9 Generation Fan Chart and Patriarchal Blessings

Something I really wanted to do for Mom and Dad for Christmas was to make a display of our Family Fan Chart. I saved a PDF copy of our 9 generation list, which starts with me since I created it. It is color coded to help keep track of which family line you are looking at. However, it can be pricey to make this display, so I wanted to have a more complete version.

Our Fan Chart is almost completely filled out for those 9 generations. We only have a few generations plus a few additional missing people in small sections. I am not sure how accurate that all is. While comparing it to the information I have obtained, I show a few people are completely different. Before I invested the money for a wall hanging, I wanted to make sure it was complete as possible.

You may view the Fan Chart here. The alternative is to create your own chart at Family Search by clicking here. All you need is your LDS.org login.

Looking at the chart you can find quite a bit of interesting information. Either the information is very wrong, or we are a bunch of inbreeds. On the Curtis side in the pink lines you will see some of the same couples listed. It is easiest to find it in the 9^th generation on the outside. The dark pink lines and the third pink shade in, you will find 4 couples listed twice: Jeremiah Curtis and Hannah Burnham to Capt. Stephen Fuller and Mary Abbott. It is not until the 6^th generation, when you find the brother and sister, that the information starts to change.

Another problem comes on the Jenkins side. It is the second green shade from the top of the chart on the 9^th generation. It appears that a brother and sister got married under the couple Anna Barbara Streiss and Jorg Valentine Clapp. Was this not illegal at that time? It is no wonder why we all look alike! The third and fourth green shade from the top shows more duplicate couple names. Excellent. Some research might need to be done in those areas.

Another interesting thing I learned was how the Curtis side from Denmark obtains their surnames. You will find a lot of “son”, “sen”, “datter” and “dr”. The word that precedes this is the father’s first name. For example, you will see that Jensen is Jens’ son.

Remember how I mentioned above that we are missing a few generations from a line? That would be Annis Jessop’s line. Want to know something else mysterious? I have been obtaining the patriarchal blessings for our ancestors. You can only request your direct line, so grandmas and grandpas. I am sending them to Mom and Dad as I obtain them. They might let you read them if you ask, but we are to be reminded of their sacred and personal nature. Please only read and tell them as such. My main reason in obtaining them was to find out which tribe of Israel they were from; the rest of the blessing was a perk.

So far many of the blessings have been very intriguing and may even offer insight into that person’s life. Annis Jessop’s stood out for one specific reason. It appeared the patriarch was ready to close the blessing, but at the last moment continued to say that an important matter should be brought to her attention. This matter was in relation to doing her ancestor’s work. Apparently this is an area we definitely need to be spending some time on.

I don’t know about the rest of you who obtained your patriarchal blessing, but Stephanie and I got ours together with somewhat similar results. There are a few things I remember about that day, but the one that stands out most was after we obtained our blessings.

Right before we left, the patriarch felt the need to tell us how strong the feeling of family history work was. It was at this time when Dad shared a dream that Grandpa Jenkins had. Neither Dad, nor I remember all the details of the dream, but it dealt with people missing in our family unit. For some reason an individual that stood out in all of this was Lydia Rosabell Jenkins, daughter of John Jenkins and Mary Jane Elizabeth Oviatt. She was known to also go by Rose, but most frequently, Bell or Belle. She married Henry Sparks and was a sister-in-law to Annis.

When I started to get into family history years ago in Logan, I decided to look into Belle’s history a little more. I was able to find a stillborn boy that wasn’t listed on the information I obtained from Rosanna. I can still remember the burning I felt as I found little Stillborn Sparks. As far as I could tell he was already sealed to his parents, but then again I found a few different sealing dates for Belle and Henry (even if he wasn’t the rules for a stillborn are gray). No matter if he was already sealed to his parents, someone still wanted to make sure he was remembered. He was important and needed to be recorded within his family unit.  I should have looked more into his family sealing, but I moved and found excuses not to follow-up. Now is the time for me to get back on track. Maybe you all can help keep me accountable so I make sure it gets done.