Family History comes alive

Now that we gave (and by we, I mean my sister Lara who came up with the idea and compiled the stories into a book) my mom her mother's day gift and it's no longer a surprise, I wanted to post these stories to have as part of our "journal."  My parents are at the stage in life where they want to minimize the "stuff" they have, but when it comes to gifts we have to be a little more creative (which is a good thing, don't get me wrong!).  We've tried to think of "experiences" for them like a Hot Air Balloon ride in Napa, eating dinner at the top of the Space Needle, going to see "A Christmas Carol" in Ford's Theater, re-supplying their food storage, etc.

When my sister was talking to my mom recently they were discussing how to get the grandkids to enjoy family history and learn about their ancestors. While many adults already enjoy this rewarding hobby, it's harder to get kids in on the action.  But what kid doesn't enjoy a good story?  As a response to this conversation, we decided that each of us siblings would have our kids either draw a picture depicting a family history story, retell it themselves or act out the story and submit them all to be compiled in a book together.

As we read or re-told the stories we knew by heart, the kids were all drawn to different stories.  Here were our contributions to the book.  Each of the siblings and grandkids contributed in different ways and the book was so fun to read through when my parents came to visit recently.

The first story is about my paternal great great grandpa, Andrew Israelsen. Re-enacted by Jonas
(Found in the Andrew Israelsen book "Utah Pioneering " pg. 7)

Andrew M. Israelsen:  On the fifth day of April, 1864, everything was ready for the journey (to Utah).  We proceeded from Kasfjord...Our company consisted of my father and mother, four children and three other Mormon emigrants...The emigrants' ship was in readiness to take us over the Atlantic ocean on a northern route to Quebec, Canada.

The voyage over the Atlantic took eleven weeks.  It was a very hard journey, resulting in much sickness and many deaths.  I was among those who were stricken.  For some time it seemed impossible that I would be able to live.  I was pronounced dead by the ship's doctor, and was ordered thrown overboard, where all had to go who died on the ocean. 

Father could not believe that I was the one to be lost, as it was too far from where he missed...so he plead with them not to throw me overboard for a while.  His pleadings and prayers prevailed, and soon after I began to show signs of life.  Now, in this year, 1930, I am the only one of that company
 of nine who is still alive.

The second story is about maternal great great grandpa Andrew Hutchison, re-enacted by Jonas (Found in the Andrew Hutchison and Harriet Willes book "Every Life Has a Story" pg. 52)


 

When the family was small they followed the rule: "Feed a fever and starve a cold."  When Andrew was sick he was put to bed without any supper, with a mashed potato poultice on his chest.  After his mother had left the room, he took the poultice off and ate it.  He thought it would do more good in his stomach than on his chest."

The third story is about my maternal great great grandpa Andrew Hutchison (around age 28)
(From the Andrew Hutchison & Harriet Willes "Every Life Has a Story" book pg. 53-54)

 He was with his older brother, Jack Hutchison, much of the time.  They were called the "Hutch Brothers," both became bald rather young.  Andrew was a short stocky man, but well muscled and strong, wore high heeled boots, was a good horseman and a good cowboy...The Hutch boys were quite the jokers...They were at the Pence Place in Idaho working as ranch hands working long hours.  Andrew and a friend were having a good time, and rode their horses into the local saloon and shot up the place; everyone carried six shooters in those days.  Jack heard about it and the next morning told Andrew he had shot someone in the hotel above the saloon and he would have to get out of town.  Jack put him on the train for Wellsville.  IT wasn't until years later that Andrew found out the truth!  His brother Jack had pulled a pretty good joke on him, but Andrew got the best of the deal when he found his wife-to-be (Harriet Willes) in Wellsville.

Fourth Story is about my maternal great great grandma Harriet Willes
(From the Andrew Hutchison & Harriet Willes "Every Life Has a Story" book pg. 55)

Harriet Willes around age 4 Arizona Territory Re-enacted by Lillian
We arrived in a place they called Taylor, Arizona.  We had to live in the wagon while father cleared a piece of land and built a log house.  When all the people had a log house, they all worked together to build a church house.  For a while there were only 4 or 5 families there.  My sister Maggie was born there, this made 3 little girls for mother...I was not very big but I remember the Indians used to come to our house.  The squaws would visit with mother.  One squaw had a pretty strand of beads that I liked very much.  One day she gave me the beads and I had them for many years.  At night, when the Indians would come, they would dance around the fire and roast corn to eat.


Fifth Story is about my maternal great great grandma Harriet Willes re-enacted by Jocelyn
(From the Andrew Hutchison & Harriet Willes "Every Life Has a Story" book pg. 56)

Harriet Willes around age 8  Utah
Father took up a homestead up Dry Canyon and Green Canyon...One day while I was coming back with the cows, I saw a rattlesnake just going down into a hole.  I had seen rattles and wanted some of my own.  The snake had his head in the hole so I hurried and stepped down hard in his middle while I pulled hard on the rattles with my hand.  I had several rattles on, a real prize!


The last story was about my baby sister Kelsey who, on long road trips, wanted the comfort of my mom who was inevitably driving 6 kids across the desert of Nevada for 12 straight hours.  My mom would just reach back her arm to the front bench of the van where Kelsey would be sitting in her archaic car seat and hold Kelsey's foot. That was all that Kelsey needed to console her during those long hours!  Re-enacted by Emma.