Davis County Winds - My Peterson Great-Grand-Parents

Originally published at PMM on 1 December 2011:

Well, we know what the results of a "Category 2" look like now. I don't know what it feels like, because I missed it. I just got home from a few days with the Ute Tribe in Ft. Duchesne, Utah, and with their attorneys in Colorado.  On the way in we stopped at Arby's in Spanish Fork where a got a free meal because their power was flickering and they couldn't read my card.

Still, I'm a witness to the aftermath here in Davis County with at least a third of the signs down in Centerville's commercial district on Parrish Lane. There are some roofs missing over gas station pumps, and trees down everywhere. A few are down on houses. Some are down on power lines. Ours are still up but our blue spruce out front whipped off all the Christmas lights. And while the gate to our fence that I have repaired at least a dozen times is still up, there are several other segments of the fence missing. I told the guy next door that we'll have to be better neighbors now. He responded that he'll have to start wearing something when he's in the hot tub. TMI!

Our fence (well, part of it). Note the neighbor's hot tub.

"Return to the Holy Yew"

I'm not sure that this really fits here, and I'm not sure what else to do with it. It was originally published 22 October 2011 on PMM

This blogger & the ancient, possibly pre-Christian Yew at St. Mary's Churchyard,
Cusop, Herefordshire, on the border with Wales August 16, 2010.

I've had a few, clear spiritual experiences in my life. I don't often share them as I hold them most sacred. This one, I think was a spiritual manifestation, and I share it here mainly because, unlike the others, it doesn't make any sense. Maybe somebody can help me figure it out.

The Limbaugh House, Fruitland, Idaho, probably 1960

So when you see a picture like this, and you're in it, and you know and love those other people, and you can feel what you felt then 50 years later, you can't help but wonder about memory, time, and going on forever. I love you Grandma. You too, Kathleen.



originally published 17 February 2011 on PMM.

Geoge C. Wood: In Prison for Polygamy

Originally published 11 February 2011 on PMM.

President George Q. Cannon, seated center, George C. Wood, my Great-Great-Grandfather behind 
Pres. Cannon over right shoulder next to prison guard James A. Doyle in civilian dress.
Utah Territorial Prison, November 1888.

I've been working on a family history project with a cousin to transcribe the prison diary of our 2nd-Great-Grandfather, George C. Wood.  (My confession, unlikely to lead me to prison, is that I'm way behind on my part of the task. But as I haven't heard from my cousin for some time, she must be too. I'll get on it.)

It is an absolutely amazing story that is difficult to fathom. George C. Wood needs to have a book written about him which I may get to someday if I can get organized besides figuring how to get it past the family censors. It isn't really that scandalous - at least not by Utah family history standards. 

Joseph Ridges in Distress

Originally published 23 March 2015 on PMM as "Too Little Credit Where Much Credit Was Due: Joseph Ridges"

This nice little marker is just outside of my local sandwich shop near the corner of State Street and South Temple, across from Brigham Young's Lion House, Territorial and Church Offices, and the Beehive House. One of the architects is noted as Joseph H. Ridges, my 3rd-Great-Grandfather.

He is better known for building another "structure" or two, principally, the original Tabernacle Organ, now modernized and mostly replaced in all its intricate parts, but still retaining the essential features of Joseph's design. In the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum is a composite photograph reproduced here in a church publication:

Welcome!

This is a new blog to collect all the blog postings that I already have about my own family history that do not fit on my principal family history blog: John and Elinor Vaughan Descendants.

The Vaughan Family has been my principal focus of energy for most of my reasearch as I feel a responsibility for my surname and paternal Y Chromosome. And I have many other stories of other ancestors to share that I will cut and past from my slowly dying main blog and new ones as they are created.

So, dedicated to my Peterson Cousins along with a lot of Wheelwrights, Rices, Bybees, Easterlings, Ridges, Wrights, Staples, and on and on and on, here we go!

Guest submissions are welcome. You can contact me directly at grant[.]vaughn[@]gmail[.]com.