From Marcus Smith

So I've looked at the ancestry of Howard Thomas Pitts, and have eliminated that lineage as a possibility. But I can't figure out where the ancestry of Elaine Smith is from. Do we tie in on your Smith side at all? I'm a pretty good sleuth and was able to see some amazing photos of your family online, on the Petty side. Is Elaine from the Absalom Wamsley Smith clan of Draper, or perhaps she connects to some of my Sanpete county relatives ... Whitings, Washburns, etc.


We are related, after all! But it's way back for many, many generations. In your pedigree there is a Searle family. We connect, it appears, at a John Searle who married a woman whose maiden name was Channon. But the ancestral file contains some spurious dates. Otherwise I'd feel more confident about mapping out the connection. In more recent times, my great-grandfather John Kienke was involved in an event during the Utah War of 1857 that involved, apparently, eight Mormon men: John Smiley Lott (your ancestor), John Murdock, Porter Rockwell, Sylvanus Collett, John Kienke (my ancestor), Samuel Pitchforth, Homer Brown, and (I think, if I remember, Absalom Woolf. This event came to be known as the "Aiken Massacre," or "Aiken Murders." I've been working on this story for a long, long time, as part of my family history. I knew Shawn and Todd best in the BYU ward. Eric was there for a while too. There was a night when a bunch of us from BYU dropped in on your home, on the way either coming or going to the Grand Canyon for a hike. Could have been Zions or Bryce. We did a lot of hiking back then.


I'm working on a biography of John Kienke. That's a project now going on 15 years!!!! And with four children at home ages 7, 5, 3, and 1, you can imagine that it's almost impossible these days to devote any long stretches of time to research. That would be abandoning my poor wife! Anyway, what I think you should do to follow the story ... at least to get a toe-hold on th events, is to read Harold Schindler's chapter on it in his biography of Orrin Porter Rockwell. Since he wrote that chapter, there have been some new developments that correct or amplify some of his interpretations. But the basic gist of the story is there and is, I think, basically correct. I think it lacks some important war context, however. I think that on the myancestry chart there is a giant leap in some missing generations on the Pitts line, jumping from a birth around 1800 back to the 1600s. The problem on the Searle line is that the dates in familysearch show generations too close together, with John Searle who married the Channon having a soon born to him when he is only about 10 years old. So something is going on there that is a problem too. I don't have them at my fingertips, but those were the things that lept out at me at a glance. Wow .... working in the Manti Temple must be wonderful. Are some of the sessions there still live?

Siovhan

Hi Myrna,

    I came across an old Xmas letter from you that says (your grand daughter?) Siovhan was working as a TV news producer in Eugene.  We watch Eugene news as that's where the TV stations are, an hour away.  Is she still there?  What station? And HOW to do pronounce that name???  Just curious.....

Hugs, Toni

Hi, Toni,

Add a little to this, please, Melanie and respond to both of us.

"Sha (short a) von" is the way the way the name is said. Yes, she is still there and is still working.

 Melanie, which station is it? 

Thanks, Melanie. I can never remember the call numbers for the station. I am now writing them down so I will have them. 

As you know, my cousin, Toni lives in that area. Love, M

Yes, I did remember she lived there.  Mel

Siovhan works as the noon, five and six o' clock news producer for KEZI. She puts the news on their web page as well. She gets to tell the anchors and the reporters what news to read, she tells the reporters what stories to cover and then works with the tape editor to make sure that the content fits in the time slots. She loves doing this kind of work, but gets tired of all the bad news and the sensationalism that follows bad news. She has been in Eugene for almost two years and says it is starting to feel like home for her. She loves to go to the coast. She has been to the Sea Lion caves and that area several times, although she now works on Saturdays, it makes it a bit harder to do sight seeing. Melanie

Hi Melanie and Myrna,

    I was going to explain what relation I am, but I'm not sure I know., LOL I guess Myrna and I are 2nd cousins (?).  Anyway, I just thought I'd share a 'small world' note with you. My brother Don P. Fexer, who lives in Eugene, is married to Kimberly (Days) Fexer & her Mom, Marilyn Days was the receptionist at KEZI for MANY years!  I guess she died before Siovhan started there (she was only our age Myrna) but I bet she works with a bunch of people who knew & loved Marilyn.  She was a VERY likeable and popular, but outrageous,  platinum blond who knew everyone & had a million friends, although maybe was not the type of gal you'd be drawn to..... I don't think she ever quit smoking, she was loud & somewhat 'rough around the edges' if you get my drift, but was a lot of fun.  Her daughter Kim (my sister-in-law) is nothing like that... quite reserved and lovely.

