Nauvoo Part I

Several years ago when we found out we were coming to Iowa for graduate school, my parents always planned on visiting us in Iowa for two reasons: #1 for Nathan's graduation, and #2 to visit church history sites.  While my parents were visiting we all spent 2 days in Nauvoo, and then they went down to Independence, MO by themselves and visited some church history sites down there while Nathan, Hannah and I stayed here to play some catch up.

Hannah loved playing with my Dad.  She really enjoyed being tickled and teased.  She eventually got comfortable enough with him to sit on his lap.

One of the first things we did in Nauvoo was to get some information from the Lands and Records office. My Mom and I have done a lot of work in researching our ancestors that lived in Nauvoo, and we have seen the plots of land where they lived during those pioneer times.  But we wanted to give my Dad and Nathan and opportunity to do a little bit of research on their ancestors who lived in Nauvoo.  After mapping out where some of the ancestors lived, we drove to those locations.  (I realized that for many of our viewers this first part may be boring, but I know that Nathan's family will appreciate this which is why I am blogging about it).

One of my Dad's ancestors, Robert Harris, lived on this plot of land.

We think Abraham O. Smoot lived here on this corner lot.  I love how he had a view of the temple from his home.

A.O. Smoot also owned where this field is today.

This is the third plot of land that they have record of A. O. Smoot owning.  There wasn't a road to it, but it would have been around the area or just to the right of the silos that Nathan is pointing to.

Horace Eldredge owned this land where these water drums now are.

Horace Eldredge also owned (and we think lived) on this corner lot where the George C. Riser Boot shop now stands.

We learned of one more ancestor of Nathan's, Stephen Shelton owned some land in Nauvoo as well, but there are no longer roads to the area that would have been his property - alas, no picture.

After eating some lunch we decided to take the Community of Christ's tour so that my parents could see where Joseph Smith lived (by the way, you can't take pictures inside those homes), and also tour the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was organized.

I love this 3 generation shot--2 current members of the Relief Society, and one future member in about 17 years.

We also visited the Seventies Hall and the old Nauvoo burial grounds where many of our ancestors are buried.

I love this stone arch bridge.  I think it's so pretty.

After checking into our vacation condo we ate a hearty dinner, and then Nathan and I headed to the temple while my parents watched Hannah.