Family Blog News

We have added some more resarch aids on the Family Heritage Blog. Also we changed the background to one that is a little easier on the eyes. As you may know, we have spent much of the last two weekends out "Headstone Hunting". We were blessed in that we were able to find the headstones of several ancestors on the Lefler side of the family that the location was not known to us.

Last night, as Dawn Ann was doing some research we found a new (to us at least) web site. It is called Utah Gravestones. What we found, to our surprise, was that this web site has been collecting digital photographs of headstones throughout Utah, and then posting them on the Web. Also, their database is searchable by name, or by cemetery. It is still a small database, but what was interesting was that many of Dawn Ann's ancestors were already in there! Especially those who are in the Midway and Charleston cemeteries (we had even already taken pictures of many of these headstones.). This web site welcomes contributions, and we plan on adding the photos that we have collected to their database. We have added the link to this website on the Family heritage blogs "Family History Resources" links section. It was interesting to learn that the Spirit of Elijah has been moving on others, the same as it has upon us -- for the need to photograph and identify the location of our ancestoral burial sites. I would still like to start tagging the photos with GPS coordinates, to help locating graves within the cemetery.

We have a big of bad news, my camera, the Olympus 450d has gone on the fritz. We are going to have to take it in for repairs. You can still take pictures with it, but you can't tell if it is zoomed in or zoomed out, or on what it is focusing. At the same time, this camera is 1.3 megapixel point and shoot only camera. As I have grown into digital photography, I have desired to have a camera with a higher resoulution, as well as the ability to have more control over the camera for more technical photographs.

So, we have decided that I will get a new camera, for a combination Father's Day/Birthday Present. Well, it isn't exactly new, its a demo camera that has had very light use. It does come with a full 1-year warrantee (I opted for an additional 3-year service agreement). The camera is a Nikon Coolpix 5400. I got it on ebay for a really good price -- less than half of what they were going for new. This camera model has been out for a couple of years, and is being phased out, which adds to the good deal I was able to get. This camera is a 5.1 megapixel camera, with many features, including a manual setting, that I will be able to use, with much of the same versatility I previously enjoyed with my old 35mm single-lens-reflex cameras of the past. Digital SLR's, would be something that I would like to get oneday, but they're still out of our budget range. Although this year, both Nikon and Canon have come out with Digital SLR's in the $800-$1000 range. So maybe someday, as prices keep coming down for new technology, a digital SLR will come within reach. Hopefully this new camera will do the job for some time to come. We will get the old olympus camera repaired, and then we will use it for more family use. We expect that Bryan will get quite a bit of use out of it.

In other blog news, I have posted my high council talk from last Sunday (Father's Day) on the Gospel Study Page. It is about the battle for the souls of men, which is a continuation of the war in heaven. Since it was father's day, I tied in how father's can help in this battle. The title of my talk is, "The War For The World".