Here's an example of the problem

Luetta McAllister Hall was born in 1904, married Henry Vernon Hall in the St. George, Utah, temple in 1923, and was killed in an automobile accident in 1933 near Rawlins, Wyoming. She is buried in the Hurricane, UT cemetery.
Various people have submitted misleading and incorrect versions of this information. According to the submissions (you can get on Family Search and check this out yourself) resulting from a search, she is married to Vern Hall and to Richard Heaton (one of her sisters actually married Richard). She died some time between 3 and 10 September 1933 and is buried in a variety of places in Utah and Wyoming. WORSE YET, she has had her temple work, that she did herself while alive, done again by proxy over the last few years (hopefully to the correct person, but judging from the submitted information, likely not).
How do we prevent this?
Perhaps it is too much to think that we can eliminate the shoddy research and sloppy submissions of others. But here is where we can have an affect. We can submit GEDCOM files with the truth AFTER carefully documenting the key dates and information. We can share the information we upload and eventually the weight of our well-done submissions will pull searches in the right direction. And possibly we can start spending time in the temple doing work for people that have not yet had the chance and need it.
It will be fun to meet Lue. She was the oldest in Richard Samuel's "second" family (he had married and had two daughters before his first wife died and he went on a mission). After meeting at Dixie College, their courtship was conducted primarily via post as Vern herded sheep for money to go to school and then headed to Logan. Since she was four years younger than him, she would address her letters to "Dear Old Vern."

Alfred Lorenzo Hall and Cars

(from Victor Hall's Pioneers of Rockville and Hurricane Utah)

Alf [ed. 1858-1934] purchased at least three new cars. His first wa a Model T Ford that he bought in 1917. It's unknown how he learned to drive although the dealer may have taught him. Making the transition from live horses to horsepower wasn't easy. Harvey recalled that during one of Alf's early driving forays he needed to stop in a hurry. "Whoa!" he yelled and jerked the "reins" so hard he pulled the steering wheel completely off its mounting. Two of his purchases were Chevrolets, the last one in 1928. Cars of the day were started with a hand-crank that engaged the front of the crankshaft. Cranking an engine could take a lot of muscle, particularly on cold mornings. A teakettle full of hot water poured over the manifold before attempting to turn the engine helped get its circulation going. ...
Alfred and Julia enjoyed a number of long trips and many short ones. They went twice to Wyoming to visit Vern and they attended the Mesa Temple dedication. ... A trip they didn't take was to the ocean. It was a dream of Alf's to see it, but somehow he never did.
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Seems odd that someone has never seen the ocean, particularly a great grandfather. That does not seem so far back.

Samuel Lorenzo Adams

Our Stake President is named Thad Adams. He's a born and raised Utahn, so I had to ask if he had any ancestors from southern Utah (St. George in particular). He didn't know, but did say he had some Cedar City connections. I am guessing that might be close enough to connect up.

Our Samuel Lorenzo Adams was born in Tipton, Staffordshire, England in 1833. He joined the church at the age of 15 or 17, depending on which account you read. He returned to his native land several times as a missionary, had three wives and 14 children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. His oldest daughter (the surviving one of a set of twins), Eleanor Jackson Adams, married William James Frazier McAllister. She became the mother of Richard Samuel McAllister, the father of Luetta and Eleanor.

Here is part of an experience he wrote to a grandson who was on a mission in England. A copy of this letter is in the Church Historian's Library in SLC. I thought we had a digitized copy of the book Eleanor McAllister Hall wrote on that includes this story, but I can't find it right now. When I do, or when I get it digitized, I will post it on my rootsweb pages: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~goodoldhg/
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In the month of June, 1865, diptheria raged in the city of St. George. Two of our children, John H. Adams and Minerva Adams, fell beneath its heavy stroke inside of 24 hours. As naturally may be expected, this cast a heavy gloom over our home. One of the most devoted mothers mourned as none but mothers can, and like Rachel of old, refused to be comforted. ...

