Another Thursday night success and blessing!

The Story of Mary Dippold

Thursday night is my usual genealogy night.  Don is away at Stake meetings until late, so I always wait up for him, even if it is until midnight.  Doing genealogy work keeps me awake enough to make it up that long.

I am continually praying for help with my research.  I have received divine help before.

I often pray on Wednesday nights, knowing I will get a chance to work on our family  on Thursdays.  Many times I ask what line to work on.  Last week I was blessed with a  dream about Velma, and that Thursday night, I found that someone else has been working on her line, and it is the first line I have been able to get back to the 1700’s!

Last night, I had  a dream, and all I remembered when I awoke was something about there are a lot of Mary’s, but Mary Dippold is the important one, (and I add here , that I think it was kind of like, the main one to focus on, more like a feeling than a logical thought).

I was excited, but scared.  I think I had heard the name Dippold before someone in my research, but not sure where exactly.  I couldn’t believe my brain would just come up with a name like that, so I was hoping it was divine inspiration, and I couldn’t wait to do my genealogy tonight.

As soon as Don left, I got out all my notes and folders.( I had sneaked  a few minutes during the day to put her name in Family Search, so curious as to if it would come up, and it  did!  It came up with her mother’s name Krisch, and her father’s name Helmrich.  I know where Krisch  is in our line, and I have heard the Helmrich names.)

In my notes I found that I had 4 different Mary’s, some Helmrichs, and there were drawings and charts of me trying to make sense out of who was who, and how they were related.  (Mary Rumm, Mary Kirsch, another Mary Krisch, a Mary Helmrich, and a Mary Dippold!)

I went online and found all the sources I could find: censuses, death and birth records, etc. 

I then spent about an hour, piecing it all together by dates and sorting, and using visual charts to put each Mary in the right generation.

Success! Mary Dippold is the niece of Florian Pylick and his wife, Josephine Krish.  (Florian is my great-grandfather’s brother).

I entered all the information, and was a bit worried it wouldn’t let me do her work because sometimes it asks pretty specific questions.  I t allowed me to!  If I get lucky, we will do it this Saturday when we go to the Manhattan temple. 

Truly amazing!  I could have never come up with that name myself. I had tried to fit the Helmrichs into my line before. I am guessing she really wants her work done!  I am excited to do it!

I forgot to add, last night it was the coldest night of the year so far, going to be about 5 degrees when I go out to teach Institute at the church. 

I was so tempted to just wear pants.  I don’t think it is all that terrible to, but I had asked the Regional Coordinator over Institute and Seminary when I was first called, and he asked me to please wear a dress or skirt.

I rationalized over and over right up until it was time to go, and I finally decided to just be obedient, suck it up, and wear a skirt with boots. 

I wonder if sometimes we get extra blessings when we show exact obedience like  that?

Another PS- I had asked my sister last week if she thought we should consider doing the work for Doris in March.  She said we would have to ask Sam and Vince, even though she was close to  us and is my mom’s sister.  Early this morning, like at 5:30 am, I was unable to sleep from the excitement of the Mary Dippold dream, and was pondering things.  Doris came to mind, and I was kind of wondering if I should write Sam and Vince, and the room all of a sudden got light, seriously!  I then realized my phone just came on and went bright, with  no phone call or message or text at all.  J  A  sign?  A  coincidence? In general I am not one who goes for physical ‘signs’, so I think it is a stretch… but…. Who knows?  What do you think?  

Good news in genealogy!

