Geneology as a Reflection of Societal Priorities

Hi, this is my first time. Here at this conference. So, this has just been awesome so far, and I’m super honored to present to you some of my thoughts on genealogy coming from being a high school history teacher.

Alright.

The various ways in which societies keep their genealogical records indicate certain narratives for that people. Genealogy, like history, has never been unbiased truth. It is squeezed into the narrative that society wants to portray.

As a history teacher, I am not interested in in the genealogical record. but in how people record them. It is not simply a list of who was born when. Some records show matrilineal societies, kingly bloodlines, or ignore women altogether. as a reflection of societal priorities.

For Mormons, genealogies began as dynastic polygamous families with one patriarch at the head. Later in our history, we move towards one mother and one father as the rock upon which children and their married spouses could flourish and become the saviors by which to provide the gospel to the world of the living and the dead.

Today, with more transparency and accuracy than ever before, genealogy can be a tool by which Mormonism is forced to include more and more complexity. in the family dynamic.

So what I want to do is talk about a few other ways that other people have framed genealogy and then talk about how Mormonism has changed how we’ve Written our genealogy as a reflection of our priorities.

So I’m very intrigued by tattooing as a form of genealogy. My father grew up in Hawaii, and my children are Marshallese. They’re from Micronesia. And genealogy in the islands was passed down through oral tradition and shown through chat tattoos.

So this is Keone Nunes at the Pacific Art Expo, Pacific Inc. and Art Expo in Lahaina in Maui. and he keeps this tradition alive for Hawaiians.

Tattoos across Polynesia and Micronesia show others what people they belong to, their genealogy, their relation to any chieftains. certain special feats or accomplishments, and what elements of nature they draw strength from.

In the ancient art of specifically Hawaiian tattooing The tattoo artist is the mediator for a profoundly spiritual experience connecting a person to their heritage in a way that is similar to a child receiving a patriarchal blessing about their spiritual heritage that may differ than that of their siblings. The kihuna, the tattoo artist, spends time before tattooing to mindfully contemplate and choose uniquely personal genealogical images to portray on the body of the person receiving.

So there are specific prayers used on the tools to call the ancestors from beyond, and he still continues this practice today.

While the person is receiving the tattoo, the sounds of tapping provide a rhythm by which those in the community feel inclined to speak on their responsibilities and inspirations. When the tattooing is finished, it is said that ancestral relationships are strengthened and restored with the new generation, bringing a flow of the balance of life into the community.

The genealogy of pre-colonized Hawaii represented the polytheistic and animalistic beliefs where gods, spirits and guardians lived all around, rather than tattooing a specific genealogical tree, people were in tune with nature, their antere their ancestry, and each other.

The process of preparing for a tattoo and enduring the pain of the process together as a community Would form bonds between the tattooed, the family, the community, nature, and divinity. Tattooing reflected the importance of genealogy as a way to keep the balance of life on the island and to bond the community closer together.

So this is kind of a brief genealogy of Queen Victoria, which is going to show some different priorities A genealogy of Queen Victoria shows the colonial priorities of European monarchs. The divine right of kings and queens placed royalty at the top, with their children being married into royal houses across Europe for political harmony and colonization.

The stability of the royal marriage was paramount as an example for society. The royal children married into other royal families, and that set the foundation of a European dynasty and an English model for the correct way of life. Official records then did not show illegitimate children, such as the illegitimate child of Princess Louise, the daughter of Victoria, who was adopted by Queen Victoria’s gynecologist.

Genealogy was not about accuracy. Heaven knows royals were as regular as common folk when it came to affairs. The purpose of genealogy was to uphold the ideal, the ideal of family the ideal of morality and the God given right to rule and colonize.

We see a shadow of these ideals still to day in the modern royal English family.

In the Scriptures there is the classic conundrum of Jesus’ genealogy written by Matthew and Luke being different from one another. Not only is there a mismatch in grandfather, but there is also a mismatch in genealogical length between the two accounts. There are various ways apologists for hundreds of years have explained the discrepancies. Perhaps Luke made a summarized version, or Matthew was using Mary’s genealogy or other hypotheses.

But the point of including the genealogy at all was to make an accurate record. If it were an accurate record was not to make an accurate record, sorry. If it were an accurate record, we would presumably see more similarities.

The purpose was to connect Jesus to the lineage of King David to fulfill prophecy in a very literal way after Jesus’ death. That the Messiah would come through David. This would confirm the message to the Jews that Jesus was the prophesied Christ. Genealogy was then written to fulfill the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12.

Chinese genealogy is intricate, male-dominated, and essential for carrying out the rules associated with kinship. It was tradition To record family members in a book, though many were lost in the Cultural Revolution. Those that exist today can be thousands of years old. It was also tradition to record only the males, showing the patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal preferences that still exist in China today.

The purpose of genealogy in China was to ensure family stability through kinship rules and to glorify one’s own ancestral clan. Clans were responsible for record-keeping and compiling a family history book to exaggerate and worship their ancestors. It included histories, origins, stories, rules, poems, and a detailed lineage of the clan. with very few details on women or males that brought embarrassment to the name.

