researching and trying to prove that she was indeed married to the man we thought was her husband.
We took these questions of how to research Danish birth and marriage records to the Family search library. We met a volunteer missionary, from our stake, who specializes in Danish, Scandinavian, and German records, We spent many hours and several weeks learning how to use Danish websites and trying to find the needle in a haystack(their marriage record) that we were looking for. We continued to do what he suggested and search census records of him and his wife, and also search birth records of their children. As we did we were able to narrow it between three years of when they could have been married. As each Parrish in Denmark would list every birth, confirmation(age 14), death, and marriage in their records. The government demanded it for tax and recording purposes.
After many hours and days of searching we finally TODAY found the marriage record of Ane Johanne Jorgensen and Neils Larsen Sorensen. In their records it stated they were married in 1865 where in reality their marriage was dated Nov. 15, 1870. We were so elated to finally lay our eyes upon their record that we both started to tear up. We felt such a strong connection with them and knew we could finally put to rest this ongoing debate as to whom her husband was.
In this process we also found out that her first child was not his and needs to have her temple work done and sealed to her birth father. How excited we were to be able to finally get somewhere. We knew that the Lord was guiding and directing us and leading us to find this. We know that we could have never done this alone and learned how important it is to listen to the prompting and ideas you get when working on your own family line.
We left the family history center feeling so elated at the fact of being able to find such vital information. We could not wait to attach this information to family search and put this debate to rest for good! We decided we needed to celebrate and went out and bought a pumpkin yogurt! We then went to our own homes and shared with our families the good news! I even started to tear up once again as I shared this amazing news! Who knew family history would make you feel so close to your ancestors!
I can now understand what it means that the "Hearts of the Fathers shall turn to the children, and the Hearts of the children shall turn to their Fathers," For us today we felt as if are loved ones who had passed on were cheering us on and so grateful that we had finally uncovered the truth that had been hidden for years!
I found this picture on the internet and it reminded me of me and my mom searching for our ancestors and knowing they were right behind us watching and cheering us on every step of the way!
"And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers,
and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers."
D&C 2:2
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