    One of MY friends, Betsy Yraguen, lives here in Roseburg but works for KEZI selling advertising here in town.  Our local affiliate (also in Eugene) is KVAL & so we watch that more often.

Anyway, too bad she didn't overlap with my folks in Eugene (they died in 2003) cause I'm sure Mom would have been thrilled to meet her!

    I can relate to her just now feeling like Eugene is home.  I only lived there 3 years and was JUST starting to make some good friends when I met Craig & decided I better move to Roseburg and keep him for myself before some OTHER gal snapped him up!  I'm sure it was the right decision, but I miss the "city"..... (hey, Eugene is still very small compared to L.A. where I lived most of my life, but Roseburg is even SMALLER).

    My step-son (Craig's son Niles who just turned 21) has a girlfriend from Eugene who is Mormon, Jennifer (oops, can't think of her last name right now), & they are both at college in Phoenix AZ now. Her parents also have a chocolate shop I think... maybe she'd know them... probably not, I suppose.  I don't remember how many Wards are in Eugene...... more than one though.

    OK, enough rambling.  If Siovhan is interested in river rafting on the North Umpqua (in our back yard) or going to Wildlife Safari (the place with the animals in my FB photo album) it's about 10 miles south of here (Eugene is 65 mi. north of here). Or visiting the Hair Wreath while it's still here (I'm going to just keep it until my sister comes to visit next time) you are welcome to give her my email address and/or phone number 541-672-4313 and I am going to forward her info to my brother.  He & Kim have a GORGEOUS home in the south hills of Eugene and they are good Christians, but not Mormon.  Their only child, daughter Hayley is in fashion design school in Portland.  I have 2 guest rooms too.... for any of you.

    OK, this time, I'll shut up, thanks for the info.  Catch ya later, hugs, Toni (Fexer, Cole) Jackson.

  

Re: Pitts from Charles Pitts

Re: Pitts‏

--- On Mon, 2/22/10, L H TRAUNTVEIN <mandlht@msn.com> wrote:

From: L H TRAUNTVEIN <mandlht@msn.com>

Subject: Pitts

To: leealice14@yahoo.com

Date: Monday, February 22, 2010, 12:55 AM

I am interested in learning more about Mary Pitts. My father was Howard Pitts, son of Thomas Vivian and Ruth Edwards Pitts.

Charles Pitts 3/03/10
To: L H TRAUNTVEIN

I would suggest you look at pedigree resource file #125 at the family history center nearest you, mary is the unwed mother of Thomas Pitts her father is johnathan pitts.

Lee pitts in Duchense UT

Pitts

Myrna wrote: I am interested in learning more about Mary Pitts. My father was Howard Pitts, son of Thomas Vivian and Ruth Edwards Pitts. 


From:Lee Pitts (leealice14@yahoo.com)
I would suggest you look at pedigree resource file #125 at the family history center nearest you, mary is the unwed mother of Thomas Pitts her father is johnathan pitts.
Lee pitts in Duchense UT

Myrna wrote: The "Thomas" name seems to have been passed along in our family. My grandfather was Thomas Vivian Pitts and my father was Howard Thomas Pitts.

I will look at the pedigree resource file.

Myrna Pitts Trauntvein in Nephi, Utah

Note from President Ed Pinegar

This is a test to see if all the email addresses are correct. And to see if you can open an attachment from my computer. Thanks for all you do. I am eternally grateful. Please respond to indicate about opening the the attachment.

Love, the Defining Characteristic

"We are created in the image of our heavenly parents; we are God's spirit children. Therefore, we have a vast capacity for love—it is part of our spiritual heritage. What and how we love not only defines us as individuals; it also defines us as a church. Love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ." Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Love of God," Ensign, Nov. 2009, 22

Love,

Pres. Pinegar

-- 
Brother Ed

Here you have it!

