April 10th TTFO Meeting Minutes

Theodore Turley Family Organization Semi-Annual Meeting
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Minutes by Adrienne Williams, TTFO Secretary

Attending (26): Mary Ann Clements, Elizabeth Turley Bettinson, Ann Turley, Adrienne Williams, Debi Hansen, Carwin (Pete) Peterson, Susanne Peterson, Tony Turley, Donald (Mitch) Mitchell, Janet Packham, Anna Clare Shepherd, Kay Lovell, Gaye Breillatt, Marie Waldvogel, Steve Turley, Kerry John Bushman, Sherman Feher, Russell Christensen, Katie Turley Clark, Nathan Shepherd, Luana Rogers, Daniel Rogers, Ted Pyper, Joyce Norton, James Dan Turley, & Sharon Gray

1 descendant from Sarah Elizabeth Franklin, 2 descendants of Charlotte Turley Bushman, a bunch of Isaac/Sarah Greenwood, and a bunch from Isaac/Clara Ann Tolton.

Welcome by Janet Packham.  Introductions were made including family lines. 

Opening prayer by Luana Rogers

Items of note:

• Today is Theodore Turley’s 220^th birthday.  200^th wedding anniversary to Frances Kimberly this year.  150^th anniversary of his death in August.
• Pass forward his legacy of diligent work and faith to our children by continuing to remember him and gather our families together in love and share the stories of the ancestors.
• Recognized the passing of Howard Gray.
• New to the website a recognition of the Turleys involved in the Netflix documentary: Murder among the Mormons – Rick Turley representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Church Historian and Jared Hess, the Director/Producer.  Both are descendants through Theodore’s son Isaac and grandson Edward Turley.

The minutes from the October 10, 2020 TTFO meeting were read by Adrienne Williams.

The Financial report was presented by Kay Lovell.  Bank balance on March 31, 2021 was $5,554.75.  There was $1,508.00 ($458.00 dues/donations; $955.00 book sales; $95.00 shipping) in receipts and $335.81 ($70.00 shipping; $236.60 internet; $13.00 state registrations; $16.21 bank/PayPal) in expenses over the past 6 months.

• One of our expenses in the past year or so was a headstone for Ann Smith, the grandmother of Clara Ann Tolton.  All donations for the headstone were made directly for this project; no regular dues were used.  The website – https://theodoreturleyfamily.org/ – has a special projects page (under the About Us tab).  Maps to the gravestones are included on that page.

• The TTFO is part of the LDSAFA (LDS Ancestral Family Associations).  There a currently about 39 family organizations that are affiliated with LDSAFA.  The basic purposes of extended family organizations have been genealogy/preservation of records (headstones), as well as connecting to ancestors and each other.  Carry on the encouragement of remembering these ancestors is good.   Smaller family reunions are encouraged with opportunities to share what can be learned through this association.

• Procedure for selecting Directors:  Filed with the state of Idaho as a Non-profit organization (because we had a family member there who is a lawyer).  We also have a business license in Utah.  Kay will check with current directors to see who wants to remain and who we need to replace.  Currently there are 3 officers and 5 directors.  Determine if we want to have 1-2 life-time Directors and 3-4 rotating Directors.  We need to specify what the duties of the Directors are.  Mary Ann Clement & Marie Waldvogel volunteered to be a Director if needed.

Report on Website & Email lists by Mary Ann Clements:  Sent out the email lists to all the family representatives.  It took a while to figure out how all 969 members on the list were related to Theodore.  There are still 11 that have not been matched to a family line but sent them to family reps to figure out.  3 people unsubscribed, 2 emails were found invalid, 11 deceased, and 6 new people added.  2 emails sent – RootsTech and one to announce this meeting.  The email lists sent to family reps did note if the named person had opened an email in the past year.  Well over half of the family members had opened at least 1 email.

