Comments on: I Have a Question, 1892

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:42:43 +0000

I just compared my copy of the journal of Lorenzo Brown (my third great-grandfather) with the records in New Family Search. The journal records his marriage to Frances Crosby on March 24, 1844, in Nauvoo as follows:

We were married by President Joseph Smith for Time and Eternity, (a thing uncommon) on Sunday before meeting . . .

New Family Search shows that the couple received their endowments on 12 January 1846 (which Lorenzo recorded in his journal: “Received my endowments also my wife[.] got this date from Bishop A H Raliegh* [sic]“) and sealed on 6 February 1846. But there’s no journal entry for the sealing.

Which raises a couple of interesting questions–was the marriage by Joseph Smith somehow considered ineffective since it was performed outside the temple? Or is there something amiss in the records–is that 6 February 1846 date “good”? But I don’t know the answers.

*I presume that this was Alonzo Hazelton Raleigh, who was later a bishop in Salt Lake City (and who also says that he received his endowments on that same date).

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:04:25 +0000

Yes. I may end up quoting it on my blog and I will certainly link back with due credit!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:34:35 +0000

Grant, I *was* a little surprised that nobody had jumped on that part of this column. Update the flowery language a little bit, and don’t you think it could be published as an editorial today?

I was thinking of cross-stitching a pillow with that particular quotation … I could throw it at members who surfaced their strange exhibitions of feeling!

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:31:27 +0000

“. . . . politics has brought to the surface many strange exhibitions of feeling among members. . . .” I’m going to have to frame that and hang it on the wall. Maybe one of those painted-wood quotes for above the door. Ardis, were you just trying to provoke me?

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:20:09 +0000

Thanks Bruce.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:02:03 +0000

All of the sources I found were quotes of Edith Westbrook Hunnicutt who had the Westbrook family records in her possession. She passed away 21 years ago, and I don’t know which of her children the records was passed on to. Since it was only tangentially related to my research at the time I didn’t track it down. But I’ll look around and see if I can find who has the records now.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:30:48 +0000

Bruce, I’d love to know where that is documented. I am keeping a file on extra-temple temple stuff with the eye to perhaps write something up at some point.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:28:51 +0000

I ran across a sealing in 1892 done by John Henry Smith in Manassa Colorado – definately outside a temple. As far as I can tell it was not polygamous. Interestingly there was a letter later sent to the family by George Albert Smith saying the marriage and sealing were valid.

By: Maurine Ward

Maurine Ward — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:30:18 +0000

I really enjoy these question and answer series. I was glad to see that women Sunday School teachers were mentioned, although it seemed like it was a weak add on.

By: David Y.

David Y. — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:51:13 +0000

Oh, I loved this: “Such action is entirely too technical. No man should be forbidden to do good.”