Update: Part 2

Lately, I've been on quite the genealogy kick. I signed up with Ancestry.com, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in family history. You can find other people who share a common ancestor with you, and see how far back they've traced the family line. Now granted, I don't know how thoroughly researched these people's work is, so who knows if it can be trusted, but some people on Ancestry.com have traced one of our family lines back to King Henry II of England. I'm certainly not willing to do the work it would take to verify that claim, but you know what? It just feels right. I've always known I was better than everyone else, and now I know why. From now on, I would like to be addressed as "Your Royal Highness."

So all of that is from my dad's side of the family. From my mother's side, I inherited something pretty special as well.

Here is a copy of a census record from long, long, ago. On line 285, you'll find my great grandparents, John and Alice Hodgen, and their family. They have a few kids living with them, including my grandmother, Jamima. That's right. I said Jamima. Too bad she's not my aunt.



They also have a nephew staying with them, and you'll never guess who that nephew is.

Click on the pic below and check out whose name is on that last line there...



STUPEFY!

That's right, readers! Not only am I British royalty, I am also WIZARDING royalty! I understand if some of you might feel a little anxious--perhaps even a little unworthy--to hang out with me in light of these new revelations. It's to be expected. But I'm still me, people! Things don't have to be weird. Sure, you'll have to greet me with a bow or curtsy from now on...oh, and the whole aforementioned Your Royal Highness thing...but other than that, don't be fooled by the rocks that I got. I'm still, I'm still Randi from the block!

So back to my Utah vacation...

I spent three fun-filled days with the Buchanan family, who were so very good to me. Because I'm all about the family history these days, I wanted to visit all of my dead relatives in the area. You know. Just 'cause. I also heard that there was an old pioneer cabin in Wellington, UT that my great grandfather had built, and I wanted to go check it out. Scott ditched work and we all drove to Carbon County to see it.



My dad says that his mother was born in that cabin. Pretty sweet, right? You want to know what isn't sweet? Growing up in Wellington. I looked around and thought, "Wow. This place is a dump." And unfortunately for my grandmother, she married Leo Johansen and moved to Altonah, UT. Ever heard of it? Of course not. But I've been there, and believe me, Altonah makes Wellington look like New York City.

After a better-than-I-expected lunch at the Wingers in Price, we went to see some dead Johansens in Mt. Pleasant, UT (near Manti). You know what? Mt. Pleasant really is pleasant! For real, I thought I was in Switzerland there for a while. My great great grandparents, Niels and Anne Johansen, first settled there after emigrating from Denmark in 1856.

Here is Anne (and Brielle):



We were walking around the cemetery, checking out all of the Johansens, and Brielle (Scott and Alicia's oldest) told me that she had a surprise for me. She led me back to Anne's grave and showed me that she had put some flowers on it. I was so touched--I had to wipe away a few tears. She is such a sweet girl.

Here's Niels:



We also found my great grandparents, Annie and Andrew:



Many many thank yous to Scott and Alicia for dragging themselves and their kids to the ends of the earth just so I could snap a few pictures of some headstones. That is friendship, people.

The next day, I rented a car and drove to Oak City, UT (what is it with my pioneer forebearers and these ridiculously obscure towns?) On the way, I stopped in Payson to visit the father of the guy who built the aforementioned cabin:



When I was a kid, we lived in Delta, UT, just a few miles down the road from Oak City. Little did we know my great great great grandmother was buried there. I wrote about her a few posts ago--she's the one from Sheffield, England who loaded up her kids after her husband died, sailed to America, and joined the Martin handcart company. When I finally get to meet this woman on The Other Side, the first thing I'm going to ask her is, "How the hell did you wind up in Oak City, UT?" The place is a sh**hole in 2011. I can only imagine what it looked like in the 1850s.

Here's Eliza Gill Hartley:



In Salem, UT, I visited the grave of another set of great great grandparents, Sarah Wells Hartley (Eliza's daughter) and Lyman Curtis:



And that concludes my Dead Tour 2011. It was great. I learned a lot. I feel closer to these people whose name I carry around with me every day.

Coming soon, a post about what I'm doing now. Spoiler alert: it ain't pastry.