Family Council Newsletter - Spring 2012

Ozias Strong Harward Family Council News Letter for Spring 2012 

O. Harvey Harward served a mission in South Africa and I would not be surprised if he and Montez were serving as a missionary couple on the other side of the veil now.

Spring edition 2012

Harvey wrote about his mission in his history as follows:

          Missionary work has always been a part of our lives. November 1921, I was called to fill a mission in South Africa. We had a Stake Mission in Sevier County before this. I don't know why, but a year before I went to Africa, I had a feeling I was going to be asked to go. So Mother [Montez] and I worked hard in the sugar beets and other crops to save what money we could. When [my] the call came, having Garn and LaVon, it was a real job. But after talking to Brother Larsen and Brother Hunter from Richfield who just returned from Africa was the help we needed in making up our minds [for me to go]. The wife had been trained and taught in the best home with strong parents in the Church, or I am sure she would not have taken such a responsibility. But from November 1921 to February 1924, we [my companions and I] had some great experiences. We met many wonderful people and helped to bring many people into the Church. The wife, Montez, had the sacrificing and hard work. I got to see much of the world and many wonderful people.

Enos Curtis is the Grandfather of Frances Eva Curtis and was our family’s first missionary.

  Enos Curtis was born 9 Oct 1783, the eldest son of Edmond Curtis and Polly Mary Avery.   Enos moved to New York City where he met Ruth Franklin. They were married in that city on the 15^th of December, 1805. Ruth was born on 14th November 1790 in Sterling, Windham, Connecticut.

In 1831, at the age of 48 Enos was baptized into the LDS Church [on a trip to Kirtland, Ohio] by Lyman Wight. According to Louise Durfee Rooney, shortly before the birth of their last child, Celestia Curtis Durfee, the family became converted to the restored church — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

  Brigham Young says in the fall of 1831 Alpheus Gifford, Elial Strong and others came to Mendon to preach Mormonism, which I heard and believed. (pp 5 & 6 quote: "Five Mormon Elders, from an isolated branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Columbia Co., Penns. were making a tour through the state of New York. They visited the town of Mendon where Brigham Young met them. He had a copy of the Book of Mormon in his possession for over a year. The actual contact with these Elders, their testimonies and personalities so impressed him, that he began an extensive study of Mormonism."

     This story was told by Ezra H. Curtis:

After the meeting where Brigham Young heard the five missionaries including Enos, bear testimony of the Gospel, he hurried home to his wife who was sick in bed. He went to his room and in praying to the Lord, he asked: "If this religion is true, to send the missionaries to his home, that they might pray for his sick wife and also explain the Gospel to her." The next night as the Elders were passing his home, they were impressed with the tidiness of his yards and said any man that has that much pride in his home must be worth visiting, so they went in. Brigham was watching from the window to see if his prayer would be answered. He hurriedly opened the door and welcomed them in. They administered to his wife and she seemed more at ease. Brigham then told them he had prayed for them to come and that he had faith she could be healed through their administration.

             From autobiography of Heber C. Kimball, p 6 "Heber C. Kimball says, about three weeks after I joined the Baptist Church in the fall of 1831, five Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came from Pa. to the house of Phineas H. Young in Victor, N.Y. Their names were Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong*, Enos Curtis, Alpheus Gifford and Daniel Bowen. Hearing of these men, curiosity prompted me to go and hear them, when for the first time I heard the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel." These five Elders must have been very devout spiritual minded men. They so thoroughly impressed Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball with the truth of their teaching, they decided to pay them a visit which they did in January of 1832 at the branch in Columbia, PA. They remained there one week. (See Millenial Star, Vol. 25, p 424). After they returned to their homes in Mendon, they held a family council. The father, John Young and sons Joseph and Phineas, planned a trip to the branch. This was the beginning of the family joining the Church.
  *Note: Elial Strong was a son-in-law of Enos Curtis.

Missionary Training at the MTC

          My wife and I have served at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah for the past 3 years and currently I serve in the French Branch Presidency.  Missionaries come to the MTC for a period of 1 to 11 weeks depending on whether they are senior missionaries or young missionaries and what mission language they will speak.  Missionaries assigned to the French Branch are there for 9 weeks unless they will also learn Tahitian.  They are there for 11 weeks.

