This is a picture of Iris standing next to the first known McMichael to accept the restored gospel and join the Church. Robert McMichael was born in Londonderry, Ireland in 1811. He joined the Church and was baptized in the spring of 1841 in England. We do not know all the particulars but somehow he and his family made it to England where he met the missionaries and accepted the gospel. This was during the time that Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilfred Woodruff, and other early missionaries were working in England. We again do not no all the particulars, but Robert McMichael and his wife next show up in the records of the Church in 1853 where they received their endowments in the "President's Office." They would have crossed the ocean by ship from England and later the Great Plains to the valley of the Great Salt Lake by covered wagon sometime before 1853. They eventually settled in Hoytsville, Utah where Robert and his wife Elizabeth McMillan McMichael are buried and where some of their descendants still live to this day. We visited the Hoytsville Cemetery on our way home from Colorado just over a week ago. We talked with people who knew some of the older generation McMichaels as well as some who still live in the Hoytsville/Coalville area in Utah.
This is only one of our family pioneer stories. May we be ever mindful of their faith and sacrifice and of our own personal and family heritage as we think of those "blessed, honored pioneers."
It is a strong testimony to us, that the Lord is ever mindful of us and is persistant in wanting to share with us the blessings of eternity.
2 comments:
You have been doing some great work. Mom is blessed that you love her family just as much as the Eborn's. Pretty neat how you found them so close to home. They are probably smiling from above as you visited their memory at the cemetary.
I came across your blog when I have been researching my ancestors. Robert McMichael is one of my many great grandfather's and I have heard so many great things about him. To see your blog post about him makes me extremely proud to have him as an ancestor. I heard he was a great man, who loved his family with all his heart. He also was an extremely kind man and would go completely out of his way to help anyone in need. I'm not sure if you are related to him, or know one of his descendants; but I truly look forward to my next visit to Utah. I hope to travel around the areas my ancestors who were pioneers lived and learn as much as possible. Thank you for this article. It is stories like this, that let me know gaining information about my ancestors is something I should do.
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