Now that the holidays are over, I finally have more time to get back into researching my family.
I also like to think that dad and his sister Sharon are now up there helping.
So after an all day Thursday blitz, I caught up with some organizational issues, and was ready to decide which line to delve into again. I prayed about it.
I had 2 dreams in a row about my grandpa's wife, Velma.
Now, I am not sure that these were a direct answer to my prayer. I thought about it this morning, and decided- even if it is not, it won't hurt to start there.
Side note: Velma was  a very religious lady.  I think Methodist. But she was the reason my grandfather stopped drinking. He never drank again after he married her. She told me she had Mormon's in her ancestry.   She also gave me a typed, detailed history of her father's family before she died.
Back to my story- This morning I searched for her mother's family on the new Family Tree that comes up in NewFamilySearch. If you haven't seen it, check it out.  It is easier to manipulate between people.  I like it much better!
And, there it is! Thanks to technology, family search, and some individuals, her mother's line of Hanning is now all the way back to 1730!  And the work is being done in temple in Dallas and LA.
Success!
I had noted on my notes that I couldn't go back farther because than I had because the dates were past the ones on Family Search, but, somehow there are records from 1820 census on there.
Another one of her lines is being done by someone in Hawaii!
So cool!
I am happy for her this morning. For her righteousness, her good example, and her willingness to keep families together.

Goodbye 2012

As mentioned in my favorites post, 2012 wasn't awesome.  In fact, there were times I downright did not like it.  As I look back I find that a lot of that was just my attitude; for the first time I can remember I let negativity affect my life.  It seemed more like I just "made it through" the year.  Looking back, it is ridiculous to have felt this way.  In reality, except for one part of my life, 2012 was great.  Health: fantastic.  Family: great.  Trips/Vacations: Awesome.  But I let a frustrating job year get in the way of real life.  I have never done this before.  I pride myself on my optimism and view of life.  I often tell people - and did in 2012 - that your job doesn't matter and that other things are more important.  And I still believed that last year, but I still let stress and frustration get the best of me.  It was the first year in a long time that I didn't feel everyone thought I was the best (from a career perspective).  I've always been that high-flyer that overachieved and everyone loved.  With my new job, and working alone from home, I didn't get that constant feedback.  Add that to a very stressful year where the company struggled a little and it was my job to clean up the mess (that I didn't create) and it became the perfect storm to get me down.  I began to focus on myself.  My prayers, my fasts, my thoughts were all turned inward.  I wanted change.  I wanted to be who I was in 2011.  I was losing myself.

There were several times that I almost got out of the funk.  I got great advice from books and friends.  But it seemed to only last temporarily.  In the end I think I was just looking to get away.  And when that didn't happen immediately, I was crushed.  And though I still loved all the things that really bring me happiness (wife, kids, family, basketball, Phoenix weather, hiking, reading...) those things became a secondary part of my life.  My self-focus took me away from my happiness.  All of us go through stress.  All of us have sucky months or years.  But I realized that even a very positive person like myself can lose perspective.  Slowly at the end of the year I began to see this.  I slowly focused on those around me and not myself.  I focused on gratitude for what I have and not what I didn't have.  Hopefully I am through this phase for the most part.  It is sad to me that I look back on 2012 and for the most part don't visualize the many blessings I have.  I see what I wanted and didn't get.  I see selfishness and frustration for being in a situation that was uncomfortable.  I see ingratitude.  I was humbled.  And that did lead me to God.  This brought some great moments in the year, too, and helped establish broken habits.  But once again, my turn towards God was out of selfishness. 

For 2013 I want to be who I really am.  That guy that lives for his kids and wife.  Who loves getting up at 5 AM to play basketball.  Who looks forward to long hikes in 100 degree weather.  Who loves the fact that he has family just minutes away.  Who is thrilled that he still has hair and his laser eyes still work.  Who loves living so close to a park, a church and a school.  Who loves playing games.  Who tries to think of others and serve those around him.  I want him back.  And I'm determined to get him back.  So for those around me in 2012, I apologize for being a downer.  I'm sorry if I couldn't bring that smile like I used to.  I entered 2012 with a negative attitude.  It had a rough start (from a job perspective) and I never let that go. 

Here's to a wonderful year full of laughter and joy.  Every day is a blessing and I know this.  Let's live more in the present.