Sarah Ann Criddle Spackman PB

Sarah Ann Criddle Spackman was born 21 Oct 1841 in Taunton, England. She was baptized 30 March 1859 then emigrated to Utah in 1862 and crossed the plains with her brother George and his family in the Horton D. Haight company. She married Thomas Edward Spackman on 24 March 1863 in Morgan, Utah, had 12 children (I'm related to the oldest William Henry), and died 31 Jan 1911 in Farmington, Utah. My Mom says there is a big monument to them in the Farmington cemetery, Thomas died on 9 Jan 1911 only 22 days before Sarah.

Thomas was married in 1887 to a second wife, Alice Carter. This was typical in the Utah Territory at that point because polygamy was still practiced (the official end of polygamy was in 1890). Thomas and Alice had 10 children, which brings the total of 22 children for Thomas, but I found in the 1910 US Census that Thomas and Alice are living in Morgan and Sarah is living with two of her children in Farmington. Other than these official records I know nothing about Sarah, why she joined the church, why she came to Utah without her parents, did she approve of Thomas taking a second wife, etc... I wish there were family stories about her, but I think because she is my Great-Great-Great Grandmother she is too far back for stories to remain. When I get back to Utah I will have to head over to the Farmington Cemetery to check out this monument.

Unlike the other PB's Sarah's is VERY different. Typically they say be good and Heavenly Father will bless you, but Sarah's mentions the pre-existence and her life after she is dead. It's over three pages long, which is also not typical, and on page 3 the Patriarch ends the blessing but then starts it again.

Farmington April 28, 1899

No 267

Blessing by Patriarch Judson Johman (sp?) upon the head of Sarah Ann Criddle Spackman, born Oct 21 1841, Somereset England, daughter of Henry and Mary Criddle.

Sarah Ann in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood I seal upon thy head a blessing even a Father's blessing

I say unto thee in blessings God shalt bless thee for He surely gave His angels charge over thee for good, when thou did come upon the earth and they have guided they foot steps and have lead thee in the way of truth that thou did receive the gospel of Jesus Christ for thou did promise they Heavenly Father before thou was born that thou would be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and keep His commandments and He would guide the way for thee to go, therefore I say unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ, thou was numbered with Israel before thou was born even thou did stand with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and with Sarah and Rachel in the eternal world and thou art a literal descendant of him who was sold by his brothers into Egypt, thou art also a daughter of Rachel and a daughter of Joseph thou shalt be fruitful even as the choice branches that run over the wall

therefore I say unto thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will not forsake thee nor thy posterity for He will keep them as in the hollow of His hand and they shall not be lost and the time shall be redeemed and they shall meet thee and thy husband in the worlds to come.

Thou shalt receive thy washings and anointings and be anointed queen and priestess to reign in connection with thy husband throughout all eternities to come, this is thy blessing and I seal it upon you. Thou shall live until thou art satisfied with life even to a good old age and thou shall have health all the days of thy life and thou shall have power with the heavens, thou shall live even until thou shall say unto thy Heavenly Father "it is enough let me go in peace" then thou shall meet thy father and mother and thy husband in the Celestial Kingdom of thy God

Thou shall come forth in the morning of the first resurrection and thou shall pass by the angels and the Gods even to thine exaltation and glory and thou shall go on from one degree of glory to another until thou shalt receive a fullness of the glory of God to reign with the God in the eternal world, for that cause did you come upon the earth and to taste the bitter that you might know the sweet.

I also seal upon thy head the blessings of the earth beneath for thou shalt have plenty of the riches of the earth this blessing shall be upon thy posterity throughout all generations of time to come, thy posterity shall be numbered among the noble sons and daughters of

Zion for they were numbered with the great and noble in the eternal world and shall become rulers in Israel, they shall become rulers, bishops of wards and presidents over stakes of Zion, I also say unto thee thou shall stand with those one hundred forty-four thousand who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, thy name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, Thy posterity shall be gathered to the center stake of Zion and shall help to bless and crown the ten tribes of Israel and also the tribes of Judah and Benjamin shall receive blessings at their hands.

