DOCUMENT RESEARCH TEAM

Written by McKenzie Wood, Research Team Lead

In the past three months, the Document Research Team located an additional 403 pages of Wilford Woodruff’s documents. These documents fall into various categories including correspondence, discourses, estate documents, meeting minutes, and genealogical records.

One letter Wilford wrote to Brigham Young details the troubles and hardships he and other Saints faced in crossing the American continent. From losing 75 oxen overnight and having to delay journeying for four days to search for them, to the deaths of seven people—three children, two women, and two men—the Saints and Wilford had a hard journey back to Salt Lake Valley to be sure. However, ever unfailing in his faith, Wilford told Brigham, “We feel that we are remembered before the Lord by our Brethren in the valley And that the Blessings of our Heavenly Father may continually rest upon you & all the faithful in Zion & the Travelling camp of Israel is our daily prayer.” 

There is a constant feeling of trust in God and in the Saints throughout this and other letters Wilford wrote and received. He trusted that the Saints were praying for him and his company to arrive in Utah safely, and in turn he and the traveling Saints prayed for the continual support and prosperity of the settled Saints of the West. Community was vital for the early Saints’ survival, both temporally and spiritually. To see it in simple letter writing is both beautiful and humbling. It makes me want to be better at reaching out to those who may need a helping hand and praying for their prosperity.

TRANSCRIPTION TEAM

Written by Jason Godfrey, General Editor

From May 1 to August 1, 2024, 1,665 pages of Wilford Woodruff’s documents were transcribed through the efforts of volunteers, interns, and staff. Although the search for documents is yielding fewer, and those being found are harder to transcribe, the efforts of our transcribers continue to be diligent and consistent. We are grateful for the efforts of veteran volunteers and new volunteers alike as they have tackled tough paleography. 

In the second quarter we worked on transcribing the missionary letters that Wilford Woodruff received from his son, Abraham Owen Woodruff, while Owen was serving in the Swiss and German Mission from 1894 to 1896. Made available to our collection from the BYU Library, these letters provide rich insight into Wilford’s relationship with Owen. Carson Andersen, an Editorial Specialist interning with us for the summer, wrote the following about one such letter that stood out to him: 

One of the most wonderful parts of reading the many letters to and from Wilford Woodruff is seeing him as not just a prophet, but as a father, a brother, and a son. And this letter is one of the special ones where he is a father.

We all go through times when we are so busy that we may forget to reach out to family or friends. Wilford Woodruff may have felt something like this when his son serving a mission became too busy to write home. Owen’s letter in April 1896 began:

“Dear Father: You will no doubt begin to think I am neglecting to keep you posted as to my whereabouts; and must confess I am indebted to you and dearest Mother for some splendid letters which made me feel good; trust you will both accept this as an excuse for all the letters I owe you.”

He concluded his letter: “I am leaving many good and true friends behind and the question was almost invariably: why can you not remain longer? Well dear Parents I have got that for which I have battled and feel to thank God with all my heart for ‘An honorable Release.’ ” 

Wilford had faith in his son and the Lord, but he may have also worried for his son in a foreign country when he did not hear from Owen for so long. Learning that Owen stayed true to the Lord and finished his mission must have brought Wilford immense joy and satisfaction.

Surely this was a testimony builder to Wilford Woodruff, and it is also for me, that the Lord is ever mindful of our family and friends when they are absent from our lives. This letter helps me remember that God, our Heavenly Father, cannot forget us, and He will help us to find joy in all circumstances we find ourselves in. 

VERIFICATION TEAM

Written by Steven C. Harper, Executive Editor

Thanks to the hard work of Editorial Assistants and trained volunteers, our second-quarter verification work continues ahead of schedule. From May 1 to August 1, we verified 2,472 pages of Wilford Woodruff’s documents.

Ashlin Malcolm leads the Verification Team and coordinates the assignments. Of her work in the past quarter, she wrote: 

Recently I have noticed that as I read about Wilford’s diligence and zeal towards God and sharing the gospel, my desire to be just as devoted has grown. With this growing desire, I have had more opportunities to share the knowledge and principles I have learned, and this has become one of my favorite parts of reading and working in Wilford’s documents.

While working in a letter from Wilford to his brother Asahel, I was reminded of the importance of our desire to share and how we should include God in our efforts. At the beginning of this letter, Wilford wrote a prayer to God to help him with sharing the things of his heart with his brother. One line that stood out to me was, “and by the power of truth enable me to reach the fountain of my Brother’s soul.” As I pondered this line, I thought about how blessed we are to have opportunities to share the gospel of Christ with others, even in small ways. We can touch so many others without even realizing it, if we have a true desire and call upon God to help us each day as Wilford did.

