Snakes!

Mark is holding a snake. I think this is a study in curiosity.

Karen, Tyra, Roger, Mark, Dan, Todd, and Joan. I like Joan's response best!

Answers to Questions about our Driggs Family Origins!

After posting my questions about the Driggs family origins, I emailed Emily Barker Farrer to see what she knew. In just a few hours she responded by directing me to the following web site post that she had already prepared.

http://sites.google.com/site/emilyfarrer/origins-of-the-driggs-family

It is a detailed description of what researchers have done to answer those very questions. In some ways, it is one of those times when truth is stranger than fiction. And there are skeletons in our closet!

You will be both taught and even entertained by what you learn!

David and I are amazed and grateful that Emily had already learned about an important explanation of what has been discovered about our origins, gotten a copy, and posted it for all of us to see. You'll want to read it!!!

{Karen}

The Origins of our Driggs Ancestors Are Full of Surprises!

For a couple of months, this blog has focused on our Christensen ancestors--acknowledging that our Grandmother Maud Rosalie Driggs Christensen was a "Christensen" by marriage.

Today we are turning our attention to our Driggs ancestors. This time we are beginning at "the beginning" of the Driggs Family and then we'll feature their children and grandchildren.

For years, based on the research that was published in Driggs: History of an American Family--Book Two, I have thought that our Driggs family immigrated from Amsterdam, Holland. But the research was sketchy. Recently I learned that some of our Driggs relatives, who were instrumental in getting the Driggs Book published, gave their DNA to help to shed light on the family's origins. Third hand reports indicate that they learned that their ancestors probably came from Portugal. Last week I googled Shadrach Ford Driggs and found a copy of his obituary. It contained a completely different view of the origin of the Driggs family! They're from England!!

A photo of Shadrach Ford Driggs

You'll find Shadrach Ford Driggs' Obituary on the sidebar and also a brief history of him and his first wife Elizabeth White Driggs. I'm interested that Ruth H. Barker (Paul's wife) and Emily Farrer (David Barker's daughter) are associated with the post.

The great mystery for me now is--if we have the information from the obituary--perhaps written by his grandson, why did our well-informed Driggs cousins give DNA to know? And assuming they did it to confirm what the obituary indicated (England, not Holland), how did it show Portugal?! For now "the beginning" is currently getting more and more cloudy! I will do some more checking within the family about where our Driggs ancestors lived before they came to America.

In the meantime, we will start with Shadrach Ford Driggs who was our Grandmother Maud Rosalie Driggs' grandfather and Benjamin Woodbury Driggs' father. You'll learn several interesting things about him on the sidebar.

{Karen}

Alec Bessinger's Denmark Report

In 2003 Alec needed to do a country report for school and he chose Denmark. He wrote about the geography, culture, economy, and about his Danish ancestors--Niels Christensen and Niels' parents, Peder Christensen and Ellen Poulsdatter. They are the first Christensens who joined the church in Europe and were part of "the gathering to Zion".

Alec's Story is a great addition to our family's history! It's on the sidebar.

Karen, Dad, Susie, Hank, and Alec Bessinger

This picture was taken in 2003 when the Bessingers visited Logan. Alec wrote his report a few months later.

The Other Side

From the time that we were young, our folks talked about "people on the other side" with as much certainty as they talked about "people in American Fork" or "people in Huntington". The experiences they shared made those people who went before us a very important part of our lives.

Phoebe Adelaide Chipman Christensen holds an important place in my testimony of "the other side". I had heard about her from the time I was small, but it has taken rereading these family histories carefully enough to summarize them for me to realize that knowing what happened at the close of her life has been one of the great legacies she left for me.

I think that you will remember her, too.

Her story is on the sidebar.

{Karen}

New Stories from our Family Tree

We’ve been sharing something of the life histories of Grandfather Bernard Niels Christensen and Grandmother Maud Rosalie Driggs Christensen.

Today we’re turning our attention to

Grandfather’s parents--Niels Christensen and Phoebe Adelaide Chipman Christensen. When their lives began, they were an ocean apart, but their faith and courage, necessity and love brought them together.

We hope you’ll enjoy their stories! Great-grandfather Niels Christensen’s story is on the sidebar today. Great-grandmother Phoebe Christensen’s will be added soon.

{Karen}

Grandma Christensen's Quotable Quote

Have a 'appy day!

Note: This quote should be said with a Scottish accent if you want

to say it as Grandma Christensen would have as she quoted a friend.

(Carol)

The Pied Piper of American Fork

During our early married life when our own children had so many wonderful experiences with their grandparents, I felt a keener awareness that we were bereft of many of those special moments and relationships. At about that time I learned that our Grandfather Bernard Christensen was known as “The Pied Piper of American Fork”. His truck was always full of neighbor children. Somehow knowing that filled my heart because I thought that if he loved all of those children in American Fork, he would love me.

In his funeral it was said “that children were always safe in his company, for there was never anything said or allowed to be said that could not have been [said] to the most delicate.” The Christensens of Soro, Denmark and American Fork, Utah, USA, Allen C. Christensen, p. 290.

Surely he was beloved and almost revered by his own children.

Today’s post on the sidebar is Part 2 of a history about our Grandfather Bernard Niels Christensen.

I hope that it gives his grandchildren and great-grandchildren a glimpse of who he is.

Miriam Barker Zabriskie and Grandfather Bernard Christensen