William Ashton participates in the 1889 4th of July program in Whitney

I found this on Family Search.  It was contributed by Alexis Beckstead.  William Ashton is my great great great grandfather.  I descend from his daughter Mary while the Becksteads descend from Sarah.  I also note that family search has added a middle name; William Albert Ashton.

In the book "The Trail Blazer, a history of the development of Southeastern Idaho," by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, it states that Amasa Beckstead provided Accordion music for the 4th of July program in 1889. In the same program it mentions that his Grandpa Ashton gave a speech. Other relatives added to the entertainment: Andrew Beckstead gave a speech, Elton Beckstead demonstrated a Step Dance. Joseph Beckstead sang a song and provided mouth-organ music with Riley Clark. These were among 43 numbers in the long program. The small community really knew how to celebrate.

Fourteen Grandbabies: Baby Pictures

First Column Charity, second Mark, third Jeremy, fourth Caleb and Natalia.  That Wardle nose dominates, except for a couple with Sheri's nose.  Ten Grandsons, four granddaughters.
Charity created the collage.

Kids: First Picture Together and Most Recent

Mark's Marine boot camp graduation

Escape room

See any changes?  Names not included for privacy.

How I Am Related to William Shakespeare

Yes the real William Shakespeare.  It is not a direct line, but it is pretty darn close because he shares the same grandparents with my line. 
My father's mother i Melissa Shaw, whose mother is Melissa Ann Atwood whose mother is Mary Sophronia Barber, who is the daughter of William Perry Barber, the son of William Barber, the son of John Barber, who is also the son of a John Barber, the son of John Drake Barber, the son of Ruth Drake, the daughter of John Drake II whose mother is Lettyce Shakespeare the cousin of William Shakespeare.  Henry Shakespeare, father of Lettyce is the brother of John Shakespeare and their parents are Richard Shakespeare and Abigail Webb.  Now I think that is pretty cool.  This is from Family Search.  William Shakespeare was born in Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England in 1564.  He passed away in 1616 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.  He was married to Anne Hathaway. 

Genealogy Family Names

I find this list is very helpful to me as I do genealogy work.  I also find I am always adding to it.  On a few occasions I find different sides of the family having common ancestors, and also ancestors with the same name.

Alcock                         Buff    (Clyde Buff family)

Alvey                           Buff

Audritt                        Shaw  (Dad’s mother)

Baker                          Shaw Atwood

Ball                              Shaw

Ballam                                    Adams  (Uncle Leo’s third wife, Dad’s)

Batdorff                      Shaw

Beek                            Jeremy Bosch  (Mom’s mother’s line)

Bibby                          Ashton  (Isaac Wardle married Mary Ashton)

Bogard, Boogard        Jeremy Bosch

Bond                           Shaw Atwood

Bronkhorst                 Jeremy Braendli Bosch

Browning                   Braendli Jeremy

Cartwright                 Green  (Dad’s brother-in-law)

Clemons                     Shaw Atwood

Colver                         Shaw Atwood Barber

Conrad, Coonrad       Haws Clawson  (Sheri’s mother’s father)

Corrigan                     Haws

Cox                              Williams  (Uncle Leo’s second wife)

Crane                          Buff

Cross                           Adams

Crum                          Shaw Atwood Barber

Davis                           Shaw Atwood

DeWeese                    Buff

DeWitt                        Clawson

Dille                            Clawson

Donaghy                     Adams

Donk                           Jeremy Bosch

Doughy                       Shaw Atwood

Epperly                      Shaw Atwood

Farr                             Green

Farrar                         Haws Clawson

Farrow                        Haws Clawson

Flood                           Buff

Fletcher                      Shaw

Foreman                     Haws / Shaw Atwood

Francis                        Tonkin Williams

Froggat                       Ashton Barlow

Fry                              Tonkin Williams

Frye                            Green

Greene                        Shaw Atwood/ Green

Golding                       Shaw

Goodwin                     Shaw

Gould                          Shaw

Grepp                         Buff

Griffis                          Haws Clawson

Grotenboer                Wright Braendli Bosch

Griffis                          Haws Clawson

Goodband                  Green Osborn

Goodwin                     Shaw

Gunier                                    Adams

Gwaltney                    Buff

Hackett                       Shaw Atwood

Hamilton                    Shaw Atwood

Hannibal                    Shaw Atwood

Harrison                     Osborn Green

Hawkey                      Green

Heywood                    Shaw

Hicks                           Springall (Mom’s stepfather)

