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The first family gathering for family
and genealogical purposes held in the Church, so far as we know,
convened in Nauvoo at the call of Brigham Young and Jesse Haven,
January 8th, 1845. The minutes of this meeting have been published in
the July 1920 issue of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine.
On January 1, 1877, the St. George
temple was dedicated. During that winter, Brigham did some of the
necessary work for his immediate ancestors. At this time, his wife
Lucy Bigelow Young was the first proxy endowment in this dispensation,
with his daughter Susa being the first proxy baptism at the St. George
temple. Returning to Salt Lake in the spring, he called an informal
meeting on his birthday, June 1, 1877 of his surviving brothers who
were Joseph, Phineas and Lorenzo, and there in the presence of his
family he turned over to them the responsibility of the Young family
temple work. His brother Joseph died in 1881, but before he died he
placed the responsibility upon the youngest brother Lorenzo, to look
after this temple work.
Accordingly, a meeting of the Young
family was called at the April Conference 1884, and was held in the
Social Hall. After the festivities were partly over, Patriarch
Lorenzo Young explained to the family his great desire to carry on the
Young temple work. For this purpose he proposed that his son,
Franklin W. Young who was a good clerk and a faithful man should go
east to the birthplace of the family in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and
there examine the records, securing all possible data concerning the
ancestors of Grandfather John Young. He had limited success but did
bring back with him some names which he and his family did temple work
for in the Manti temple.
In 1890 several daughters of Brigham
Young decided that since there were no more Young names to be had they
would start work on the Howe and Brigham lines. These daughters were:
Fannie Y. Thatcher, Maria Y. Dougall, Janette Y. Easton, Phoebe Y.
Beatie, Myra Y. Rossiter, and Susa Y. Gates. Considerable work was
done by the sisters.
In 1892, the Young daughters wrote a
letter to Elder Brigham Young, Jr., an Apostle, who was in England
presiding over the British Mission asking his consent to reorganize
the Young family so that social gatherings might be held annually,
and, more especially, so that temple work could be regularly
prosecuted. An organization was accordingly formed with Seymour B.
Young as president of the association. Mrs. Susa Y.Gates was made
temple recorder with Mrs. Mabel Y. Sanborn as secretary and assistant
recorder.
The Young recorder, Mrs. Gates, spent a
summer in Boston in 1892 trying to secure more data concerning the
Brigham Young Family lines without success. She found thousands of
Young names in the Boston Genealogical Library as well as in the New
York and Washington D.C. genealogical libraries, none of them,
however, related to the Brigham Young line.
Discouraged with the lack of success in this particular search, she
returned home and laid the matter before Pres. Wilford Woodruff, who
said that Brigham Young would stand at the head of all the Young
families in this generation and dispensation, and gave the Young
Family Association permission to gather up all Young names not related
to other Young families in the Church.
Accordingly the Recorder began the
systematic collection of genealogical data concerning the Youngs of
Europe and America. During the twenty years of activity the Recorder
has secured close upon thirty thousand names of Youngs and associated
surnames.
The
Young family yearly gatherings have become a permanent institution,
and continue successfully to this day.
Source: “The
Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine” - Volume 12, 1921.
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