The Past and LDS

For the past two days we have spent at least 6 hours a day or more at the Family History Center operated and owned by the LDS(Latter Day Saints, aka Mormons).
This is an amazing free service provided by the LDS. The building is four floor tall with an extensive microfilm library, family history books, and computer terminals that connect to US and world wide data bases. The originals of all these records that LDS holds are kept in a granite vault outside of Salt Lake City.There are missionaries in the center to help and they all seem to get as excited as those that they help.Every once in a while someone would say loudly, That is my .... whatever and we would all look to see who was so lucky. On the wall there is a family tree that shows how Shirley Temple, Donnie Osmond,the Wright Brothers and Lucille Ball are related.. How 'bout that!

I was surprised that I could go back at least 6 generations in the Baker family. It certainly helped that in most generations the name Peter Baker showed up. I got as far as the Baker immigration from either NC or VA to KY in the early 1800's then I got stuck. By the time I got to there, my brain was in overload. The Moore family ( my Mom's) were a bit harder to trace, but I am still working on it.

Erwin on the other hand had a great time finding his ancestors in Charleston and Germany. He found passenger lists and even a picture of the ship his Grandmother took from Germany to the USA.... more to follow on that I am sure.
We got home each night after 9 PM, our heads full of history and questions. It is surprising how much information the government has on each of us that is public knowledge. Imagine if I were a hacker what I would find...........

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

It was fantastic! Since this is Memorial Day weekend,their program was patriotic. And they had bagpipes playing during their arrangement of Amazing Grace. Sent chills up the spine. The concert was in the LDS Convention Center.

That place is huge. I think it holds over 21,000. There were maybe 2,000 there today. But it was hard to tell due to the construction of the building. When you have over 360 singers, a full orchestra and bagpipes music can be made.
On this day they were taping their TV and radio programs. The cameras did not interfere with our seeing the choir, but it sure did limit my picture taking.

I had signed us up for an all day tour and this was our first stop.
John, our tour guide, was quite a scatterbrain but fun. He would start one sentence, think of something else he wanted to say, go with that thought and return or not return to the original thought. Reminded me of the way some of my thoughts go.
Other stops on our trip were the Heritage Museum

the State Capitol building, and lunch. If you have never read about the Mormons' trip to Utah, now is your chance. Quite a story of faith.
After a whole day of LDS and religion, Erwin and I went off on our own.We went to the Brewvies, a brewery with a cinema. Not too bad according to the beer snob. The movie starred Jackie Chan, a fun way to end the day.