Hines                          Haws Clawson Durfee

Hitchcock                    Shaw Atwood Barber

Hitz                             Braendli

Hoaglin                       Haws

Hodge                         Shaw

Holden                        Shaw Atwood

Hotchkiss                    Haws Clawson

Hudson                       Haws Clawson

Hutto                          Haws Clawson

Imner/Immer                        Braendli

Inman                         Adams

James                          Shaw Atwood

Jenkins                       Green Cartwright     

Kilgore                        Shaw Atwood

Kyle                            Adams

Leatherbarrow          Ashton

Littleboy                     Springall

Manhire                     Williams

Martin                                    Shaw Atwod Barber

McCallister                 Haws Clawson

McClanahan               Haws

McDaniel                    Shaw Atwood/ Braendli Jeremy

McKinney                   Shaw Atwood

Micks                          Braendli

Monaghan                  Tonkin Williams

Moore                         Green Cartwright/ Durfee Clawson

Munro                                    Shaw Atwood Barber

Murrells                     Adams

Nash                           Haws Clawson

Nightingale                Osborn

Osborn                       Green

Owen                          Atwood

Pieper

Pfister                         Braendli

Phelps                                    Shaw Atwood

Platford                      Adams

Porter                         Shaw Atwood

Prudy                         Cartwright Green

Rodgers                      Haws Clawson

Saich                           Springall

Sanders                      Jeremy Braendli

Schilling                      Green Cartwright

Shelton                       Clawson

Siefkes                        Braendli

Smith                          Clawson/ Jeremy

Souttar                       Green

Spier                           Wardle Udy

Staples                        Ashton

Sublett                        Haws Clawson

Suthard                      Shaw Atwood

Swadling                    Shaw Atwood Barber

Swager                       Adams

Tasler                         Ashton

Tatler                          Ashton

Terry                          Shaw Atwood

Todden                       Shaw Atwood

Tonkin Tonkyn          Williams

Tucker                        Haws Clawson

Uphavering                Ashton

Udy                             Wardle

Utley                           Braendli Jeremy/Shaw Atwood/ Haws Clawson Durfee

Van den Berg             Bosch, Jeremy

Van der Hoek             Bosch Jeremy

Van Dijk                      Braendli Jeremy

VanderGrift                Jeremy

Van Geenen               Bosch

Van Steenis                Braendli Jeremy Bosch

Vink                            Braendli, Jeremy, Bosch

Vinton                         Ashton

Vogel                           Bosch

Walker                        Shaw

Walters                       Green Cartwright

Warden                      Adams

Watkins                      Clawson

Wheelhouse               Haws

Whitter                       Shaw

Whitaker                    Shaw

Wilcock                       Ashton

Wilkes                         Shaw

Wilsey                         Clawson

Wink                           Jeremy Bosch

Wisner                        Clawson

Wysling                      Braendli

Genealogy Tapestry

Sheri made this for me for Christmas one year.  I hung it on the wall, then used is as a desk mat for many years.  It is not totally accurate, because Mark's DOB is written differently than everyone else's.  His birthday is 1/12/87.  Natalia is 10/17/85, Mark, Jeremy 10/18/89, Charity 11/1/90.  Billy Boy was 12/9/84.  Our other three children were not yet born, Miranda 2/16/93  Caleb 5/19/95 and Tony 2/8/2007.

Sweetwater Crossing: poem by Sephen E. Robinson

Sweetwater Crossing(November 4, 1856) By Stephen E. Robinson

Ensign October 2014

So many miles, and such a shallow stream, but wet and

Wide with sticky mud.1 And this time there was snow and ice.

Not ice enough to cross2 on, like the miracle at Nauvoo.

Another miracle was needed here; and perhaps a sacrifice.

With wagons, clothing, food,3 and fire for loved ones yet unknown,

Men and boys from Zion climbed their mountains through the frost

To find the stranded pioneers, exhausted on the prairie and

Dying in November’s snows, with the Sweetwater still to cross.

Their clothes were rent; their strength was spent; they’d eaten belts and shoes.

Hundreds there were winter-bound with no hope that they might rally;

It would take a bridge of living flesh, willingly laid down,

To save the souls at Devil’s Gate and bring them to the Valley.

Then the Valley boys, some beardless, brave, saw no other way.

The young men knew what they must do—saw what was required,

And carried, ferried, the weak and sick across the freezing water,

Crossed and recrossing, crossed again. Crossed, though chilled and tired.

And as the young men waded, bearing on their strong, warm backs

Their loads of tired flesh, of fathers, mothers, children, wives,4

Ignored the pain, the chills like nails in freezing hands and feet,

They crossed for love—and Jesus’ sake—and offered life for lives.5

And while from Devil’s Gate all crossed to the shelter of the Cove,

Like lambs born in too-early spring, the young men shivered and they froze,

Bearing scores of pilgrim strangers, the least of all the pioneers,⁶

Who had pushed their carts and their poor hearts till both broke⁷ in winter’s snows.

That cold and lonely river was once the crossroads of the world,

Where works of faith met gifts of grace at the continent’s divide.

God there poured out his mercy on both the saviors and the saved,

And those who crossed and washed⁸ in that sweet Water never died.

1. 1. 
   On the surface, this poem is about crossing the Sweetwater River. The symbolic subtext, however, is the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He bore the weight of the whole human family on His shoulders, as symbolized by the young rescuers who carried pioneers across the freezing river.
2. 2. 
   The word cross is used 12 times in the title and the text of the poem. The repetition is intentional. The willing sacrifice of the young men delivers the souls from “Devil’s” Gate across the water to their salvation.
3. 3. 
   See Matthew 25:37–40.
4. 4. 
   In relation to the first two lines of this stanza, seeIsaiah 22:23–24, where it is prophesied that the Messiah, “as a nail in a sure place,” will bear all the weight of His Father’s house.
5. 5. 
   Historical note: While the rescuers did offer their lives, no one actually perished in the Sweetwater crossing.
6. 6. 
   See Matthew 25:37–40.
7. 7. 
   See Luke 4:18 and Psalm 51:17; 147:2–3.
8. 8. 
   See John 4:10–14; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:5;Revelation 1:5.
9.