Our next door neighbor was Apostle Erastus Snow, who occasionally came in to speak a word of comfort and try and change the trend of dispairing thoughts. Seeing the condition of things upon one visit he said, "Sister Emma, you must desist from this course or these little children will soon have no mother, and as the Lord has taken part of your children you had better try and make the best of taking care of the balance." With this she burst forth with, "Oh, that God would only lighten my heart with knowledge of where my children are, or if anyone has care of them. To me they are gone. I see them in my mind in a fathomless abyss from whence they may never return to me." [Apostle Snow said,] "Sister Emma, I want you to desist from encouraging this despondent feeling and rely upon God your Father, and if you will do so, God our Father shall give you  a witness of where and by whom your children are taken care of."

It was late in July or early in August, the sun had set. The mother [Emma] said to her eldest daughter (about 12 or 13 years old), "Eleanor go to the bedroom and get me Ettie's night dress." The girl obliged and started through the dining room (for Mother was on the East porch) to the bedroom door. No sooner was the door pushed open than she, in a transfixed condition, beheld one of the most lovely sights the eyes of mortals ever beheld. A lady, dressed in white apparel with long dark flowing hair hanging over her shoulders and with the most pleasant, happy countenance, smiled upon her, and having two children upon her arms. Fear had fled from the mind of the little girl and she looked til her mind was satisfied. She identified the two little children, she had cared for one of them about two years, and the other a few months.But there was another personage whose age and face she could not comprehend. The vision presently passed away. She returned to her mother in a very excited condition, saying, "Oh mother, I know you will not believe me, I can not tell you what has happened." She continued in this mood until about nine o'clock the next morning when to our joy she disclosed the foregoing story. After telling of John and Minerva she said, "Who was the little girl holding the skirt of the young lady and appeared to be about 12 or 13 months old?" We immediately informed her that she once knew the little girl but had forgotten her as she died at 13 months old and was her twin sister. She described the suit she was dressed in even to the narrow satin ribbon her shoes were tied with, so that her mother could not fail to know it was her little darling Emma.
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Note: The young lady holding the children was Ellen Emma Lishman Adams, a niece of Samuel Lorenzo who had joined the church about the same time he had joined, but who died before she could emmigrate to Utah.

Cemetery Photos - but not because its nearly Halloween

To find the Richard Wesley McAllister family plot in the SLC cemetery:
Enter the cemetery through the northern entrance, on 11th Avenue(this entrance puts you on the cemetery's Center Street, which runs N-S).
The plot is at the corner of Center Street and 310 North.
The plot is located at the northwest corner of that intersection.
The McAllister plot is not readily seen from the road because right next to the road is a grassy knoll (I was given these directions in these terms - let's leave conspiracy theories out of this). You have to walk over that knoll before you see the Richard Wesley headstone.

Looking East















Up Close















Landmarks along the way:
A huge granite headstone with the name OTTINGER about ten yards north of the McAllister plot.

Bonus Material:
The piper from the reunion

If you have read the Christmas Box, here is the angel

McAllisters

This is Elizabeth Thompson McAllister, wife of William James Frazier McAllister. They were parents of John D.T. and Richard Wesley. I am pretty sure the painting was done from the photo, but I prefer the photo. the painting makes it look like someone dislocated her jaw.




This is William James Frazier McAllister. He died before the rest of the family joined the church. Well, J.D. T. had joined, but none others yet. Shortly after Lincoln was elected, but before the Civil War got well underway, the family accepted the gospel and went West, a safer place to be during the war.




Richard Wesley moved to Salt Lake City and made shoes for Brigham Young's family, no small feat (hee, hee). H also sang in productions and during intermissions at the theatre. Apparently one of the crowd favorites was Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, a song that I actually quite like myself. He remained in SLC until he died and is buried in the SLC cemetery, actually not very far from Pres. Hinckley.

And this is Richard's son, William James Frazer McAllister. He drove a wagon to Utah at the age of 16 ans after moving to Kanab, he was a beekeeper and kept a hotel where some of the very first tourists to the Grand Canyon stayed (including a certain Teddy R.)
One of WJF sons was Richard Samuel McAllister (are you seeing the naming pattern here?) who in turn was the father of Luetta and Eleanor, who married Vern and there you Hall it.
Aye hope you've enjoyed this wee bit of family history.