“How very much I love our family-each and every one-
Dad and I shared a wonderful life on our Iowa farm.
I couldn’t have a better companion, or more choice sons
than Jerry, Michael, Steve, Gary, Rick-and then five
beautiful, talented, special daughters-Gayle, Renee, Christie,
Debbie, Kris. Also 25 healthy beautiful grandchildren-
Dad and I take great pride in our family. See you in heaven.”
Mom-Mary Louise Traasdahl Pence Devey

Letter From Mike

I hope everyone is doing well (especially Gary) and Jeff on his mission. Thanks for all your prayers for our boys and their families. I just wanted to report we had a great day at the Cardston Temple yesterday. We had a youth temple trip and Renee prepared a list of names on the new temple ready program (she is amazing at doing all this stuff). She had a couple from her family and mostly from the Pence family (actually Smith/Boyer). There were 9 men and 12 women. It was a great experience to do the confirmations for each of our great and great/great aunts and uncles included on the temple ready list. There was Harvey Alonzo, Daniel Elias, Ervin Jasper, Ruth, Myrtle, Aretha, Augusta, Mary, Bessie Ida, Elizabeth, and Ada Smith (all brothers and sisters). I met some of these family members when I was a kid including Daniel, Ruth, Bessie, Ada, Myrtle, Agusta and Ada that I can remember. Several of them were from Indiana - I remember Uncle Dan visiting us on the farm. We also had the Boyer family names including David, John, Abraham, Hiram, Daniel, Rudolph, Mary, Hannah, Eliza and Susan. After the baptisms and confirmations, Renee and I each did the initiatories. It was a pretty amazing feeling when I sat there for Harvey Alonzo Smith and had those ordinances performed as well as with the other Smiths and Boyers. I did not realize Dad was named after his Uncle Harvey Alonzo Smith (maybe some of you knew that). It seemed like a pretty thin veil as I could picture and feel Dad in my mind and it brought some tears. I sort of figured all this work had been done for these more recent family members, but appreciate Renee lining this up so I could participate in starting the work for these wonderful family members. We will be going to Cardston soon to start doing the endowments for all of these family members and sealings that will follow. So if anyone wants to come up or over to Montana, we can take you up to help out on getting this work done. We are in a bigger house now so have plenty of room for a nice vacation spot for you. I just thought some of you would be intersted in hearing about the great experience we had yesterday with our Pence/Smith/Boyer family (thanks again Renee!!). Love you all, Mike

Marriage License for Victoria Pence and JC Green, October 10, 1877 in Bartow County Georgia.

I was able to get a copy of this death certificate for Victoria Ann Pence Greene. She was the daughter of Noah Pence.

Harvey Alonzo Pence

Some old Pence family pics with Grandpa in them.

Thanks Rick!!

Thanks to Rick for getting this scanned!

I was searching for information on the death and burial of Nancy Clee Pence, wife of Noah Pence, and found these affidavits and pension applications for both Noah and Nancy at the Georgia Virtual Vault website. It was exciting to find and interesting to learn more about who my great-great-great-grandfather and grandmother were. Noah Pence was a soldier in the civil war from 1861-1864 as part of the 10th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers. There is a record of Noah Pence as a soldier serving as part of the E company (National Park Service Website).
I have posted all the documents on the Noah and Nancy Pence web pages.

During Grandma Pence's funeral I was motivated to start doing more family history work in order to remember Grandma and Grandpa Pence better and to be able to tell my own children about their great-grandparents. I miss Grandma Pence, but am grateful for the memories that I have of her. Remembering her has gotten me interested in recording those memories here as part of our family history so that everyone can enjoy and remember them too! I hope the genealogy bug will spread!

This blog is meant to be a portal for information exchange. This site is for all of us to share stories, photos, documents, or other information focused on family history. It is a place to celebrate who we are and the heritage that has been left us. If you have information, photos, etc. that you would like to post, please do!

P.S. If you will send me an updated email address I can add you as an author.