A Genealogy of My Forefathers

To my son,

               You are familiar with the story of Nephi and his brothers returning to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. The main reason that this was so important was so that Lehi and his posterity could have the commandments of the Lord. There was a second reason as well that I found very interesting as I read the account again this week. Lehi said to Nephi, “Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem. For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews and also a genealogy of my forefathers, and they are engraven upon plates of brass” (1 Nephi 3:2-3). Lehi’s family was somehow related to Laban, and those plates of brass contained a genealogy of his ancestors. When Laman requested the records for Laban, Nephi recounted, “He desired of Laban the records which were engraven upon the plates of brass, which contained the genealogy of my father” (1 Nephi 3:12). Again, Nephi highlighted the fact that they contained Lehi’s genealogy. After they finally obtained the plates and returned to Lehi, Nephi wrote what his father found upon the plates: “And it came to pass that my father, Lehi, also found upon the plates of brass a genealogy of his fathers; wherefore he knew that he was a descendant of Joseph…. And thus my father, Lehi, did discover the genealogy of his fathers” (1 Nephi 5:14, 16). Much later in the Book of Mormon when Alma was teaching his son Helaman he spoke about the plates of brass and said this: “And these plates of brass, which contain these engravings, which have the records of the holy scriptures upon them, which have the genealogy of our forefathers, even from the beginning” (Alma 37:3). They were important both for the fact that they contained scriptures and because they had the record of their genealogy. This highlights the importance for us as well of family history and understanding the stories of our ancestors.

               Today I want to tell you the story of one of our ancestors named Henry Britt Skidmore. He was born in 1830 in Pennsylvania—the same year that the Church was organized not too far away—and he learned at a young age to become a skilled saw maker. The men in his family were known as “scissor smiths” because they were so good at it, and they belonged to the Scissor Smith Guild. At one point he worked for the saw making company Disston which still exists today. A lady named Rachel Brooks helped teach him the gospel and he was baptized in 1850. The two of them were married the same year, but she died of smallpox in 1853 when their first child was only 1½ years old. He then married Sarah Ann Elliot in 1854 and they decided they would go to Utah to gather with the Saints. One account that we have records that his employer, Mr. Disston, liked Henry so much that he tried to get him to stay rather than go to Utah. Henry said, “No, the gospel of Jesus Christ means too much to me.” Mr. Disston then offered him, “If you’ll stay, I’ll adopt you as my son and leave everything to you when I die.” But Henry declined, losing out perhaps on a large inheritance but instead gaining something far greater with the blessings of the gospel. He traveled with his family to Utah in 1855, and the next year he received his temple blessings in the endowment house there. They settled in the Salt Lake Valley, and he and his wife had fourteen children there (though only half of them lived to adulthood). He showed us through his example that the things of God are of far greater worth than what the world has to offer. I hope that we can remember his example of choosing what is most important in our lives. And I hope that you and I will continue to learn from the “genealogy of our fathers” just as Lehi did.

Love,

Dad