This post is about Walter M. Beckwith (1896-1980). Or perhaps I should say it is about

Walter Martin Beckwith
son of Natt Head Beckwith and Flora Sarsons
born 4 June 1896, at Lempster, Sullivan, New Hampshire, USA
died 1 March 1980, at Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, USA

For some reason I can’t guess at, Walter was raised by his mother’s parents, Eleazer L. and Ella Metcalf Sarsons, in the same county where he was born. His parents were married before he was born, lived in the same part of New Hampshire as he did, and went on to have another half dozen children together, but Walter, their firstborn, lived with his grandparents.

While he was in his early teens, Walter found some tracts in his grandparents’ home left by some passing Mormon missionary. He read them, contacted the Church, and was converted. His grandparents were appalled and refused to allow him to be baptized. As a minor, Walter had no choice but to wait until they changed their minds, or until he was old enough to choose his path with or without their consent.

That doesn’t mean he gave up his convictions, or that he sat idle while he waited. He read Liahona: the Elders’ Journal, and from that he gained some idea about salvation for the dead. He began to dig into the local records, teaching himself to do genealogy, and when he had questions, he wrote to the Liahona, or to his mission president, or to anybody else he thought could advise him.

His interest was so keen, and so steady, that his correspondents shared his story with each other. “His grandparents and associates call him a lunatic, because he thinks something can be done for his dead,” wrote one. And indeed, Walter did go beyond what most people have done. Walter recorded that “For the last three weeks [in February 1915], I took down the names and important facts connected with them of about a thousand people; that makes about three thousand five hundred since last December, so I think I have been having very good success along that line lately.”

(That’s better than I can do with a computer to record my finds, Walter, so yes, you were having “very good success.” Not only that, you know how to use a semicolon correctly.)

All of that detail needed to be kept in an organized way, and “I sometimes have trouble in just knowing how to arrange and record names.” Walter read in Liahona that the church published blank books of forms especially designed for recording genealogical information, so he purchased one, and began filling it out.

Walter was baptized later in 1915. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, and spent the rest of his life in that area, working in bookish businesses. He does not appear to have married until he was in his late 60s; he had no children.

Did he stay connected to the Church? I’m not sure. He makes an appearance in a 1917 Liahona report of a district conference at New Haven, Connecticut, “portray[ing] the beauties of the Gospel and the happiness gained by following the plan of our Savior as revealed in the last days. Brother Beckwith has done an exceptional work in gathering genealogy.” His Family Search record, however, ambiguously records “invalid” in ordinance fields – something I haven’t seen before and don’t know what means.

Family Search does tell us one more thing about Walter, though – not in the genealogical record, but in the library catalog. There is an entry there for the “Walter M. Beckwith temple book,” which the catalog describes this way:

“Record of the temple work done for the ancestors of Walter Beckwith found in the Eastern States Mission home in 1932 and submitted to the library in 1941. Temple work was done mainly in the St. George Temple.”

I think from the way that is worded, Walter’s prodigious efforts as a teenaged genealogist waiting for the time he could be baptized had been forgotten by 1932. But at least his records were saved. (The St. George Temple, by the way, was the one designated for work by temple patrons for members in the missions who could not attend to their own temple work. It was a far less busy temple than Salt Lake.)

I’m not through with you, Walter. Because you don’t have descendants in the Church, nobody else is looking for you. I’ll find out what “invalid” means, and I’ll make sure you get your own temple ordinances.