A New Year

So now it is 2011. I know you are all surprised that I have posted something that thrilling. I haven't written in a while and though I think I have some good excuses (like my computer completely dying, my mom here for a month, and the holidays) it really is just because I haven't posted anything. I have been thinking for a while that I wanted to post something but when I sat down to actually do I didn't have anything to say so I guess that I am making myself do it.

Awhile ago I reconnected with a girl that I knew at BYU who was in all my family history classes. We had a lot of fun in our Germany Family History classes and when I left to go on my mission she was on her way to Germany to do research and learn Germany better. Now she is a published genealogical author and speaks and genealogy conferences all over the United States. At first I was a little depressed feeling like my dreams and gone to another (Leslie if you are reading this I am so happppy for you) but I have realized that I am not dead and still can do lots of things so not that I have ever stopped working on Family History I have been trying to work on things a little outside my comfort zone to get more experiece with things. I have long been the ward Family History consultent. In fact I it has been a really long time since I have not had that calling but I do feel like I could do more. I want to really help people do their work and not just wait for them to call. I am praying for new opportunities and to find someone who really needs the help. I also saw on my friends blog that a friend of hers is writing a book on how the world wide web can help you overcome brickwalls in your research. Just in the last three months I have had this experiece and anyway they are looking for people to submit stories to add to the book and so I am thinking I might enter my experience.

I have shared this experience with many of you but I wanted to write it down once before I decide to send it in or not. So I have loved Family History and learning about my family since before I remember (and I have always loved Historical novels) anyway. From before I remeber my Dad was working on Family History. Mom and Dad had a lot to do especially being converts to the church. I never asked Dad but I do know that my first start of a testimony was doing the work for my ancestors in the temple and knowing that our Heavenly Father loved all his children and provided a way for us all to return not just those who received the gospel here on earth. God was just and that was enough for me. Anyway Dad got a lot of work done on his family because they had been in the US a long time but Mom's family on the other hand was a hard story. Of my Mom's four grandparents only one was born in the US. Two were born in what today is part of Serbia. (When they were born it was Hungary) and the other grandmother we still don't know where in Europe she was born. Anyway I am sure you can all imagine trying to find record in another country, a language you don't read, and a place that has been plagued with war and war. It has been very difficult. My Parents were baptized in 1972 and although Dad had worked on it all the time we had found little on my Mothers grandparents. While I was at BYU I found the naturalization papers for my Greatgrandfather John Josef Molter. Before this time we had just known he was born in Hungary but on his naturalization papers he wrote that he was born in Ujverbasz, Hungary. We were so excited finally somewhere that was specific instead a needle in a hay stack looking in Hungary. But this excitement soon faded as I did more research and learned that Ujverbasz, Hungary is now in Serbia. The church has filmed two records in this town. One a census that was too old to find a conection to my family and a catholic church record. My family wasn't catholic. My excitement was over. How was I going to find anything. Serbia was in the midst of war at the time and I could just picture in my mind the records I needed going up in smoke. Well it has been almost 15 years since I found that naturalization papers. Since then although I have searched and tried to find more information I have had no luck. Dad passed away in May without ever being able to find more information on this family. I remember talking to him in February about the family and we were still trying to think of new ideas and places to look. Well I know that Dad has been working hard from the other side. I have posted things on many sites and forums trying to reach out to others who might know something of this town. Well in October I got an email from a gentleman in Germany who wrote to me asking if John Josef Molter had married Elizabeth Geyer. (of course the letter was in German and I had to translate it) I was floored. Yes, Yes my greatgrandmother was Elizabeth Geyer. I quickly wrote back and waited for a reply. He wrote me back very fast and sent me pages and pages from a book that he had from this town my family was from. They had been copied from the luthern church and published years ago and now not in publication. There it was pages and pages of my family. Three generations and children, cousins, aunts, uncles, all there on these pages. My family. I couldn't stop crying as I realized somehow these pages had finally made it to us and now we could do the work that Dad had been working on for 40 years. I am still shocked as I work on getting it all ready. I know that Dad worked on this and helped get this to me. I am still writing to this man and still working on the the other families in this town. I can tell you it would have been very easy years ago to just give up and let it go for someone else to do. But I didn't I kept posting in forums and searching new websites. Contacting new people who maybe were working in Serbia. I am so blessed.

I know I need to take out a lot of my testimony in there but I wanted to write it down here for me to remember my feelings. I will try to write more.