Maurice Lee-Thomas: More Photos

Once again life has interrupted blog posts.  We recently spent a week of relaxing in Kentucky where the opportunity presented itself for some pictures and Family History organizing.  Some more picture of Maurice were discovered which you all may be interested in. 

The first two pictures are of  Maurice with his two children when they were very young. The picture with the baby girl (me) would have been 1944.  The other picture with the boy (Steve) and girl (me) looks like about 1948.   Here's the link to those pictures:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Maurice%20%26%20Florence%20with%20Mary%20Margaret%201944.pdf

The next group is three pictures.  The first is a picture of Maurice & Florence in front of their home at 511 Seventh Street in Ogden, Utah.  My best guess is the mid 1960's.  The second picture is Maurice & Florence in San Francisco in 1940.  The third picture is the prize winner:  Maurice, Florence, Steve, Mary M., Grandma Christensen in front of the Maddox Restaurant in Perry, Utah.  My best estimate would be 1953/4. 
Here they are:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Family%20at%20Maddox.pdf

These next ones are scans of two post cards that Maurice received when he was in Australia and his Aunt (Myrtle Thredgold Moore, sister of Ruby Thredgold) sent them to him from Ogden, Utah.  They were sent to Ada Street in Adelaide where Maurice was living at the time.  The date on these is 1915/16.  Here is this link:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Maurice%20-%20Post%20Cards.pdf

Visit from Aussie "Rellies"

This past week my husband and I had a wonderful four day vacation with one of my Aussie second cousins on the Lee side of the family.  We had met my cousin and his wife when we were in Australia three years ago.  Years ago, one of the Australian's on the Lee side had been searching for my brother and I for many years.  She knew that our grandfather, who was killed in WWI, had a wife and son who immigrated to America. We were the only branch of the Lee's of which there was little known in Australia.   After much searching, she found us and started communication.  Over the years she passed away and her family history information fell into the hands of Alan.  He then reached me and we started communication concerning family history and getting acquainted via e-mail.  My husband and I had the privilege of meeting and staying with Alan and his wife Carol when we visited Australia.  Now they have paid us a visit for which I am very thankful.  We are working together to pull this history together.  I know that my father, Maurice and grandfather, Henry must have been thrilled at this opportunity Alan and I had to be together.  We're all "Rellies."

Alan and Carol with their American Family.

Margaret and my second cousin Alan at the grave of my father, Maurice.  

Carol and Alan at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Ray and Margaret with Carol and Alan in Yellowstone. 

Death of Maurice Lee-Thomas

Maurice left this life in Los Angeles, California on 8 June 1983.    He had been attending the Los Angeles Temple with his wife Florence.  They had finished their work at the temple and were packing their bags to return to their home in Visalia, California.  Maurice was putting bags in the car, when he collapsed and never recovered.  He was taken to UCLA Medical Center where he died. The cause of death was a heart attack.   Florence was watching him from their motel window and witnessed his collapse.  Florence reported that most deaths in Los Angeles were considered homiscides until proved otherwise.  He took some time and frustration to get his body released from UCLA. 

He had two funerals.  The first was in Visalia, California where he was residing at the time of his death.  The second funeral was held in Ogden, Utah where he had spent most of his life since immigrating to America and where he and Florence had purchase burial plots in the Ogden City Cemetery.  The link below will take you to his Obituary, funeral programs, and death certifciate.  The second link is a picture of the cemetery where he is buried along the side of his wife, Florence Christensen.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Death%20Information.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Ogden%20City%20Cemetery%20Graves.JPG

2011 BYU Family History Conference

What a wonderful week!!  Not only was it a week of inspiration and learning, but it was spent with my wonderful daughter, Marie.  We spent from July 25 to July 29 at BYU's annual Family History Conference.  This year's theme was, "Strengthening Ties that Bind, Families Together Forever."   We heard from keynote speakers, Dennis Simmons, (Church Authority)  D. Joshua Taylor, (NEHGS) and Ransom Love, from Family Search.  They were all amazing.  Marie and I took classes on Power Point, Excel, Preserving, Tracking English, Ancestors and every class taught by Joshua Taylor.  He is amazing!

The car gets parked when we arrive and not used again until we are ready to leave.  We walk everywhere and spend our evenings out browsing around the campus.  Each building is a story of it's own with displays, artifacts, and hours of browsing possibilities.  I could stay on that campus for days.  Of course, we ate at the Creamery two times and the Brick Oven once.  It's a good thing we do much walking.

Maurice Lee-Thomas: Photos

Here are a four photos of Maurice.    Note the snow in the background on the two pictures which I believe to be either prior or soon after his marriage.  The picture was taken in Ogden, Utah at the home of Florence Christensen's parents (Andrew and Mary), 529 Seventh Street.  The picture by the old car was taken at the same place, but the snow is gone.  He looks to be close to the same age so probably taken in the mid 1930's.  The railroad picture is an unknown date.  I need to find out when he started working for the railroad and that will give a clue.  Hope everyone enjoys these pictures.  I have a few more to be forthcoming.  Here is the link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Pictures%20of%20Maurice%20Lee-Thomas.pdf

Deseret News Article

This was a huge surprise!! My Blog was featured in the Salt Lake City Desert News on Thursday, July 14.  The lady who wrote the article called me one day, said she wanted to do a newspaper article on blogs, and had found mine.  It caught her interest.  I really couldn't believe it.  Anyway , she interviewed me and here is a link to the article.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700151617/?s_cid=document-suggest. 

Some Thoughts on America

July 2, 2010 was the annual "Stadium of Fire" at the BYU football stadium.  It has been a family tradition now for the past 20 years to attend this annual event.  It is a very inspiring patriotic program and has become such a tradition that we may as well cancel Christmas as this summer event.  Each year during the fireworks display, the song from Neil Diamond, "Coming to America" is played.  That always brings tears to my eyes as I think about my ancestors who "traveled far" and suffered much hard ship to come to America.  It took much sacrifice for them to leave their families and everything familiar to come to a new land and life was not easy for them even after they arrived in America.  How grateful I am to all of them.  I love America and am comforted to know that our country has a divine destiny and that righteousness and America will prevail.

From Ruby Thredgold's journal I quote: "  It was a great undertaking to sell up everything and make preparations to move so many of us across the seas. . . .I could spend hours and many pages writing, telling of the sacrifice and hard work.  It was going to take a lot of money to get us across the huge basin of water.
After selling all we had , and nothing left to manage with, we lived our last six weeks in Australia."  They sailed on the U. S. Sierra.  "It was 11:00 am on the 1st day of November 1930 that we sailed out of the beautiful Sydney Harbor into the great Pacific Ocean.  We arrived in San Francisco on the 20th of November 1930."

You can listen to Neil Diamond's "Coming to America." on "youtube."