Pondering My Purpose!

This has been a full week.  I've been so busy in every facet of my life.  But I've also been very fulfilled.  Hearing from my missionary daughter is the highlight of my week right now and I can honestly say that nothing competes with that at the moment.  She is my joy!
One of the questions asked this week made me ponder about why I am taking these classes in genealogy.  Then I remembered my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, and for a brief second I chastised myself for even wondering why.  I love this work!  I love my family!  And because I love both of these things, I know that I love my ancestors enough to do this work for them.  When all is said and done, and my time has come to be re-united with them, how am I going to feel if I have done nothing for them.  I don't even want to think about that - and that's what drives me to get this work done!

LeBlanc is the name - Genealogy is the game!

I have been consumed this week with Ancestry.com and finding more of my ancestors.  This week I found my (fifth) and (sixth) great-grandparents and the information looks perfect.  Even though it looks like their temple work has already been done (many times), I can now check and make sure that all the history links are matched up with siblings, aunts, uncles, etc.  It's a big job and I'm up for it!  I can honestly say that I have spent well more than a dozen hours this week on genealogy.  I really need to do some laundry.
I am so grateful that I was able to learn about all that Ancestry.com has to offer.  I had no idea how to really "dig in" and look for someone.  I was doing a basic search and pretty much giving up.  Once I learned about the sliders, the wildcards, all of the Collections, the catalogue, the map....everything, I was able to find out so much more.  The doors to our past have really been opened and my heart is about ready to explode.  Can I not just do this full time?

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am Canadian - Camerican acutally!  And because of this reason, we celebrate Thanksgiving twice a year.  And since Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the U.S., we do make a big deal out of our 1st of two Thanksgiving dinners.  Having dinner for 32 adults + a half dozen children made for a busy, fun, and wonderful day and I wouldn't change it for anything.

The other big thing this week was that my daughter left the MTC and headed out to serve her mission in San Jose.  As I was sitting at the kitchen table, very early on Wednesday morning, waiting for that airport telephone call, waiting...waiting...my phone rang then immediately disconnected.  Oh no!  My heart sank.  I thought I wasn't going to get to hear her sweet voice.  A few minutes later, it rang again and there she was, crying so hard because she thought she wasn't going to get to talk to me.  We're such funny creatures.  But once she heard my voice, she was fine and so happy to be on her way to serve.  That evening we received an email from her Mission President with photos of 13 very tired missionaries who had been on their way to him since 2:00 a.m. that morning, and who were fast asleep all over the chairs and floors of the mission home.
Oh how great is the work :)

Another big deal this week was all of this genealogy work!  Oh my goodness - I have lost myself in it's depths.  Through some new technique I have been able to learn and put into play this week, I have found some information that I have been looking for since the early '90's. I feel as though I have connected, and been touched, by a Great-great grandmother - one of whom I had only known by name and not even thought to look at any closer than to turn the page.  But because of this class, because of this desire to gain more knowledge of genealogy, because I want to fasten tight the links of my ancestors, I have been blessed this week to feel her presence, her guidance, her love!

I cannot begin to even describe how full my heart is this week.

The Link to our Ancestors!

In doing an assignment for another Genealogy class, I was to try and find a published genealogy or history on an ancestor of mine.  Well, with one branch of my family being Acadian and settling the North East of Canada, there are literally tons of history books out there.  But even with all of that history, there are still a few branches of that family that are hard to find.  I found one such book as I was looking into the LeBlanc family, but as I began to read I found so much more.  There is a story at the beginning of a book, with an excerpt written by a Bob Cholette talking about his grandparents Maurice Belliveau (1881-1953) and his wife Elisabeth LeBlanc (1878-1962).  He talks about finding a place called "Belliveau Orchard".  This leads into my story...

A few years ago, my husband and I went to visit a place in Nova Scotia called "LeBlanc Cove" which I didn't know existed. It was nowhere near where I grew up and I was surprised to learn of it.  When we arrived, we discovered a land untouched: a nice sandy beach, a few older homes scattered along a worn road.  There was not a soul in sight.  We walked along the beach for a bit, breathing in the salty Nova Scotia air.  I tried to imagine my early ancestors attempting to settle this land.  I walked back to our van as my husband scoured the beach for some rocks to toss into the Atlantic Ocean.  There was a man standing by the back of the van.  He wore a plaid shirt and blue jeans.  I quickly turned to see where my husband was, and he was off in the distance tossing rocks out to sea.  The man spoke to me in a thick, heavy French accent, which I tried very hard to understand.  Oh how I wished at that moment I had paid better attention in French class in school.  But I finally figured it out. "What are you doing here," he asked?  "I'm visiting the area of my ancestors, LeBlanc Cove.  My maiden name is LeBlanc."  He reached out to grab my hand and shake it.  He said, "My name is Belliveau.  You should find the graveyard." Quickly I responded, "Yes, oh yes, I would love to know where the graveyard is."  He quickly gave me directions to the graveyard which was really just a hop, skip and a jump away.  I responded with a very grateful thank you and he looked at me and said again, "My name is Belliveau, Thomas Belliveau - please remember my name."  He seemed desperate for me to know this.  I turned towards where my husband was, and nearly bumped right into him as he was almost standing right beside me. A little frightened by not even hearing him approach, I said, "Honey, you need to meet Mr. Belliveau."  My husband said, "Who?"  We searched and searched - and there was no one there!  The beach was completely empty except for us.  We sought out the graveyard, which was old and small, and every single headstone was one of my ancestors, but there was no Belliveau.

When we got back to Utah, I began to do some work on my family tree.  After a few months of looking for names, one evening as I was searching guess what name came up on my direct line about 7 generations back.  You guessed it - Belliveau!  Yeah that's right - Goosebumps right there!  How I love this work!  That's why I'm here and that's why I'm driven to find out as much as I can about my dear, dear ancestors.

The Hidden Key

            When I was a little girl, on Sunday mornings my Dad would sit at the kitchen table and play solitaire while he listened to hymns on the radio.  His favorite hymn was "How Great Thou Art" and when it came on the radio he would sing along with all his heart.  When he was younger he was a Choir Boy and an Altar Boy.  But he doesn't go to church anymore because the church changed too much and he doesn't think a church should change.  But every Sunday when he heard that song and I heard him sing it, I would feel very sad and very lonely inside and I never knew why.

            Then one Sunday, after I had joined the LDS church and I was sitting in Sacrament meeting a new member of this new faith, we began with the opening hymn.  And guess what song we sang?  That's right -  "How Great Thou Art".  Imagine my surprise.  As I soaked it in, the feelings that rushed through me were not those feelings of sadness and loneliness that I had always experienced when I heard it on the radio.  The feelings I now felt were of joy and gladness, feelings that I had come home!  And I cried, oh how I cried and I thought everyone would think I was crazy.  But they didn't because in this church, everyone cries because everyone feels this thing they call the Spirit!

            It's this connection to something greater that kept me coming back for more.  This connection to HOME that I was not about to let go of.  I found it, I knew it existed, I knew it was there somewhere, I knew I had to keep going, and I knew I had to let as many people know about it as would listen.  The song was a hidden key to opening the greatest treasure on earth.