B is for Bird

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Bird. She has a wonderful pioneer heritage of hard working, brave and faithful ancestors who left their homes in New York State to follow their hearts and new found faith. Through many years of hardship and even persecution, they were faithful to their beliefs.

Benjamin Freeman Bird first entertained missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints in his home in Southport, New York. He read the information that they left behind, and became convinced that the things they taught were true. After a time, he wrote to the church which was then headquartered in Missouri, and asked that missionaries return to baptize him and others in his family. The family emigrated to Far West Missouri, then to Nauvoo,  Illinois in order to be close to the center of the church and the other members. Persecution followed them through these years and hard times, but they remained devoted to their beliefs.

Benjamin's son Charles was one of the Prophet Joseph Smith's personal body guards, and was one of the men who recovered his body from the Carthage Jail where he was martyred in and returned it to Nauvoo where he was buried. The Bird families immigrated with others of the Church the state of Utah, settling first in Springville, Utah where Benjamin died, and then later settling in Mendon, Cache County, Utah, where my Grandmother was eventually born.

Deloss Bird was the son of Charles, and the father of my Maternal Grandmother, Dorothy.

Ellen Grant Bird was my mother's Grandmother, and she has often related how much she loved visiting her grandmother's home in the rural town of Mendon where she grew beautiful flowers and entertained her many grandchildren with fun, love, and wonderful food. 

 I lived in New Jersey when most of my children were born, right near where my Great Great Great Grandfather Benjamin Freeman Bird was born before he moved to the state of New York. My mother would come to visit and help me when my children were born, and while we were awaiting the birth of my second son, (nearly two weeks into her visit) we would make trips to the local State Genealogical Libraries in search of family history information. 

 We didn't make much progress during these visits, towing along a one year old toddler and me almost as big as a house, but these visits greatly increased my interest in learning about and expanding my knowledge of my Family Tree. Our known Bird Family History extends back to my sixth great grandfather, Jeremiah Bird who was born in 1675 in Elizabeth, New Jersey and died in that same city in 1738. I treasure the memories of those days spent with my Mother, searching out the history of the Bird ancestors of my Family Tree, and hope to someday find out who Jeremiah's parents were, and where his ancestry came from.