This blessing with the blessings of eternal lives and with all the blessings that are in store for the faithful daughters of Zion Iseal upon they head and thy posterity after thee in the name of Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood even so amen

Sarah Ann in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I continue thy blessing and say unto thee, thou shall have the desires of they heart for it is thy right and thy privilege to do a great and mighty works upon the earth, thou shall live until thou art satisfied with life, thou shalt enter the Holy Temple and oficiate for the living and for the dead and when thou passeth to the other side thou shalt have the privilege of returning to thy sons and thy daughters to give them the geneologies of thy progenitors for this is thy right for thou art faithful and the right of thy posterity after thee, to open the prison doors of those who are waiting to be freed at thy hands thou shalt live to do this work for thou art entitled to the

blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ this is thy special blessing in as much as thou did agree to do this work thy desire shall be granted unto thee I seal this blessing upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ even so - Amen.

Pronunciation Guide

Dave and I have been reading the Book of Mormon together and got to Alma chapter 2. There is a bad guy called Amlici and his followers are called the Amlicites. Well, Dave couldn't say his name so he just called him Bob and his Bobites. I went over to the Pronunciation Guide to help Dave say it right and realized that Amlici is suppose to be pronounced ăm´lĭ-sī, but in my head all these years I have been pronouncing it a-măl´a-sī instead.

Then we got to Alma 3:4 which says, "they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads...." This made Dave think that these people were Cylons from Battlestar Galactica original. Yes, we are weird! LOL ;)

This past weekend...

... Dave and I went to the Temple because it was stake Temple day. I decided I wanted us to stay overnight in the Temple accommodation, then head to the Wigan ward on Sunday.

Yes, this is another weird picture Dave took. We ended up alone in a room with bunk beds, so we took the mattress' off the beds and put them on the floor for fun.

I wanted to go to the Wigan ward because Wrightington is in their ward boundaries and Jane Benson was born there in 1824. The Benson and Marsden families had lived in Wrightington for about 200 years when Heber C. Kimball came in November 1837. All of Jane's family was baptized by him. There is a story about the Moon family, but it mentions Wrightington, read it HERE. This is a story by Jane's older brother Richard, but you need to scroll down a ways. Richard was the brother Jane was living with in Parowan when she met John Perkins. I was hoping that someone in the Wigan ward would be living in Wrightington or know of some information about the town. But no luck, they didn't know anything. I was glad I went and crossed this as a source off my list.

London 4 February

Dave got picked to be a volunteer at the London Olympics, GO DAVE! So he had to go to Wembley Stadium to do some training. We took the train (we weren't sure at the time we bought them if the car was going to be fixed in time and Dave got a REALLY good deal).

Dave about to do training.

I went window shopping with my former mission comp Carla at the new shopping center next to where the Track and Field events and Opening Ceremonies are going to be. It's still under construction.

It was nice, but chilly all day, then we came home to this.

There were traffic accidents all over the place because no one knows how to drive in the snow here in England. Do you see the white car? That is our neighbor's new car. The gray one behind it is Dave's. If you can tell from the tracks on the driveway no one could get home because of the snow. It's all feet tracks. It was pretty and made it feel like this is what winter should be like.

It was a long day, but worth it when I look at how pretty snow is!

Burns Night

The ward decided to do a Burns Night celebration. It's a Scottish holiday. One of the members dressed up, I thought it looked cool!

habit

Dave has this habit of taking weird photos of me.

Don't ask me why he wanted a picture of my forehead?

If I notice he is taking it I will pull a funny face.

December

Yes, it has taken me this long to download the pictures from Dave's phone. We went to the Preston Temple at the beginning of December to do baptisms with the youth. This was my last official activity before I got released from being a YW leader.

While Dave's brother was staying with us in December we went to the German Market in Birmingham, which is a Christmas tradition here. This is Dave and me in front of the Birmingham town council building.

This is with the bull in front of the Bull Ring shopping centre. Yep, they gave the bull a sweater for the winter!

