Manifesto

My name is Daniel Bay Gibbons, and I love family history. I suppose this love was first kindled when I was five years old and my paternal grandmother, Adeline Christensen Gibbons (called "Nana" in the family) came to live with us in Salt Lake City. Nana had been born in a frontier town in 1884, and shared with me vivid stories of crossing the Colorado River on a raft and of hiding beneath the steps of her house when outlaws and lawmen had shootouts in the town she grew up in (St. Johns, Arizona). I also heard stories from the lips of my own parents, my other living grandparents and several older relatives through the years. All of this gave me a sense of belonging and connection with the deep past. 

Another early experience which sparked an interest in family occurred when I was a bored young teenager. My oldest sister, Suzanne Gibbons Burton, was employed at the Genealogical Library, and took me down to the old library on Main Street one day to show me the basics of research. Thereafter I regularly went to the library with her, while she worked, and studied our family history.

Later I received a degree in history from the University of Utah, and down through the years have maintained my passion for family history. Since the recent deaths of my parents I have inherited a multitude of personal histories, scrapbooks, letters and diaries, and have begun to feel a need to organize them and package them for the succeeding generations of my children and grandchildren.

So, the purpose of this blog is simple—to gather into one place and begin to organize and share my own family history for the benefit of my posterity and any other relatives who may be interested. My intention is to use my Sabbath days for this labor of love, and to chip away at it, week after week. I also have in mind to ultimately publish in book form much of what I post here.

My initial plan is to organize my posts by ancestor. I am the youngest son of the late Francis Marion Gibbons (1921-2016) and Helen Bay (1921-2015). My grandparents were Andrew Smith Gibbons (1880-1940), Adeline Christensen (1884-1975), Horace Earl Bay (1897-1977), and Elizabeth Iola Maxwell (1901-1969). My great-grandparents were Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932), Nancy Elizabeth Harris (1859-1952), Marinus Christensen (1863-1927), Frances Ann Thomas (1864-1950), James Willard Bay (1855-1913), Mary Eva LeBaron (1867-1958), Charles Bennett Maxwell (1875-1950), and Josephine Anderson (1876-1960).

(Note: I will label future posts using the initials of my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. See my parent's pedigree charts, below, for more basic information.)

So, with that, I begin.

Daniel Bay Gibbons

Holladay, Utah
Sunday morning, February 3, 2019

"Let us, before we die, gather up our heritage, and offer it to our children."

Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, Chapter I.