There is probably no historian who hasn’t daydreamed about finding previously unknown records pertaining to his or her special interest, and of being the first to turn the pages and rediscover lost words and pictures of the past – if there is such a historian, my own daydreams have been grand enough to fill in for his! It actually happened to a pair of Mormon missionaries in Dundee, Scotland, in 1948.
Missionary work began in Scotland in late 1839, when two native Scots, Alexander Wright and Samuel Mulliner, who had become Latter-day Saints in Ontario, Canada, returned to Scotland. Their first converts were Alexander and Jessie Hay, baptized in the River Clyde near Paisley on 14 January 1840. When Orson Pratt arrived in May 1840, he found some 80 members of the Church in several branches.
By 1844, a branch was organized in Dundee. One of the converts that year was Hugh Findlay (1822-1900), who soon became a missionary himself; in 1851, he was called by Lorenzo Snow, the apostle leading the missions in Europe, to join another elder, William Willes, and open mission work in India. Findlay worked in India for several years, learning the Marathi language, baptizing a few Europeans, and later working with his own brother, Allan Findlay, who joined Hugh in the mission work without any formal calling. So, in some ways, today’s stakes in India can trace their genealogy back to that tiny branch organized at Dundee.
The Church in Dundee waxed and waned, as members emigrated to the U.S. and new converts joined. As always, some members retained the faith, while others drifted away, or were unsuccessful in transmitting it to their children. References to mission work in the Dundee Conference appear sporadically in the Millennial Star throughout the 19th century.
There had been no missionaries in Dundee for some time when Junior E. Call (1922-2016), of Ogden, Utah, and Paul H. Maeser (1926-2013), of Salt Lake City, were sent there to work in 1948. As well as finding people to teach, one of their first tasks was to find a meeting place in which to preach.
As they were searching for a suitable place, the elders entered the bookstore of Frank Russell, who recognized their accents and asked what Americans were doing there in Dundee.
“We told him we were Mormon missionaries,” the elders later wrote.
“That’s strange,” Mr. Russell responded. “I’ve been sticking up for your church all of my life. My grandparents were among the first people to be baptised in Dundee when your people first came over here.”
The elders’ report continued, “He then showed us the Masonic Hall to the rear of his shop where the early church meetings were held, and told of his attending them as a young child with his aunt. He also mentioned that he had a copy of the early branch record at his home, and if we would call back later he would be glad to show it to us.
“Upon calling back, we were shown the record, an old book-keeping notebook with yellowing pages. The minutes of the first meeting, written in black ink turning brown with age, were still legible:
Dundee Branch
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
Organised by Elder John Cairns
from Nauvoo
Assisted by Elder J.D. Rosy
from Stirling
On 17th July, 1844
Consisting of Ten Members
The two elders carefully turned the pages, and noted some of the entries:
Br. Robert Russell [the bookstore owner’s grandfather] ordained to the office of a Teacher by Elder James D. Miller …
Isabella Clement, [died] March 16th, 1845, in Childe Bed …
July 18th, 1845, Born of Sister Isabella Findlay, boy, James Findlay …
They noted that “the record also included a part of a sermon on the gathering of the Ten Tribes of Israel.”
The elders’ account of this discovery, written shortly after meeting Mr. Russell, does not tell how or if or when the Church may have acquired the record, or a copy of it – but I note in the Church History Library catalog that the Church does have a record of members for the “Dundee Branch 1842-1881.” The Library is closed to the public at the moment (it will reopen after remodeling later this month) so I cannot as yet confirm by searching for the quotations given above that what the Church has is that record discovered by those missionaries almost 70 years ago, but it does seem likely.
In the meantime, I go on daydreaming about making such a find myself, and taking comfort in knowing that many Keepa readers have contributed their own family record treasures to the Church History Library in part because Keepa has shown how valuable such contributions can be.
Thanks for this, Ardis. I remember going through my mother’s papers after she passed away and finding all sorts of family historical papers that I’d never seen before. I think these kinds of discoveries count too as rediscovering lost records (at least, as lost to the finder).
Come to think of it, Gary, I should count the papers I discovered when clearing out my aunt’s house in the same light. Thanks.
What a fortuitous meeting! And thanks for writing “River Clyde”, Ardis, as opposed to the non-native rendition “Clyde River”.
Even the church archives have hidden treasures, albeit fewer now than in the past. My mission president said he once opened an unmarked, uncatalogued folder in the archives and discovered a piece of the shirt Joseph wore at Carthage. Just because someone knew about it doesn’t mean someone knows about it. I guess they got pretty excited when he essentially said, “Look what I’ve found.”
Wow! I weep with joy with such a find! (Even if it’s just me discovering such an already archived source!)
I love stories of hidden treasures. This one reminds of the missionaries who found the original plans for the Nauvoo Temple while tracting in California.
Ah, that’s such a neat story! Thanks for sharing.
My grandpa came from Dundee to Utah in about 1923. His grandpa was the first of the family to join the church. I’d love to see those records.
Rozy, when the library is open again after its remodeling, I’ll see if the record I saw in the catalog matches this record as described by the elders, and then report back here. I think current policy is not to digitize membership records, but perhaps there is an exception for records this old — I can’t guarantee it. In any case, then you’d know whether you should stop in at the library sometime when you are in Salt Lake.
It was a bit of a disappointment being called to serve a mission in Sydney, Australia. I’d lived all my life in the island state of Tasmania, and serving in a place just a two-hour flight away was… Well… I wanted to go to Canada! I was in the last eight months of my mission, and had pretty much gotten over the disappointment, when I was called to serve in the mission office. It was a nice change, and I had a great companion, and we got into all sorts of mischief. On one particular P-Day we decided to rumage through one of the old storage cupboards, and came across a whole heap of old records and publications from the Australia East Mission.
We started flicking through them, when my companion asked if I was related to a person he’d just come across with the same, somewhat uncommon, surname as mine. I was a bit shocked to hear my father’s name, and details of him being ordained to the office of teacher. Well, the floodgates were opened; we spent the rest of the day compiling a stack of photocopies of my family history! The record of dad’s baptism, including the name of the Elder who performed the ordinance. The mission record of that elder, including description of height, eye colour, hair colour, occupation prior to mission, home address, etc. All sorts of Tasmania District (Nowadays two small stakes) news; My uncles and aunts baptisms, and various callings, members births, deaths and marriages.
Most interesting, however, was getting a clearer understanding of how I ended up with two American uncles! Those district news editions also reported the comings and goings of members, and Missionaries returning home. When you see that Elder Such-and-Such is returning home to the US, on the Steamship Lollipop (?!), and is also accompanied by Sister (Grandmother’s maiden name), the penny dropped! Sadly, the second penny dropped when, in a much later edition, it was announced that my grandmother has returned by steamship from the US with two young sons.
My companion and I were both quite teary by the end of that day. But what was really interesting, however, was when I showed this all to my mission president. He said, “it’s not every missionary that gets to do so much of their own family history whilst on a proselytising mission!” And the third penny dropped. Just prior to leaving on my mission, I received my patriarchal blessing. In it it said that I would be involved in family history. I laughed (and doubted) at the time, because our family were a bunch of crazy genealogists, and I wasn’t having anything to do with it! It had “all been done” anyway; predominantly by one person.
That grandmother!
My mission president chuckled and said, “You were told you’d do ‘family history’, not genealogy! And you sure found some!” It was a story my father, uncles and aunt knew, but this skeleton had been locked away from my generation. I literally unlocked the closet.
Colin, that is a fantastic story! Thank you!