Belnap Family Party

Uncle Donald's Funeral

A wonderful uncle--Donald Eugene Belnap--passed away.

Special Family Reunion in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire

Brent attended an evensong service at Great St. Mary's Church in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England with distant relatives, the Dixons. The service was one of several highlights of a weekend spent with the Dixons. At Sawbridgeworth, Brent saw the baptismal font where Abraham Belknap, his 9th great grandfather and first (and only known) Belknap/Belnap to have emigrated to America, was christened in 1589.

Pictured above (left to right): Brent, Nicholas Dixon, Graham Dixon, Reverend Robert F. Sibson, Helen Dixon.

Visit From Blackburn Cousins

Martha McBride Knight Smith Kimball Quilt Donation

Special Tour With the Dixons

On the Sunday following the Belnap Family Reunion, Brent took the Dixons to Salt Lake City, where Graham and family were welcomed prior to the weekly Tabernacle Choir broadcast from the Conference Center. After the program, the Dixons met with Elder Ben Banks, Kerry Belnap, President of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Mac Christensen, and Mormon Tabernacle Choir Director Mack Wilberg (whose compositions are invariably Brent's personal favorites). Graham was "permitted" to play the grand organ.

Pictured: Mack Wilberg, Lorinda, Brent inside the Conference Center.

Family Reunion in Istanbul: Cory and Michelle Leonard and Family

Amazing Family Reunion: Graham Dixon Drops By!

Distant Belnap-Belknap relative Graham Dixon, from England no less(!), visited us at our home while in the US on business for the BBC. He'd found Brent's family history materials on the Belnap-Belknap family online, and the rest is, shall we say, history.

This special visit could be the first time in around 400 years that these two branches of the Belnap-Belknap family (one branch, through Abraham Belknap f/k/a Beltoft, came to Massachusetts in the 1630s, while the other branch remained in England where the surname eventually died out in the early 1900s) have reunited.

Brent and Graham figure that they're likely 11th cousins, give or take a few "somethings removed" here and there.

We're looking forward to the Dixons' presence at the next Belnap Family Reunion in Utah in 2010! Brilliant!

Sir Robert Belknap Web Site Launched

Brent has launched a new family history web site, this one on Sir Robert Belknap (born about 1330-died 1401), who served as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of England from 1377 until his banishment to Ireland in 1388 by King Richard II.

Sir Robert Belknap's direct descendants include many notable persons, including William Shakespeare, Lady Jane Grey, Sir Francis Bacon, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (through 2 known lines), Princess Diana (through 3 known lines), and England's current reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II (through 6 known lines).

The new site can be found here:

http://www.sirrobertbelknap.org/

New Harris Family Web Site

Brent has launched a new family history web site on the family of Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham, parents of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. This family's history is inextricably connected with the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The new web site can be reached here:

http://www.nathanharrisfamily.org/

New Bluth Family Web Site

Brent has launched a new family history web site, this one on the Bluth family of Sweden and Pomerania in northern Germany. Portions of this branch of the family tree have been exceptionally well-preserved, in many instances for more than six centuries. Shown here is the actual coat of arms used by the Bluth family of Stralsund. It depicts a stork or pelican wounding its breast to feed its little ones. One direct Bluth ancestor, Bartholomaeus Sastrow, a contemporary of Martin Luther, was appointed poet laureate of the Holy Roman Empire. His life account is deemed to be the most significant autobiographical work in German of the 16th Century. Check out the new web site here:

http://www.bluth.info/

Belnap Family Reunion 2006

The family spent Saturday, August 12, at the Belnap Family Reunion in Rexburg, Idaho. On the way up the day before, they enjoyed a picnic with Grandma Belnap and Uncle Steven along the Snake River across from the Idaho Falls Temple.

