I have pioneer ancestry and I knew a lot of their temple work was done. One day I wondered if all of my pioneer ancestry families had come to Utah. I looked at the family of Peter Sheffield because they were the immigrant family. There was a complete Family Group Sheet with parents and their three children – all with their ordinances completed. I noticed that one child – Mary Ann Sheffield Moon had not come to Utah with the rest of the family. Her family members, in Utah had made sure her ordinances were completed. She was “done”.
I was curious about Mary Ann’s family and began to research records in England to see if I could find out more about her. I researched her and her family through all the census records, etc.. I found that she’d had ten children and eight of them had lived to be adults. I could do all their ordinances and Mary Ann would be so happy to have all their children’s work “done”. Then I thought that she’d even be happier to have all her grandchildren’s ordinances completed (It’s a “grandma thing”). I was able to find marriages for all of them and records of their children. In my research, I looked at them in the England 1911 census that asks the women how many children they’d had and how many were still living. I was so sad to learn that there were four of Mary Ann’s grandchildren that had died between census records, and I couldn’t find them.
I prayed that a way would open up for me to find these missing babies. I took all the family names I was able to find and completed the ordinances for them. My own children came to a sealing session with me, where all ten of Mary Ann’s children were sealed to her and her husband. We were able to participate in the sealings of all the children to their spouses and their children to them. I could feel how happy Mary Ann was that we had given her the blessings of an eternal family.
A few years later I went to a Rootstech class where I learned that the General Register Office (GRO) birth index in the United Kingdom, could now be searched by mother’s maiden name. I immediately came home and searched for those four missing grandchildren. There they were! I was so happy and grateful. The spirit whispered to me to look at “all” of Mary Ann’s children. I searched for children named Moon with Sheffield as the maiden name and started checking all of her children. Suddenly a little girl named Ellen showed up. I cried when I realized that I’d missed one of Mary Ann’s children. I continued and I found a little boy named Joseph, and I cried again because I’d missed another child. I cried again when I was able to participate in the sealing of these two babies to Mary Ann, who had been waiting so patiently. I was also able to be part of the sealings of the last four grandchildren to their parents. Now I’m sure that Mary Ann is a happy mother and grandmother with her eternal family complete.
Because I was impressed to look at one sibling of my ancestor, who was “done”, I was able to complete the ordinance work in the temple, for nearly 70 family members.
–Beth Ann Hammer, Temple and Family History Consultant, Willow Creek Stake