Until today, I had no clue about my Mormon relatives!
One of them may have even known Brigham Young, who is soemtimes referred to as the “Mormon Moses.” Young is perhaps the second most well-known and influential Mormon of all-time, right behind Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormonism.
I guess this story, my story, starts a few years ago…
That’s when I joined a bunch of genealogy sites, wanting to learn more about my paternal grandfather’s heritage, which was always something of a mystery. It’s all English on that side, I determined, during my free ancestry.com trial.
My mother died when I was a teenager, and I was also curious to learn more about my relatives on that side of the family. One interesting tidbit I discovered was that I have a relative on her side who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. I wonder why nobody ever mentioned that!
I also joined another site, familysearch.org, which is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The “You’ve Got Mormon Ancestors” Email
Today, I received an email from familysearch.org, informing me that I had a pioneer ancestor “whose sacrifice and legacy lives on.” Naturally I was intrigued. His name was Abraham Barlowe, of a pioneer company (whatever that is) called the Joseph Horne Company.
They admonished me to “view the relationship,” so I clicked the button and signed into their site for the first time in a couple years.
Turns out I have a ton of Mormon ancestors I knew nothing about! Many of those Mormon ancestors were severly balding and bearded. Some of women were balding too. You heard me right…
My great, great, great grandmother appeared to have a diffuse Norwood 5 pattern — and yeah, it’s pretty damn rare for a woman to bald in a Norwood pattern!
My 4x great grandmother, a devout Mormon, sporting an unusual ribbon of some kind and a Norwood 5ish, diffuse balding pattern.
My bald and bearded 4x great grandfather, rocking a NW 6 pattern. Or maybe NW 5 A. I reviewed a few of his journal entries where he discussed talking in tongues…
Here are some of my other pioneer ancestors…
Norwood 3 is the most common pattern…
And Norwood 3 I can deal with!
I’m glad I got to “meet” these people, to acknowledge their retrospective existences and appreciate the struggles and triumphs they endured while spinning around on this planet. We only have but a brief moment here.
Why I Like Genealogy Sites
I’m all about finding perspective, in my personal life, business, blog, etc. I also think it’s important to maintain your sense of perspective when dealing with adversities and insecurities in general, such as hair loss. My Mormon ancestors originally hailed from Scotland, where everyone, the women and children included, worked in a damn coal mine.
According to a user-submitted, family-history report, my 4x great grandfather (on the other side), John Stoddard (originally Stoddart) of Edinburgh, Scotland and his wife Janet, were among of the first settlers in Cedar City, Utah. She “presented”my 4x great grandpa John with 10 children, the report said. Presented, what a great way to describe giving birth!
Only four of their 10 children appeared to reach adulthood….That surprised me, but apparently, statistics bear out that only about 50% of Edinburgh children in lived past the age of 5 in those days. John and Janet’s daughter, Ellen, was crushed to death in a mining accident on Christmas Eve in 1934. She had just gotten married.
Doing Time
I learned my grandpa John was an ex-con! And a noble one, at that. He refused to inform (i.e. rat out) on a fellow Scot for talking trash about the British army (Scottish nationalism was prevalent at the time). He spent three months in prison.
The Conversion
My ancestors converted to Mormonism in the year 1844. Three years later they were summoned by the Church headquarters and told to head West, to join the main body of the Mormon church. So that’s what they did. My ex-con 4x great grandpa, along with his wife Janet and two of their surviving children, boarded the ship “Sailor Prince” from Liverpool with 302 other brave souls. Their destination: New Orleans.
The Saddest Story
Presumably, not all of the Stoddard clan could afford to take the journey west. So a few of them stayed behind initially, including their son, Alexander along with his young family, wife Ellen, son John III, and an infant daughter. Tragically, neither Ellen nor the infant daughter ever set foot on American soil. They both succumbed to cholera somewhere along the grueling trip and were buried at sea. The story itself describes their death in a rather, shall we say, nonchalant manner. I guess that was a very common occurrence, to die on a ship heading for a new land, but it’s still quite tragic and noteworthy by my estimation.
Alexander and his son, John III, made it to New Orleans, and then up to Saint Louis, where they would briefly reunite with his parents and two brothers. But Alexander became sick not long after his arrival and also perished. John III was adopted by the the rest of the Stoddard clan, after his mother, father, and infant sister all died over the course of just a few short months…
Other Interesting Tales
- The Stoddard clan also encountered a tribe of “nearly-naked, semi-hostile and menacing” Indians on the plains, as they traveled west from Saint Louis to Utah, Mormon country.
- Grandpa John almost got shot in the head by one of his own grand kids!
- There was a dance, of all things. I thought Mormon’s weren’t allowed to dance, but apparently on one frigid night, with nothing else to do, the Stoddard’s, along with some other families, held a dance out in the middle of nowhere. The Indians were a concern, of course. So half the crowd danced, while the other half stood guard out front, and then they switched positions later on, so the other group could bust some moves on the floor.
That about covers it. Mormon ancestors, who knew. Not me! They had beards, I still can’t grow one. Norwood 3 I can deal with, Norwood 6 would be a problem! Check out the ancestry.com free trial, if it’s still available. It may give you some perspective in your life (and perhaps give you some clues about your follicular future). Genetics are weird, man, what can I say…I have no affiliation with any of the sites I listed in this article!
Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.
Bald ancestors? Wow! So there still hope for you, brother. Just kidding. Just because I love male pattern baldness doesn’t mean everyone else should. Or anyone else, for that matter. I don’t mind if I’m the ONLY person on this planet who absolutely loves male pattern baldness. How will you handle going bald? Will you, like me, just let it happen? You are in your 30s, right? When I was your age I had only the slightest hint of baldness, a little recession at my temples. That’s all. By the time I was 50 and still not balding, I felt I was ‘safe’. But I was miserable. I got on my knees and literally begged God to make me bald. Every day for about three months I prayed to go bald.
It worked, or more likely, it was time for me to go bald anyway, and God and/or my DNA were ready to do MPB to me. And they did MPB to me with a vengeance, to my extreme delight. I couldn’t have been happier about it. I still revel in it, twenty year later. If you do start to go bald, I hope you suddenly get an intense desire for it. Really, really wanting something and then having it happen to you is a fantastic, delightful experience. It’s pure pleasure.
Since I went bald most photos taken of me were with a baseball cap. I love the few photos of me that were taken with my head uncovered. They look great. The side shot showing my profile are my favorite ones. What a great MPB profile! The front photos look great, too. It is obvious I was meant to be male pattern bald. I am a ‘spittin’ image of one of my great grandfather on my mother’s side. I never met him, as he died a few years before I was born. He was Norwood 7 bald like Dr Phil. My mom sent me his photo after I told her I was going bald. One look at that photo reassured me that I would not regret letting myself go bald. It kind of makes me wish I would bald further to Norwood 7, but if I don’t that’s OK. Norwood 6 is wonderful.