American Family Immigration History Center Grand Opening

Brent and Lorinda attended the "grand opening" of the American Family Immigration History Center on Ellis Island with Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Here's the text of the official press release:

THE AMERICAN FAMILY IMMIGRATION HISTORY CENTER™ CELEBRATES GRAND OPENING

New Database Provides Easy Access to More Than 60% of our Nation's Immigration Records

New York, NY (April 17, 2001) - The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (the Foundation), National Park Service (NPS), Ellis Island immigrants and their families, dignitaries and other guests gathered today at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to celebrate the opening of the American Family Immigration History Center (Family History Center). The event included appearances by Tom Brokaw, Charles Grodin and Joel Grey; a search for Irving Berlin's immigration records involving his daughters and great grandson; an overview of the Family History Center's Family Scrapbook activity; and a presentation by Foundation Founding Chairman Lee A. Iacocca of the first annual Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards to Irving Berlin's family and three Ellis Island immigrants: Felicita (Gabaccia) Salto, age (86 years old); Seymour Rexsite, age (88 years old) and Marinus deNooyer, age (103 years old).

Today also marks the first annual "Ellis Island Family History Day," an event that is co-sponsored by the Foundation, the National Genealogical Society and America's Governors. "We have chosen today to open the American Family Immigration History Center for a very special reason," said Mr. Iacocca. "Ninety-four years ago, April 17, 1907, was greeted with the largest number of immigrants ever processed on one day at Ellis Island - 11,747 souls, more than twice the usual number. In honor of this historical event, we will recognize 'Ellis Island Family History Day' with our Family Heritage Awards program on April 17, from this year forward."

Other speakers at the event included Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton; Stephen A. Briganti, president and CEO of the Foundation; and Elder Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

The Family History Center is available on the Internet at www.ellisisland.org, or by appointment and on a first-come, first-served basis at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. It features an electronic database containing valuable information on 22 million immigrants, passengers and crewmembers who entered the United States through the Port of New York between 1892-1924, the peak years of Ellis Island's processing. The data, taken directly from microfilms of the ships' passenger manifests provided by the National Archives and Records Administration, has never before been available electronically. It was extracted and transcribed through the generous efforts of the Latter-day Saints. "Twelve thousand of our volunteers donated 5.6 million hours to this project," said Elder Nelson. "They played a vital role in creating the Family History Center's database by reviewing and entering data on 22 million individuals taken from 3,678 boxes of microfilmed manifests."

The Family History Center provides easy access to information such as: an immigrant's given name and surname, ethnicity, last town and country of residence, date of arrival, age, gender, marital status, ship of travel, port of departure and line number on the manifest. The database is free-of-charge on the Internet or can be accessed at the Center for an entrance fee of $5 that includes a printout of an immigrant's arrival data. A scanned reproduction of the original ship's manifest, as well as a photo of the ship of passage, can be reproduced either on CD-ROM or on archival paper for an additional fee.

"Polls tell us that over 60% of Americans are interested in family history research*," said Mr. Briganti. "Information that previously might have taken months to find is now a click away. We give Americans the tools to begin a search of their past, often leading them to inquire further, reconnecting with long lost relatives and discovering tall tales, funny stories and family legends."

The Center, designed by Edwin Schlossberg Incorporated, also offers the Family History Scrapbook. Available to Ellis Island Foundation members, this is an advanced interactive database where individuals can scan in family photographs and personal documents, and enter audio recordings to store in the Center's national family history archive. Participants will receive either a paper or CD-ROM copy of their Scrapbook to take home. Scrapbooks can also be developed and accessed on the Internet at a later date.

As with previous Ellis Island projects, funding has come from the private sector, with no government funds employed.

*--According to a 2000 poll by Maritz Marketing Research, Inc.

Ellis Island News Conference

Brent represented the Church at a news conference held at Ellis Island. Guests of honor included Lee Iacocca, Edwin Schlossberg, and Caroline Kennedy. He was also interviewed for the "Religion and Ethics" program which appears nationally on public television.

Here is the text from the Church's press release:

ELLIS ISLAND TO GET FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER
Church is Digitizing 17 Million Immigrant Records for the Facility

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is playing a key role in the establishment of a family history research center on New York's Ellis Island, where in two years the public will have automated access to a computerized database containing 17 million U.S. immigration records.

