Friday, July 25, 2008

Family History, I am doing it

Well not really, but I am loving it! I recently stumbled upon a blog and found a distant cousin to Neil. Her name is Rachel Schwendiman. This inspired me to read the Schwendiman family history again. I haven't read it for about 10 years. By the time I got to page 14 I made an amazing discovery. Neils lineage is this:

Johannes and Anna Schwendiman
parents of
Abraham (wife Maria) Schwendiman
parents of
Samuel (wife Magdalena) Schwendiman
parents of
Fred, Samuel, John, Godfrey, Rudolph and Christian
(John is the great grandfather to Rachels husband and Rudolph is Neil's great grandfather....thus making them distant cousings)
Rudolph and wife Clara
parents of
Magdalena, Clara, Elmer, Wayne, Melvin, Lucille and Donna
(Wayne is Neil's Grandfather and Elmer is my friend (and in our ward) Rhinda's grandfather, making Neil and Rhinda cousins)
Wayne and wife Verla
parents of
Steven (wife Glenda)
parents of
Neil (wife ME)

Have I confused you enough? Basically the sons go: Johannes, Abraham, Samuel, Rudolph, Wayne, Steven, Neil!

Here is the interesting part. When Samuel and his wife Magdalena were living in Switzerland they met a mormon missionary. There was so much persecution at this time towards the mormons that Samuel and Magdalena snuck out at two in the morning and hiked through deep snow for about 3/4 a mile to find a place to be baptized. They came upon a creek. There was a foot of snow on the ground and a thickness of ice had to be cut through for them to get into the water to be baptized. They were baptized by John G. Hafen. Years ago I read this and thought wow...what dedication. This time I read this and went "What, John G. Hafen?" John G. Hafen was from Santa Clara Utah. (We now live in the Santa Clara area) My neighbors are Hafens. I couldn't stand not knowing where the connection could possible be. I quickly got on the internet and found that my neighbors are the great great great grandson and grand daughter of John G. Hafen. My neigbors 3rd great grandfather baptized Neil's 2nd great grandfather. Their relative was responsible for Neil and his relatives enjoying the blessings of the gospel. I love that. I love that there is a connection! So hopefully this will inspire you. Go do a little geneology. Go do a little missionary work. You never know how many lives will be changed because of you!

5 comments:

EarlGirl said...

Wow, that's cool! I found something interesting too: My husband is a descendant of Lyman Wight, and early apostle. My best friend in high school was a descendant of Elias Higbee. One night when the saints had been driven from their homes, Lyman's wife was in labor out in the rain. Elias saved her and the baby's life and kept them fed until they could get reunited with her family. The baby was my one of my husband's gr gr... grandfathers. So my best friend's ancestor is responsible for my husband's line being alive. Neat, huh?

Linz said...

!

That's so cool! It's a small world, isn't it!?!

MB said...

That is so awesome shell!!!! That gave me chills/goosebumps!!!

Chad and I were JUST talking about this today!! We went doing our deal shopping together and said.. OH OH we can now work on his family history on his side because only HE is members. He wants to do his family lineage and many if not all have been dead over 5 years. Time to do their family history. So we are getting on that asap to do their temple work. I am so excited I can do this with him!!!!! But how cool about family history. I hope we can find cool stuff about this on his side!!!

OXOXOXO

Kimberly said...

I just found out that my sister has Schwendiman friends that live in Burley Idaho. Do you know if you have relatives there?

The Harpers said...

Elmer is my great grandfather- I was writing a paper on family history for school and stumbled across your blog. What a great story about Samuel and Magdelena- can't wait to put it in my paper!