I spent the last week and a half in Salt Lake - mainly for an uncle's funeral, but also to use the family history library.
I stopped in Weiser, Idaho (where my dad's step-mom, Joan Cheesbrough, was born in 1912)
I loved being with family and being at the Family History Library. I was there on five different days (47 hours) and the Church History Library for two days (9 hours.) Dad and I looked at 39 microfilms and perused 12 wills/documents/books. We were mainly looking for Harwards. I had contacted a sweet lady, Cathy, from Mapleton, Utah, who has written a book about my ancestor's (Thomas Harward) brother William. She met up with us and had dozens of documents for us - wills, histories, vital certificates! We also got to meet with one of dad's cousins' wife, Mary Jane. We scanned in dozens of photos - of her father-in-law, Art Harward
and her own family. She was a treasure chest of information! We got to meet her son and daughter-in-law who have the recipe for very tasty frozen pops. And lots of ancient genealogy! I took lots of photos of family and the Rockies. I would LOVE to live down that way to have access to all those microfilms. I paid for my trip two times over by checking the microfilms in person instead of renting them at $8 a piece.Dad and I decided that we want to put together a Thomas Harward web page.
(Thomas Harward photo I got from Cathy.)
I've collected so many documents on the Harwards and I just hate to see people doing research/church work on Harwards using wrong dates, estimated times and places! I want to share them with everyone.
Some of the things we found while down there: Thomas Harward (1826-1901) probated estate(FHL microfilm #1,654,620); some of his children's probated estates including Ozias Strong Harward (1862-1917)& Sabrina Harward Draper (1860-1944)and son-in-law's estates: Jabez E. Durfee (1828-1883). I found some naturalization dates on Harwards, Broadheads, and George Mason who was a good friend of Thomas Harwards. We also found the best microfilm: #577,577 - it has (what is readable, anyway) Harwards and Griffins and Harris' back to the 1500's in Hartlebury, England. This is the church records including births, marriages, burials. It is definitely one that I will be permanently renting so that I can use it frequently! (p.s. If anyone really wants to low-down on Harwards, check out Utah Digital Newspapers website. I got dozens upon dozens of newspaper accounts of all kinds on my ancestors - with plenty of closet skeletons to go around as well! The LDS church's pilot.familysearch.org site is also plentifully filled with actual death certificates of Harwards.)
3 comments:
This is Steve Harward. Is there any way that you can make copies of the photo's/documents and anything you have for the Harward family line? I would love to have copies for myself. Thanks!
-Steve
Hello from Janeen Christensen. My husband Jeff Christensen is a grandson of Virgie Christensen Christensen, daughter of Frances Eva Harward, daughter of Frances Eva Curtis and her husband Ozias Strong Harward. Ozias was the son of Thomas Harward. I have access to the personal history of Frances Eva Harward, written by herself, in the 1930's, and the history of Thomas and Sabrina Curtis Harward, written by their grandson, Marve Harward, in 1977. These records mention Thomas Harward, Francis Eva Curtis, Ozias Strong Harward, John White Curtis, Arminta Curtis, Enos Curtis, Wallace Curtis, Will Harward, John Anton Christensen, Tillie McDonald, Joseph Christensen, Elizabeth Christensen, Harvy Christensen, Heber Christensen, Elmira (?Harward?), Oral Christensen, Robert Christensen, Pauline Christensen, Orea Christensen, Twilla Christensen, Marilla Christensen, Pauline Christensen, Howard Christensen, Virgie Christensen, Wesley Christensen, Elmon Christensen, Ina Christensen, Ruth Franklin, Anthony Christensen, Castina Lovell, Fern (Oral Christensen's wife), Christian (Christen) Christensen, and Neils Christensen.
Contact me if you have not seen these records and might be interested in getting copies.
-- Janeen
Thomas Harward is my 4th great-grandfather. Thanks for the information!
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