Well, I am back at the keyboard and happy to say I am attending Roots Tech 2011 conference starting tomorrow morning. You can get more details here at the official Roots tech website:

http://rootstech.familysearch.org/

I will try to blog and Tweet from the event as much as possible for the three days.

You can follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/dustyr

Stay a while on http://www.graciousrain.com/ and enjoy the wonderful posts too!

Today’s Tombstone Tuesday post is for Lawrence Emael Johnson. He is my biological great great grandfather. I never did get to know this branch on the family tree because of a messy divorce. He was born 2 Sep 1888 in Preston Franklin Co., Idaho, USA. I am still working on getting more details on him and would love to hear from any possible relatives out there who may read this. He served in World War 1 as you can see from his tombstone. I am told by my Grandmother that he sipped and fell in a Sears department store in Ogden, Weber Co., Utah, USA and badly injured himself and later died of those injuries on 16 Nov 1959. He is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in Ogden, Weber Co., Utah, USA.

My find a grave memorial link:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13924074

The man I grew up to know as my great grandfather was Pete Petersen. He really was my grandmother’s step dad. But you’d never know it by the loving way he treated all of us great grand kids. Going over to visit them in Ogden, Utah was always an adventure. He was a bit of a prankster. He would always take us kids downstairs and we could play. He had this old tin can of “peanut brittle” when you opened the top out sprung these fake snakes that were all coiled up in the can. Without fail it pleased us and made us all squeal with joy.

When he passed away I secretly hoped to get the tin “peanut brittle” can. I didn’t and frankly to this day I don’t remember what ever happened with it. I got something I didn’t really know what to do with. I was only about 15. My grandmother handed me an old brown leather satchel. She said that I would be the best person to take care of something that meant so much to my great grandfather. I don’t think I even opened it for about a week. To my surprise it was full of old musty papers. It was several hand written pedigree charts and many family group record sheets.

This was really the first exposure I had to genealogy. I came to find out that Pete was really into recording his genealogy. He had kept very good records and now they were all in my possession. What a love and a passion has come from me getting these old musty papers. Truly one of the things I treasure the most is that old leather satchel and the wonderful treasure it was full of.

Anna Laura Hodges was a great grandmother on my father’s side. I remember meeting her a time or two, but I was young and the details really escape me at this point. She was born 13 Jan 1908 in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah. On 23 Feb 1928 she married Iris “Ike” Richard Jones. She passed away 27 July 2000 in Ogden, Weber County, Utah.

I really need to get with family that was closer to this line to fill in more details. If you have any connections, I’d love to hear from you.

George Albert Earl in Tonga

My great grandfather George Albert Earl went to Tonga in the early 1900s. He stayed there for almost 3 years serving a church mission. He taught and loved the people. For years my family has cherished a set of glass negatives that were all pictures from his time in Tonga. I recently discovered that somehow they have been misplaced. I wanted to get a copy of he pictures from these negatives to upload online and preserve them. It seems maybe I am too late. They have vanished. I am hopeful that someone will find them tucked away in a box they didn’t know they had.

My great great grandfather Samuel Rhoades and his car.

Sylvester Henry Earl front of headstone

Sylvester Henry Earl back of headstone

Sylvester Henry Earl was born on 16 Aug 1815 in Scioto County, Ohio, USA. He died 23 July 1873 Middleton, Emery, Utah, USA. He is my great great great grandfather. He was a Mormon Pioneer and was part of the original party to enter the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. After several years he and his family were asked to go settle St. George in Southern Utah.

I went to visit his grave this last memorial day down in St. George. It was a great memorial day to visit graves of other ancestors I usually don’t get around to.