Mormons detail genealogy trees for Shelby County mayors
By Greg Garrison -- The Birmingham News
February 13, 2010, 10:12PM
"You have an ancestor that died at Point Lookout, Maryland, in the Civil War," retired University of Montevallo professor Pauline Williams told Columbiana Mayor Allan Lowe as she handed him a large binder with pedigree charts inside.
Lowe got a nervous look on his face. "Which side did he serve on?"
Williams said that particular ancestor fought for the Confederacy, but that he had another ancestor in the Civil War from Tennessee. "He served on the Northern side," she said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, are known for their extensive genealogical archives and research. Many of the resources are available in the church's family-history libraries, including those in Columbiana, at the Bessemer Stake Center on Bessemer Superhighway and at the Birmingham Stake Center on Altadena Road.
Wilsonville Mayor Rosemary Liveoak learned she had ancestors who fought in the War of 1812 and in the Civil War, and that one ancestor was from Seville, Spain. She had heard family stories about the Spaniard. "And he married an Indian princess," she said.
Williams, director at the Latter-day Saints Family History Center in Columbiana, said she and other volunteer researchers spent three to four months putting together pedigree charts for Lowe, Liveoak, Chelsea Mayor Earl Niven, Calera Mayor Jon Graham and Montevallo Mayor Ben McCrory.
Clues to begin
Each mayor supplied the names of parents, grandparents on both sides and other names they knew.
Graham provided seven names, and in turn received a pedigree chart with more than 400 of his ancestors listed, including one woman who gave birth to 21 children.
"This is history they may not know," said Mormon spokesman Clem Muck of Shelby County.
Ancestry has theological implications for Mormons. One of the ordinances done in Mormon temples is baptism of ancestors by proxy, which involves current church members standing in for ancestors in baptism ceremonies.
"We are family-oriented, and we believe families can be together forever," Muck said. "We are able to baptize by proxy for the dead. We cannot baptize anybody but our own ancestors, and they have the right of acceptance or rejection."
"It's our duty to do this," said Elder Kason Gubler, a Mormon missionary in Columbiana. "Christ did the proxy work for us through atonement."
Mormon genealogy has helped countless non-Mormons research their family histories. At least a third of the people who use the library at the Columbiana Latter-day Saints ward are non-Mormons, Williams said.
Graham of Calera said he found the pedigree chart informative. "It answered some questions," he said. "It's a document that'll live with us for a long time. I know I can pick up and proceed where they left off and build from it."
E-mail:
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