This was on Christmas day. We went to Wanda's for dinner. I am wearing my Christmas present from Dave, a pretty purple shirt.

Blackpool

I think I forgot to say back in November (just as the middle ear infection was getting worse) I headed to Blackpool with Dave to go to the EADA/BDF DanceSport Congress and recruit dancers to be in my next research projects. It's the Friday morning of the British National Championships of DanceSport. This woman sat down next to me and it turns out she is from Walsall area too and she knew all the good ballroom teachers with their phone numbers, so I took them. I like going to this event, it's free and I learn more than when I went in May and had to pay for it. Plus the people that go are nicer and easier to talk to.

This picture is taken from the walkway looking toward the eastern entrance to Winter Gardens where the competition and congress takes place. If you turn around you can see the ocean, but the beach in Blackpool is not nice.

ice cream

I realize that this looks kinda gross...

...but it was actually really yummy!!! They don't have cookies 'n' cream ice cream here in England, so we bought some Oreos that were on sale. I chopped some in halves and put them in the blender. Add vanilla ice cream and pushed the button. Nothing really happened, so I added some milk. A little mixing happened, but not enough, so I got a spatula out and mix the ice cream and milk to the bottom, put the lid back on and pushed the button. Mixing! For a little bit, then I had to do more spatula, then mixing, then spatula, etc until it looked like the picture. I grabbed two spoons and Dave and I snarfed it down! YUMMMMMMMMMEEEEEE!

Grandma Amy's PB

Yesterday I got my Great-Grandma Amy Clarissa Neel Spackman's PB in the mail. This is from my direct maternal line, all my female DNA comes through her. She was born in Oakley, UT in 1896 and died in 1975. (I was a baby when my Mom took me to her funeral in Canada.) Her family moved to the Cardston, Alberta area sometime in the 1890's because they are not in the 1900 US census. And I haven't seen the Canadian census records online yet.

Since the pictures aren't great I will put it up for the family. Even though it is still written out, instead of typed, it is written in the modern style with an opening and closing paragraph, but the spelling and punctuation still need work.

"Stirling Aug 5, 1821

A blessing given by Theo. Brandley Patriarch upon the head of Amy C Neal Spackman daughter of John M and Cora Walker Neal born Dec 30, 1896 at Okley, Utah.

Sister Amy in asmuch as it is thy desire to receive a blessing from the Lord, I place my hands upon they head to pronounce and seal upon thee in the authority of the Holy Priesthood which I hold thy Patriarchal blessing, and I pray God the Eternal Father to inspire the same by His Holy spirit. Though are a descendant of Joseph through the loins of Ephraim, and therefore entitled to the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant, which the Lord has again revealed for the benefit of his children.

Thy guardian angel has been around about your thee and has protected you in the hour of danger, thy life has been spared by the power of God that thou mayest perform they mission upon the earth and fill the measure of thy creation. Let thy life be fulfilled with gladness and thanksgiving unto the Lord for his mercy and His goodness towards thee. Serve Him with all thy heart and mind, keep His commandments and His blessings will be with thee, thy body will be strong _____ [word I can't read] and thine health shall be given unto thee. Put thine trust in God, seek Him in earnest prayer and every righteous desire of thine heart will be granted unto thee and thou shalt live until thou art satisfied with life. Seek for wisdom and the light of the Holy spirit will guide thee in thine labors in life, both spiritual and temporal and thou shalt see the hands of the Lord made manifest in thine behalf. Be thine comforted for the Lord will never forsake thee, and the powers of darkness shall not prevail against thee as long as it is thy desire to serve the Lord, thou shalt be blessed in thine family in thine incomming and outgoing The guardian angel will continue to watch over thee Seek earnestly for the help of the Lord for it shall be thine privilege to go to the house of the Lord and labor for thine fathers house. Be humble and prayerful and every Gift requisite for the accomplishment of thine work on the earth will be given unto thee.

I seal you up unto eternal life to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection and with thine companion and many of thine kindred enter into life everlasting. All of which blessings will come unto thee through thine faithfulness in doing the will of the Lord.

I seal them upon thee in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."