A New Found Desire

Before I begin, I have to give credit to my Dad and all his hard genealogical work for our family.

Before moving to Missouri, I was complacent that my Dad did as much of the family genealogy as he could. Ever since moving, I have been asked over a dozen times if I am related to so-and-so Musser. My response has always been, "I don't know, but I would like to find out." I even had a past student of mine hand me some names of Musser's that they are related to. However, the same response was all I could give. As of late, I have been in contact, as was my Dad while alive, with a Charles Musser that lives in Las Vegas. He is a distant cousin and has done extensive research on our family.

Ever since getting a hold of Charles, I have had an inner desire to find our family history for myself. He emailed me information about this Musser and that Musser and it was all very intriguing. They were lawyers, fought and died in the Civil War, were editors of newspapers, and more importantly lived and died in and around the area of where I currently live. MY ANCESTORS LIVED IN THIS AREA!?!?! Too cool. Furthermore, this desire really heated up after a trip to the Family History Center in our local church. I was able to possibly find information beyond what my Dad had found. I have been emailing Charles back and forth trying to verify information I found. He send me a stack of information he collected during his research one day, and at this point in time it is a gold mine. I was able to spend an entire morning at the FHC researching and found great information. I found out that my early Musser ancestors were Mennonite and driven from Switzerland in the late 1600's. I discovered that they came to America in 1727 and 1747. I possibly discovered the connection to a long held family legend (that one of my distant cousins, Amos Milton Musser, were friends with the Prophet Joseph Smith). Many more things I discovered and look forward to discover as I continue researching.

After discovering this, I had to call my mom and tell her. After the conversation was over, she mentioned that Dad was stirring the pot and was helping the effort. I don't discount this at all. Now all I want to do is go visit the places where these ancestors are laid to rest and pay my respects. I am grateful for what they have done and went through. My desire is to finally be able to respond to people when asked if I am related to this Musser or that by saying YES, I am.