Family History: A Trip to the Cemetery

When doing family history it can be overwhelming to know where to start.  One of the things I have learned is to choose one family line and see what work needs to be done.  I felt like I should focus on my Great-Great Grandmother's family, Christina McNeil Reynolds.  

Christina was born in Scotland September 22, 1832 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.  Most families were very poor and hers was no exception.  When she was very young Mormon missionaries from America came to teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christina was baptized to the disapproval of her mother.  So strong was the disapproval, she moved in with a widow and her children who had also been baptized.  In May of 1856, she accompanied them on a journey to join the rest of the saints in Salt Lake City.  They were members of the Willie handcart company that traveled late in the season and suffered hunger, fatigue, frost bite, illness, and many did not survive.  She was one of the blessed to reach Salt Lake City, thanks to the rescuers who came.  One of the rescuers would later become her husband- Warren Ford Reynolds.  She is a true Mormon pioneer, and I am honored to call her Grandmother.

I wanted to visit her grave before my family leaves for Texas.  

So, we took a little visit to the Murray, Utah cemetery.

Grandma went with us too.  I love this picture. 

This is the Reynolds family marker.  

On the marker is this special plaque depicting pioneers pulling a handcart,
 giving honor to this courageous woman.  

The previous Sunday, Clara brought this home from church.  She wondered who she could draw a picture of, and I told her about Christina.  I love her depiction of her 3 Greats Grandmother.  I am sure Christina did too.  

Maybe not totally accurate with the fashions of the mid 1800s, but I love it!

I hope my children will remember this visit and learn to
love and appreciate their incredible heritage.

Because Christina left her family behind in Scotland, not much is known about her siblings and their families.  That is what I want to fix.  I feel a need to know what happened to them.

I haven't found a whole lot yet.  I have been able to find a lot of birth and marriage records, which is so fun.  I love seeing my relatives' names on those documents, written by hand so long ago.  It's very exciting! 

I am sure it was very difficult for Christina to leave her family and never see them again in this life.  I discovered that her younger sister Ann died in 1866 at the age of 30.  My heart broke knowing that Christina would not have known that her sister had died.  

I felt a strong spirit at Christina's grave.  Even though I obviously have never met her in person, I feel like I know her somehow because of all the research I have done to try and find her siblings and their families.

Although the search is difficult, my family was able to to take a few names to the temple to perform the ordinances they were not able to take part in on Earth.  I am so grateful for temples that binds families together.  I look forward to meeting my distant aunts and uncles and cousins.  I have felt them aiding me in my search to find them.  Our family members want to be found.  I know that is true!