June 9th - Little Selma Christina Persson

I spent most of my day on this Swedish genealogy.  I can see clearly that Selma Christina was definitely the oldest daughter in my grandfather's family.  She died at 2 years old of scarlet fever, before the second child was even born.  Somehow, she never showed up again in any records.  Of course, I haven't seen all the records.  The entire family is listed in a household examination in 1896.  All nine children are listed, including two who had died.  Their death dates were listed, so it was all very clear.  However, little Selma was not on the list. 

It really makes me wonder why.  Was it just too hard for the parents to remember her?  Losing any child is hard, but losing the first would have been extremely heart wrenching.  Perhaps since none of the other children would have remembered her, it was easier to just forget her.  It is unlikely that she was ever really forgotten, but with nine children coming after, it would have been easy to bury it deep.

Which brings me to my thought here.  Joyce, my roommate who made this genealogy connection, let me know that she had not sought out this person.  Rather Sister Nilsson had sought her out and was the one to bring up genealogy as she shared how much she had loved serving in the Family History Center in SLC.  Joyce had felt prompted to tell her about my Swedish heritage and it went on its own from there.  One of the first things she found was the birth and death records of Selma Christina.  I don't believe that things this important are just coincidence.  I feel sure that little Selma or her parents Johan and Kristina, or perhaps akk, were the ones who wanted to make sure Selma was found and sealed to her family.  I have added her to the family and already have my sheet ready to take to the temple.  What a wonderful experience this has been!

The last half of my day was at the temple.  We have a young man from our ward who is about to go on a mission and this was his first time to attend the temple.  A large number from the ward attended.  In fact, the full session was almost all people from our ward.  That was a great experience right there!

We ended the day by stopping at Red Lobster for dinner.  I indulged with the crab alredo.  It is my favorite, but also the least healthy and most fattening, so I don't get it as often as I would like.  It just seemed right today!