Genealogy was the tool by which everyone knew their place in society in family and how to act accordingly to bring honor and glory to their clan.

So what does Mormon genealogy reveal about how we view our ancestors? and what our priorities are. First of all, it depends on when.

At the beginning of Mormonism, we have a genealogy of dynasties where the head of the family was literally a king or lord to God with a kingdom. This figure by Orson Pratt illustrates early LDS genealogy.

The above diagram shows the order and unity of the kingdom of God. The Eternal Father sits at the head, crowned King of kings and lord of lords. Wherever the other lines meet, there sits a king and a priest unto God, bearing rule, authority, and dominion unto the Father. He is one with the Father because his kingdom is joined to his Father’s and becomes part of it.

Combined with polygamy, this doctrine created Mormon dynasties with leadership at the top. Each spouse added to the power the kingdom of the head priesthood holding male, and early saints took these dynasties quite seriously.

In Winter Quarters, Wilfrid Woodruff described that the people had split into tribes over the matter. The President went to some pains to assure the people that being sealed to one’s parents rather than to one of the apostles did not lower one at all. The new revelation was seen as protecting the church from being divided into tribes and clans, each man having his own following.

The law of adoption also allowed lower men to be taken into the dynasty of prominent leaders through the law of adoption. John De Lee, for example, described himself as Brigham Young’s son, even though this was through sealing only. I was adopted by Brigham Young as one of his sons, and for many years I confess I looked upon him as an inspired and holy man.

This was encouraged in the Temple, where men and women became kings and queens to a grand posterity through eternity, linking polygamous progeny to the blessings of Abraham in internal increase.

As our beliefs surrounding polygamy changed, our genealogy followed suit.

Today, LDS genealogy represents the desire for all people to be offered a place in the one true church. It exists as a counter or a pressure valve to Mormon particularism in that the joining of the celestial family is a gift offered to all.

It has become such a priority that some question our emphasis in time and resources Resources towards genealogy for those who are dead over the needs of the living.

But genealogy represents not only a desire to connect with one’s past or keep a record, but in Mormonism, something much bigger. It is the crux of the responsibility as keepers of the covenant, as stewards of the world, and ushers of the millennium.

In short, genealogy to day is a tool by which to display the Mormon vision as the gatekeepers to the kingdom of God. It gives Mormons a sense of pride to provide genealogical records to the world as keepers of the keys. Genealogy combines the task of weaving the human family together, a lofty goal. with the ethnocentric pride that we are the weavers.

Above all, genealogy solidifies the faith claim That the LDS Church is the one true church.

Henry B. Eyring speaks of genealogy this way. This is the true church, the only true church. because in it are the keys of the priesthood, blah, blah, blah, as you go to the house of the Lord to offer them ordinances You sustain this great work whose purpose is to offer salvation to all of Heavenly Father’s children, which in essence makes us Saviors.

Thus, it is not only learning the stories of our fathers and mothers that draw us to genealogy. Genealogy is the way By which Mormons become saviors and bring the entire world, past and present, into the small fold that we inhabit.

The future of genealogy with greater technology is the potential for our first time in history to truly record the messiness of what families are. In the past, one could create family lines for a purpose or with a bias, leaving out parts of the family that do not fit the narrative. Today, you simply cannot, on the record, ignore a child because they were born out of wedlock, or were adopted by gay parents, or were transgender, or left the faith. This means new ways of organizing families and showing connections will have to evolve with the times.

With families looking more like thought webs, with one person in the middle connected in a plurality of ways rather than a clear-cut linear line, perhaps this will help doctrine shift towards heaven as community over heaven as one man and one woman with their neatly organized extended family.

Technology here can only aid in transparency, and genealogical transparency can only aid in expanding the definition of marriage, family and children to what exists in the real world.

This has already started just in the addition of being able to add homosexual marriages to FamilySearch, which will start this year. While the church narrative certainly does not accept homosexual marriages, genealogical records are already one step ahead.

It will be continually more difficult to maintain a Victorian style view of the perfect family with accurate record keeping because transparency shatters the myth that society can only function if all marriage is between one heteronormative man and woman with their biological children. This cannot be maintained in light of data on paper that shows otherwise.

The data will eventually have to show divorce, children born outside of marriage, adoptions Sex changes, gay partnerships, non-monogamous relationships, partners who do not marry, guardianships, and the whole mess of the human spectrum of relationships.

Mormon genealogy is on a trajectory from dynasty to community, whereas today we exist in a transitory middle. Technology can only, by its very nature of providing ease of transparency, force the movement towards more flexible and communal ways of describing what can make a family.

As we develop more technologically advanced ways of record keeping, our genealogy itself can become a driving force for real theological shifts. Our first large change in genealogy occurred as a theological and practical change to end polygamy. Perhaps this time, technology will actually move so much faster than our theology that genealogy will change first and theology second.

Thank you.