At a news conference today on the island, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Chairman Emeritus Lee Iacocca announced plans for the American Family Immigration History Center, expected to open in the year 2000. During the past five years, the Church, in cooperation with the foundation and the National Park Service, has spent more than two million volunteer hours digitizing Ellis Island records. To date, some 65 percent of the records have been extracted from microfilmed copies of the original ledgers--passenger records and ships' manifests--which were mostly hand-
written, faded and damaged. The original documents were destroyed years ago. The remaining 35 percent of the records will be extracted and digitized by the opening of the center, which will be situated in the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The center will house state-of-the-art interactive computer technology that will bring family documentation and genealogical exploration to visitors.

The Ellis Island records represent some 60 percent of all U.S. immigration records. It is estimated that more than 100 million Americans today can trace their roots to immigrants who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.

The Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a world leader in genealogical research, with more than 3,200 family history centers worldwide and the world's largest collection of family history records, housed in Salt Lake City.

"In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith"

In 1997 Brent engaged in correspondence with Todd Compton, author of a book on the plural wives of Joseph Smith. Brent's interest: To ensure that the story of Martha McBride Knight Smith Kimball, one of the Prophet Joseph's 33 known wives and Brent's third great grandmother, was told accurately. Unfortunately, some of the conclusions drawn in the final product, "In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith," remained uncorrected. Still, Brent was surprised to see his contributions included in the endnotes to chapter 15, the chapter on Martha.

"This Is The Place"

The family traveled to Salt Lake City to witness the arrival of the Mormon Pioneer Sesquicentennial Wagon Trains at "The Is The Place" monument near the mouth of Emigration Canyon.

Highlights: Seeing President Hinckley up close; seeing the arrival of the John McBride Belnap Tool Chest, carried all the way from Ashland, Nebraska; saying hello to old friends from the Oxbow Trail/"South" wagon train under the leadership of Russ Leger; seeing Larry "Turbo" Stewart get baptized.

Fantastic experience!

For more pictures, see: Brent Belnap Picasa Photo Album: Mormon Pioneer Trail Sesquicentennail Celebration

John McBride Belnap Memorial

Television news coverage by WOWT NBC Channel 6 in Omaha, Nebraska, of the John McBride Belnap Memorial Service held on April 27, 1997, at St. Stephen's Church in Ashland, Nebraska. Features members of the Oxbow Wagon Train who participated in the 1997 Mormon Pioneer Trail Sesquicentennial Celebration who traveled from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Salt Lake City and then to Ogden, Utah. They carried the John McBride Belnap Tool Chest in honor of the son of Gilbert Belnap and Adaline Knight who died of cholera along the Mormon Trail and was buried in his father's tool chest near Salt Creek, Nebraska. Includes interview with Brent J. Belnap, representing the Belnap Family Organization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyE4_U13N9g

Cable TV Series: "Family Historian"

Brent was featured on a full episode of "Family Historian," a cable television series produced by Stephen Conte that is devoted entirely to genealogy. Brent's topic: "English Genealogy." The show is locally produced and appears on northern New Jersey television.

"A Belnap Family Guide to Weber County, Utah"

Together with his brother Steven and mother Joy, Brent prepared "A Belnap Family Guide to Weber County, Utah, 1992," in preparation for the first Belnap Family Reunion since 1980. Here's a publication summary from the Belnap Family Organization web site:

Prepared by the Tour Committee of the 1992 Gilbert Belnap Family Reunion, the Guide gathers information on 77 selected sites in the Weber County area of historic interest to descendants of Utah pioneer Gilbert Belnap, who came to Weber County in 1850. The Guide contains several maps and brief descriptions for a self-guided tour of these sites that descendants of Gilbert Belnap may wish to visit at their leisure when in Weber County.

A Belnap Family Guide to Weber County, Utah, 1992