There were 3,257 views on the Website for the year 2020 and about 1000 visitors.  The top pages visited were:

• Theodore Turley: A Biography page – a table of contents page. A preliminary biography of Theodore.
• Coat of Arms blog post
• In Memoriam
• Crossing the Plains blog post
• The Red Book page – .pdf copies of the 1978 Theodore Turley Family book

For 2021, so far, there have been 876 views, 338 visitors.  One of our newer pages is the Changelog.  It keeps a running list of additions and updates to the website.  A Places page has also been added (under the Theodore Turley tab).  It currently includes information on Churchville, Ontario (great information and pictures) and Cedar City, Utah.  Additional places will be added as information is gathered and time available.  Past field trips will be added.

Future Field Trips

Honeymoon Trail (There is a YouTube video, made by another family, of the Honeymoon trail that gives good information. https://thehoneymoontrail.blogspot.com/), NE Arizona/Snowflake area,

It was requested that any previous trips to family locations have been made, please share write-ups, photos, maps, etc. with Mary Ann to add to the website.  Any future trips (individual family and TTFO field trips) should plan to document and share to the website administrator.

It was decided to plan the next field trip in Fall of 2022.

Steve Rockwood will meet with us when buildings are open again.  We can give him a topic we would like him to cover.  Possible topics could be RootsTech, FamilySearch. 

• FamilySearch facilitates the sharing of family information, i.e., all the information available for Theodore Turley and keep track of descendants.
• Remember that anyone can change information on FamilySearch.  Our website allows us to have the latest research and most accurate data.
• 1880 Census record showed Clara Ann Tolton Turley living in the Snowflake area designated as a widow.  She was not a widow but hiding as a polygamist.  Found on FamilySearch.org. 

There was a discussion about the Theodore Turley house in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Is there a picture of it?  Mary Ann shared information available on the website in chapter 11 of the Theodore Turley biography (On website, hover over Theodore Turley tab, move pointer down to Theodore Turley: A Biography, move pointer over and click on 11: The First House Built by a Saint in Nauvoo).  It would be beyond the scope of the TTFO to rebuild the house.  Mary Ann is trying to get a copy of the archeology report from the excavation of the house site.  Artifacts from the excavation are on view at the Community of Christ visitors center.  There is also a video taken at the 2014 tree planting at the house site, available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hL6N2I4Kog) or on the Theodore Turley family website (Click on the events tab, scroll down to 2014, click on “see video here”).  Sharon Gray took the video.  There may have been collaboration from others as well. 

• A video of the dedication of the Churchville plaque can be found by going to 2017 under the events tab, clicking on (See also here) next to Ontario Church History Conference, click on Churchville, and scroll down to the video.
• There is also a section about the myths of Theodore Turley on the website: hover over the “Theodore Turley” tab and click on Fact vs. Fiction.  There is information about the house here also.

International Day of the Family is May 15. 

• Encourage your family members to contribute something to FamilySearch that day.  It can be for any family line.  Especially if you have pictures/papers that you have inherited.  If you don’t know what to do with them, send them to us/Mary Ann Clement.  FamilySearch has facial recognition capabilities to assist you identify who is in the photo.
• Share some specific information about the website with your family members.  It has almost all of the newsletters – the ones from the 2018 – 1995 (when the newsletter was restarted) and 1978-1958. 

Family Representatives:  Is there a term limit for family representatives?  A scheduled rotation?  How are changes made?  When do they happen?  Luana shared her insights about Family Reps.  The Family Rep for a particular line needs to be responsible for all the lines that branch out from that ancestor.  They are conduit for the family.  As we continue to move towards being computer/Internet based for communication, it may be beneficial to have representatives who are comfortable with the technology.  A great way to involve younger members.  As changes are made, be sure to communicate them with the TTFO.  We are happy to welcome all who want to be involved. 

Next meeting will be held Saturday, October 9, 2021.  It will be held by Zoom, and if possible, also in person.  The presentation by Steve Rockwood will be scheduled if circumstances allow. 

Benediction offered by Tony Turley.