---

Parent	Grand child	Birth Date	Great-Grandchild	Birth date
Alan & Konnie	Todd Alan Pitts	March 29, 1964	Matthew Todd Pitts	November 16, 1991
Alan & Konnie	Todd Alan Pitts	March 29, 1964	Christopher William Pitts	May 24, 1993
Alan & Konnie	Todd Alan Pitts	March 29, 1964	Erin Louise Pitts	May 26, 1995
Alan & Konnie	Todd Alan Pitts	March 29, 1964	Emily Virginia Pitts	May 26, 1995
Alan & Konnie	Kelly Ray Pitts	December 29, 1970	Annie Addison Pitts	September 23, 1994
Alan & Konnie	Kelly Ray Pitts	December 29, 1970	Ethan Gabriel Thomas Pitts	January 14, 1998
Alan & Konnie	HeatherJo Pitts Bateman	December 7, 1973	Noah Adam Bateman	September 23, 2005
Alan & Konnie	HeatherJo Pitts Bateman	December 7, 1973	Micah Garth Bateman	June 30, 2008
Alan & Konnie	Jeremie Kay Pitts	April 12, 1975	Marissa Lane Pitts	June 22, 1998
Alan & Konnie	Jeremie Kay Pitts	April 12, 1975	Cameron Kelly Pitts	August 7, 2001
Alan & Konnie	Michael Jay Pitts	July 22, 1979	Chadwick Jeremie Pitts	December 27, 2004

From Eric

Many of you may have seen this on the net but I thik that it is pretty cool to know.

 

Indeed the rhyme 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again....does not tell us at all that Humpty was an egg. However it's etymology has a number of variations, and it was in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book "Through the Looking Glass" (that used this rhyme), where the book's illustrator John Tenniel first drew Humpty as an egg, sitting on a wall.

An 1810 version of the rhyme also does not explicitly state that the subject is an egg because it was originally posed as the riddle as such:

Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before.

Furthermore, "humpty dumpty" was an eighteenth-century reduplicative (linguistic root) slang for a short and clumsy person.

From Yahoo answers
 

E.

Toni Jackson, cousin, response

In the photo with four people the people are, left to right (your left): Jessie Pritchett Brighton; Menetta Black Pritchett; Mina Ericksen Pritchett; Vivian Pritchett Smith.

Jessie and Vivian are sisters; Menetta is married to their brother, Frank; Mina Ericksen Pritchett is their mother.

Nice photo, I may have this one.... I think I was there when it was taken at Frank & Menetta's home in LaCanada-Flintridge, CA, which is where, a week or so ago, the TV news was showing all the mud slides there due to lots & lots of rain falling on the burned out hillsides. The slides destroyed several homes. Every time I hear anything about that town (they didn't used to say the Flintridge part) I think of that house.  The wooden structure in the background is just the roof of their covered patio which sat apart from the house, in the back yard. That was considered pretty fancy in those days! My Mom was always jealous of them because they had "money"..... a wooden leg and no kids.... but "money". 

Thanks for sharing... I think I told you that I still have (great grandmother) Mina's metal patio chair & a 'hair wreath' she made from the hair of several family members. Are you familiar with those?  I've offered it to my kids and no one wants it.  I always thought it was cool & had asked for it years ago.... my kids think it's 'gross'.  I was going to put it in my yard sale, but was just thinking maybe you or one of your kids may find it interesting.  I can email a pic to you if you would like to see it.  It's quite pretty in a velvet lined shadow box frame.  Let me know.

OK, too sleepy.... almost 1 am so going to go to bed.

Later, hugs, Toni

Teen Myrna Photo

David Childs commented on your photo:

"Just look at you! What a doll ~ va va voom!"

More About Briley

Just thought I'd forward this to you.  Briley is doing well.  Jens and I went to Ogden last night to see her since she is off the venitator.  I can't believe how big she is growing even though she still is so small.  She truly is amazing and a miracle.  We appreciate your thoughts and prayers in her behalf and putting their names in the temple.  We have been greatly blessed.

Love,

Carolyn

Hi, Yesterday Briley was able to get off of the ventilator!!!  She was put on a machine called a C-Pack that helps keep pressure in her lungs and gives her extra oxygen, but makes her have to take her own breaths.  The last few days she has also been able to tolerate full feedings which has led to the IV's being taken out.  Heather was really excited one evening when she logged on to the webcam because her little girl was no longer naked.  With the IV's out Briley has started wearing little pajammas.  The last week has been continual good news with the progress Briley is making.  Wednesday she weighed 3 pounds 11 ounces.  She is starting to fill out and looks more and more like a normal baby each day.  We still don't have any idea when she will come home, but each day is one more closer. Love,  Derek, Heather, Laramie, and Briley