Salt Lake City —
In the midst of sacred early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) the faith has opened its newest Family History Center in a historic building in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The
historic Clark Store, at the corner of Knight and Bluff streets, has
been restored and modified to house the new center which is adjacent to
the Church’s Nauvoo temple.
The Clark Store was built by Raymond and
Louisa Clark in 1844. Early converts to the Church, the couple built the
two-story brick home and used the top floor as their home. The rest was
used as a mercantile store, offering extra income for the Clark family
and providing another shopping opportunity for residents on the Nauvoo
bluff.
The Clarks sold the home and store in 1846 and left never to see “Nauvoo, the Beautiful”
again. For a number of years, the building was used as a hotel and a
boarding house but then it was abandoned. The Church purchased the
property in the 1970s and carefully preserved it. Since then the home
has been used as a house, visitors’ center for the Nauvoo temple and now
as the Family History Center.
Joy Price is serving as a family
history center missionary with her husband Merlin. She is a third great
granddaughter of Raymond Clark who built the structure. “It’s humbling
to me to be here,” said Price, “where they (the Clarks) sacrificed so
much, and to walk where they walked.” When she is in the home and
reflecting on her ancestors who built it she thinks of the couple’s
three children playing. The Prices are living in the upstairs part of
the new center right where the Clarks called home. While the interior of
the home is modernized for today’s living standards, the exterior of
the building is much the same as it was in the 1800s including several
other historic structures in the city of approximately 1,000 people.
Nauvoo’s
mayor, John McCarty, participated in opening the center by cutting the
ribbon and receiving a copy of his family’s genealogy stretching back
eight generations in Nauvoo. It was noted that George Bratz, a Swiss
emigrant in 1846 and part of the McCarty family also served as the mayor
of Nauvoo.
The center features 16 high speed computers that are
dedicated for the use of those who wish to discover records of their
ancestors. This service is free to the public and includes access to FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, Fold3.com and Findmypast.co.uk and other useful related genealogical search websites.
The Church has 4,600 centers around the world, all of which are branches of the world’s largest Family History Library located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Local publication The Hawk Eye covered the Family History Center opening.
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