Benefits of Feeling Under the Weather

Well, this week I've been sick. Maybe part of it was due to my crazy camping weekend. Whatever the reason, I didn't want to feel blah so I remembered my 100 days goal (introduced to me by a friend) and although I put some time into it daily, I thought maybe this was a chance to do a little more on the big portions I don't usually have time for.

I've been working on genealogy for years now but, since I first started seriously working on it (more than a year ago) I've had so many miracles happen.

Well, I just had to share the story that is unfolding right now. I hope it turns out how I want it to!

Many years ago, as a teenager, I went on a reenactment of a mormon pioneer trek with the Santa Monica Stake, where I lived. It was a hard trek and I learned a lot from it.

We were separated into families that had actually made the handcart trek all those years ago. Members of the Santa Monica Stake, graciously supplied the names from their own ancestor lineage.

Just a week ago I was remembering that I had made this trek. Maybe it was because I was reading the book The Price We Paid, for book club. (Thanks Eliza for the great selection!) And randomly, while I was looking for a photo of something else, I came across photos from this trek that I didn't even realize that I had.

It was fun looking at the pictures and I saw that we were the Elliker family. I had forgotten the name but was glad to see it again because I felt like I always had a special place for that family name as we reenacted what had happened to them on our trek (most of them did not reach the Salt Lake Valley). It was a moving experience for me I'll never forget.

Well, about a week later, while feeling sick, I decided to take some recent information I received from a man in England, who is directly related to Jacob, and put it in our tree and see if I could back it up with some primary sources. (It is a huge family tree that he gave me in PDF format. He also sent a way cool, very old photo of the family. I love genealogy!)

Within about 5 minutes of doing this, I came across a name of a relative I had never seen before who was born in the same area where this particular line came from (in Utah) and noticed that he had died in Santa Monica. I thought that was interesting and upon further investigation discovered that there were a lot of people from this particular family who had moved to W. Los Angeles/Santa Monica area. Researching the line further I noitced that one of them, prior to moving to W. L.A., had married an Elliker!

I had never seen this name before and then just seeing it a week ago, naturally, this peaked my curiousity. I didn't expect to find that this could be the same family but, clues just kept adding up.

Long story short, the story isn't over. I don't have hardly any proof yet. But, I have noticed so far these clues:
1. The name of the person I was representing was pinned on my skirt in all the pictures. It looks like it says Elizabeth, age 22. (wish I knew how to blow up the rest of the pictures to read what is pinned on other people, without distoring the names)
This matches the family related to Jacob.





2. I also noticed that the family we were put in to seemed to have about the right number of boys/girls for the family that Jacob is related to.

3. Also, I found the pioneer story of this family and noticed that most of them did not make it to the Valley.
This matches up with Jake's ancestors and the experience I had while I was on the trek.

4. Many of these Ellikers ended up in Santa Monica where members of our stake supplied names.

5. I remember that the mother of this family did make it to the Valley. This matches with Jake's ancestors.

Well, as you can see this isn't much to go on. But, my hunch is that they are the same family. What if that were true?!!

The latest development today, is that my best friend, who was in this Elliker family with me, said there might have been a Stake album created with information on each family. I sure hope that turns out to be true.

Keep your fingers crossed, everyone! Even if it doesn't turn out to be true, it sure has got these names into my tree awful fast :-)