         It amazes me still that these young missionaries can enter the MTC with little or no experience with French and leave in 9 weeks being able to teach in that language.  One of the main reasons that they can do that is because they start teaching in French the first week they are here as limited as that may be.  Of course that is because they receive the gift of tongues but that only happens as they are obedient to the rules of the MTC and the keep their covenants.  It also depends on how diligent they are in their studies.  What that means is that the gift of tongues depends on the efforts of each missionary and they don’t receive it all at the same time.

We have seen close to 1,000 missionaries come through our branch and soon we hope to join them as we have submitted our papers to be full time missionaries ourselves.

Russ and Dixie Harward

          There are many ways to serve as missionaries today.  Many people who can’t serve a full time mission, serve from home part time or in a family history center or visitors center.  You can find out the many ways you can serve by using your computer and going to www.lds.org and clicking on missionary service opportunities.  We also have a video about it on our Harward Family Blog.

The Ozias Strong Harward Family Council is on-line with a Blog at www.oziasstrongharwardfamily.blogspot.com  and a Facebook Page dedicated to Family History.  That Facebook page is closed and only those who are invited to participate on it can see it.  If you would like to join, please send me an e-mail at russharward@msn.com so that I can invite you into it.  It will require that you set up your own Facebook page which is free.  If you have any questions about how to do that, just ask any teenager in your family.  Computer technology has revolutionized family history work as well as missionary work as predicted by President Spencer W. Kimball many years ago.  The newest innovation in family history research will soon be added to the LDS church site newfamilysearch and is entitled Family Tree.  Here is what it will do.

The Family Tree will let you:

·        Connect and collaborate with others who share an interest in a common ancestral line.
·        Add, edit, and delete relationships between individuals in the Family Tree.—Coming Soon!
·        Edit vital and other information for all of your ancestors.
·        Discuss and source family tree information to improve conclusions over time.
·        View the history of changes to your ancestors, providing increased understanding and control over changes and revisions.
·        Add specific ancestors to a personal “Watch List” to receive notifications whenever information about those ancestors is added or changed.
·        Try out new features and functionality as they are added over the coming months.

Social Networking and Genealogy

January 12, 2012 By James Tanner

Not many years ago, the only way to talk to people was either in person, by telephone, by the occasional telegram or through letters. Pre-computer and pre-Internet genealogists were usually prolific letter writers. Today, that has all changed. Personal contact is still nice, but telephones to some extent and personal letters are mostly a thing of the past. As far as genealogical research goes, these changes in communication have been for the good. It is now much easier to identify and communicate with distant relatives.  I have had a fairly constant stream of contact from distant relatives for quite a few years now, people who I didn’t know existed before online communication through social networking. It is true that there are people who spend an inordinate amount of time in social networking, but when treated as a means to an end, the online social networking sites can be a valuable tool.

Social networking sites generally allow individuals to create their own page. You can then create links to other individuals on the websites by adding contacts (often called friends) with whom you can then share comments in the form of posts or comments on posts. On Facebook, Twitter and Google+, as well as other sites, commercial companies can also have pages. Subsequently, most of the larger genealogically related companies, such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org and the software companies like RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Ancestral Quest and many others, have pages on Facebook. There are also a number of genealogical societies that have Facebook pages. Here is a brief sample of some of the hundreds of genealogically related Facebook pages with links to their Facebook page:

• Ancestry.com
• FamilySearch.org
• RootsMagic.com
• Legacy Family Tree
• Ancestral Quest
• Family Tree Magazine
• GenealogyBank.com
• MyHeritage.com
• National Genealogical Society
• Utah Genealogical Association
• New England Historic Genealogical Society

All of the above companies and societies, plus hundreds more, have genealogically related Twitter sites also. Posts, called Tweets on Twitter, are limited to 140 characters at a time. As a contrast, both Facebook and Google+ have very large posting limits, so you can communicate a lot of information at once. Many of genealogically oriented bloggers also have corresponding Facebook, Twitter and Google+ sites. Most of the active bloggers post regularly on Facebook and Twitter and some post on other social networking sites also.

With most social networking sites, you have the option of having your page public and open to the world, or private and available to only selected users. If you are trying to find lost relatives, it does little good to have a private site because the very people you hope to connect with cannot find you. On the other hand, you may wish to limit the types of information you put online if you have a completely public social networking page. There is really no reason to share what you are doing each hour of the day if your main goal is to find genealogical information.