Our first stop was Spry Cemetery. This is a very small cemetery outside of Panguitch. This is where my grandma's step mom (my great-step-grandma) is buried. My grandma's real mom died when my grandma was only 2 years old, so "Annie" raised her for basically her entire life.
Next stop was Panguitch Cemetery. I have several relatives buried here, dating back to pioneers who emigrated to this country. My mom brought cleaning supplies so we could clean some of the head stones. We spent a lot of time scrubbing the head stone of my grandma's parents (my great-grandparents) and her little brother Grant, who died when he was 3 years old by an accidental drowning. It was so exciting to preserve those stones so that you could actually read the words! My grandma's mother's name was Tyresha Orilla . . . isn't that such a pretty name!
Panguitch is also where John D. Lee is buried. (If you don't know who he is, google Mountain Meadow Massacre) I have always known that he was my relative, I just hadn't known exactly how. My grandma was able to explain that he was her great grandpa, which would make him my great-great-great grandpa. Seeing as he had upwards of 20 wives, I'm thinking that there are probably a lot of people out there that are his direct decedents!
It was such an awesome experience being able to spend that time learning about my ancestry! I am so lucky to still have my grandma around to teach me all about these things. Ever since I started watching the show "Who do you think you are" which is a show where celebrities trace their family ancestry, I have been so interested in finding out exactly where my family hails from! Luckily I have some awesome cousins who have been able to do some amazing work with my grandma's line. When I got home from our trip I was able to go on to the LDS website and trace back some of the people we had seen that day. I found roots back to London, England, Scotland and Ireland.
A few weeks ago I got the chance to go to my grandma's house and go through all of her cedar chests and see the treasures she had in there! She still has my great grandma Tyresha's wedding dress. It is over 100 years old! She also showed me journals that my grandpa had kept. It was amazing. He kept journals everyday for years. It was nothing too dramatic or emotion filled, he would just give a brief entry about what he had done that day. It was so much my grandpa. I loved reading them, It really made me miss him! It made me really appreciate the technology we have now. . . having blogs to keep track of our comings and goings, etc. He did inspire me to keep better record, so maybe I will blog more!
All in all it has been pretty amazing to learn these things! I would encourage everyone to take a trip like this. . . you will learn so much!
