Not a Missing Link

Is any one else out there just fascinated in learning about their family history? Or do the stories of your ancestors bring you emended satisfaction? Do you have an unquenchable desire to know where you have come from? ME TOO!!!! I love learning about my family tree! It is a lot of fun for me! As members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we call this "the spirit of Elijah" because it is a fulfillment of Malachi's Old Testament prophecy "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:5-6) "the spirit of Elijah" is the latest craze! With family history sites and experts located everywhere it isn't hard at all to do genealogy work, even within the comforts of your own home! (Just as an FYI the largest source of family history data is found on familysearch.org) In fact my eight year old niece (or so she was at the time) used familysearch.org for a school project! She found that we are related to William the conquerer, Joan of arc, a royal line in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, and eventually hit a biblical line that went through all the way to Adam and Eve! In this blog I just wanted to share with you some experiences and stories I have had or I have heard with my family history! (And anyone can find stories about their ancestors and have neat stories to tell just like I do! It is fun and easy)

I will start with more recent and move backward in time! One of the most influential moments of my life! I was preparing to go on a week long church camp out called "trek" (a reenactment of the early Latter-Day Saints journey west to avoid persecution) my own father sat me down at the kitchen table and asked me a direct question (I remember this conversation quite vividly in my mind!) he asked me what I wanted to be remembered for and being a 13 year old boy I said I wanted to be known as the fire starter. He reply that that was a good goal but explained he had a higher vision for me! He told me he wanted me to be known as a hard worker! In everything I do now I think "how will I be remembered? Will they know me as a hard worker?"

When I was in high school I was involved the Student council admin (or StuCo for short) Meaning I was roped into doing a lot of things! (Now I probably would have done most of them anyway but being in StuCo I had no choice in the matter) well we volunteered at the relay for life as a relay team! And I had an awesome experience! I even wrote it in my journal! (Yes I have an awesome daily accounting of my life known as my personal journal...... It is a pretty good read!) in my journal I recorded the following "early in the evening I had bought luminaries for grandpa Paxman and uncle Ross. When it was time to light the luminaries I could feel in that moment that though I may not know him, grandpa knows me and is watching
out for me! I had never felt closer to him than in that moment!" My grandpa Paxman died of melanoma when I was 2 years old! From every thing I have been able to gather about him he was a great man!

I was walking around a small town in southern Alberta during a basketball tournament! My team was playing at the time so I took some time to unwind relax and prep for the next game! I walked into this own shop and an old native man stopped me! He said "you're a Forsyth aren't you?" I replied in the affirmative. He then said he just knew! That he had dealt with my grandpa Forsyth a lot and could just tell I was related to him! We had a nice conversation and just before I left he said "you come from good stock"

One of my favourite stories is about my great grandpa Neil Snow Forsyth! He served in the Canadian military during world war 1 as a veterinarian for the mounted regiment! (Simply put he took care of soldiers horses) he wrote the following experience in his journal (yeah he had an awesome record of his daily dealings too!) he recorded the story of one night! He was laying in his bed just about to fall asleep when he heard a
voice whisper sit up quick..... Odd, no one else was in his room, but he heard it again, so he sat up! No sooner he had stood up than a piece of white hot shrapnel had fallen right were his pillow had been!

Or another favourite story of mine about my great great grandfather, William Paxman and his wife Katherine Ann Love! They traveled in the late 1800s to New Zealand as missionaries (kinda like how I am in Georgia as a missionary now, but way more cool) this couple lived with the Maori people for years! They even helped them discover the Book of Mormon (or #DiscoverTheBook) by translating it from English into the Maori language! These aboriginal people became so fond of my great great grandparents that when the little Paxman girl sadly passed away she was buried in a traditional grave yard! I love stories like these and I have so many others that I know of! These stories bring me a sense of excitement about where I came from and who I am! In a very real way these peoples lives have influenced and effected who I am today! I love learning about them and perhaps.... Just maybe years down the road my life and my journal will be interesting to one of my great grandchildren.

WMI? FAMILY HISTORY IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!