Thursday, July 24, 2008

happy pioneer day!!

pioneer day during my childhood consisted of the days of 47' parade, amazing fireworks (round 2) and my mom making me wear a bonnet of some sort. today I am older and am sad because I have no bonnet to wear.


In honor of my pioneer heritage I wanted to share the story of one of my most well known pioneer ancestors, mary goble pay. She crossed the plains when she was only 13yrs old and kept a journal. her younger sister and mother died while crossing the plains and her toes had to be amputated. I often thought about her story as a 13yr old and wondered how strong I would have been....now I am much older and still wonder. her story is a courageous one and I hope I can live up to the strength and testimony she left our family.

to read more about her story you can go here or here.


I traveled to england in the fall of 05 and took a day to visit to the small town of burpham england. this one lane village is where a lot of my goble and penfold ancestors came from. the main attraction in NYC is times square. the main attraction in burpham is an old church and graveyard. I spent most of my time there wandering through the headstones seeing familiar names. It was pretty surreal being by myself and spending hours in a graveyard. It felt oddly comfortable and meditative. simply beautiful. I would love to take my kids back there some day...(guess I have to get some of those first).








6 comments:

holly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amy H. Ellis said...

Rachel, I love the pioneer tribute, I often ponder on Mary's story too. I hope that you get to more of the family history sites and take pictures. Wow! Glad we're family.

Anonymous said...

those pictures are so enchanting rachel. I want to go! If you don't take your kids, I want to go! Cousins trip to england would be so cool. miss you. How are you?!

Anna Jay said...

I AM GOING THERE IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS!!!

Peggy Brown said...

Rachel... I loved walking around that cemetary in Burpham too. It is probably filled with our family stories... I would love to know. Next time I'm going to spend a whole week in Burpham. Miss you, Peggy

Anna Jay said...

I remembered this post and your links helped me write my family history paper. Thank you. Thank you much.