STYLIZATION TEAM by Megan Hutchings, Associate Editor

During the last quarter, the Stylization Team has completed third-level verification of 4,389 pages of Wilford Woodruff’s documents and fourth-level verification of 1,564 pages from Wilford Woodruff’s journals. The fourth-level verification of Wilford’s journals is expected to be completed by Q3 of 2024. 

The work being done by the Wilford Woodruff Papers is important not only because it helps us learn about the character and life of the prophet Wilford Woodruff, but because it also gives us valuable insights into the character and lives of other faithful Saints from the early days of the Church. Braeden Dyer, Assistant Editor, wrote the following about one of Wilford Woodruff’s discourses:

I have found life to be, as President Hinckley described, a train ride of mostly mundane events, colored with some “beautiful vistas” and “thrilling bursts of speed.” Within this journey, some of the most beautiful and inspiring overlooks for me have come from the lives and examples of faithful men and women, particularly and pointedly as portrayed during addresses following their passing. Recently, while reading through Wilford Woodruff’s discourses, I was impressed by a statement from President Woodruff in a eulogy for Erastus Snow. Considering the life of Elder Snow, he said, “From early youth to his latest day he was ever found in the unflinching performance of his duties as a servant of the Most High. Without exaggeration it can be said of him that he died with the harness on.” 

Reading this increased my desire to remain unflinching myself, to keep secure my metaphorical harness in preparation to pull with others the heavy loads, to climb spiritual mountains clipped into the rope of God’s guidance and grace, to link myself to others and to Christ for spiritual safety across the dangerous ice falls of mortality, and to fulfill the beautiful connotations of a life harnessed in God’s work! These and many other insights from President Woodruff’s address convey Erastus Snow as a man of legend, one with immense faith and leadership, wisdom and purity—attributes I have heard to describe family members of mine who have passed in my lifetime. If we speak so of our loved ones in death, how might Christ speak of us to the Father when our works are accounted for? What would change if we spoke this way of our loved ones in life? If we thought of ourselves with such kindness? 

Yes, we spend the vast majority of our lives in mundanity. Yes, we lead lives full of mistakes and shortcomings; however, we share much more in common with those we revere than we often allow ourselves credit for. Taking time to pause at our own life overlooks will reveal much to be proud of and much to be thankful for. Like Elder Snow, let us live with the harness on; like President Woodruff, let us see the best in others, and let us always thank the Lord for letting us have the ride.

BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH TEAM
Written by Jennifer Mackley, Executive Director

The Research Team is diligently researching and has identified 1,609 more people and completed 663 biographies in the past three months, which brings us to a total of 5,849 biographies for the 19,626 individuals we have identified in the Papers. We have 5,946 remaining people to identify.

One of this quarter’s research projects, assisted by a group of volunteers from the Cincinnati Ohio FamilySearch Center, was an effort to identify the almost 3,000 family members that Wilford Woodruff completed research on from 1841 to 1876. His journal record shows he was preparing this list of individuals for proxy baptisms in Nauvoo, Illinois and Salt Lake City, Utah and for additional proxy ordinance work when the St. George Utah Temple was completed in 1877. Transcribing lists of names is more difficult than transcribing letters, journals, and discourses because sentences give context to the words and letters that are otherwise indecipherable, whereas lists of names have no context to help us in deciphering them. So-called “creative” spelling further complicates the transcription process. 

We determined that if we had multiple versions of the lists of family members’ names we would hopefully be able to decipher those that were illegible or misspelled in one list by comparing the lists. Temple record books of proxy ordinances are generally written carefully, which means more legibly, and also contain organized columns with birth and death dates and places that would help us differentiate one “William Hart” from his son “William Hart” and his nephew “William Hart.” After transcribing and indexing the lists of the proxy baptisms completed for Wilford Woodruff's relatives in 1876 and 1877 in the Salt Lake Endowment House and the St. George Temple and the lists of proxy endowments completed for the same individuals in the St. George Temple between 1877 and 1887, we successfully compared those lists with the various personal genealogical lists recorded by Wilford Woodruff to identify otherwise undifferentiated or unidentified individuals. 

These painstaking efforts combined with access to additional genealogical records has led to the identification of extended family members (spouses, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc.), additional family connections, and, therefore, opportunities for completing additional proxy temple ordinances for those families whose temple work has still not been completed 148 years after Wilford Woodruff completed his research.