It has been 161 years today since Peter Adolph Forsgren joined the restored Church and was baptized at the hand of his brother John Erik Forsgren. I love this date. It is sandwiched in between Pioneer Day on the 24th and my birthday (the 27th) and there have been few years that the anniversary has slipped by me unnoticed! But this year, somehow, I have felt the presence of these forbears even more poignantly. You can't spend the time and detail work that a blog requires without reflecting on the achievements, personalities, tragedies and every day toil and love and labor of each of the people you write about. Often I am simply in awe of the vast number of people whose lives were affected by the decisions and actions of two brothers and a sister all those years ago. Forsgren descendants now number in the tens of thousands. Descendant (through his daughter Sarah) Jean Tyson expressed it beautifully in an email I received yesterday:
"Just checked Peter [Forsgren's] website. I haven't done so since the last time I talked with you, quite a while ago. Amazing! . . . As I enjoyed reading and absorbing all the latest information about Peter's posterity, my thoughts went back to a little boy named Peter who lived in Sweden so very long ago. Did he even begin to imagine what his life would be? When he and his bride stood under a bower of flowers as his brother John Erik performed the wedding ceremony, did either bride or groom realize that they were going
to prepare the way for so many special spirits to come to earth? Did they know how many would proudly bear the Forsgren name through generations? I suspect they were just looking forward to loving and cherishing each other, to raising a few kids, and to make a little home in a land of promise. What they must think now!!! Thanks, Forsgrens. . .!!"
I hope each of us who read this blog will spend similar moments of reflexion. Let your heart turn to your fathers and know that all the good things you are has a basis in part in your heritage. Recent scientific studies have concluded that nestled in our DNA make-up are cellular memories - pieces, if you will, of all the people who have gone before us....so in a very literal sense the seeds of goodness and greatness are in us all. And, we hope, also the seeds of that drive and persistence that helps each of us realize our dreams, correct negative influences, and reach out to one another. Let us honor our pioneer ancestors by living up to the measure of OUR individual creation, whatever that might be!
Happy baptism day, Peter Adolph. May you rejoice this day in the fruits of YOUR decisions!
Dedicated to the dissemination of research and information on Peter Adolph Forsgren and his descendants, first convert to the LDS Church in Sweden, son of John Olaf and Anna Christina Ersson Hollstrand Forsgren
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