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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It was seriously disturbing. In same ward RS records, the sisters were instructed to stop whining/complaining about polygamy so that the younger women would be more willing to do it.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It seems the "age 16" rule as we know it was indeed something from the 1960s. www.reddit.com/r/mormon/com... It was just weird to see echoes of it in 19th century records.

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From the mormon community on Reddit

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I honestly think it's because they didn't want their daughters marrying non-Mormons. I came across so many mentions in 1860s Salt Lake ward minutes about trying to get the young women to stop interacting with gentiles. I even saw a suggestion for 15-year-old girls to get their endowments.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

To me, it's implied. It's like since deceased people can be sealed to all their deceased heterosexual spouses, polyandry is okay in the hereafter. Understandable interpretation, but it's not LDS theology.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

It's the same Family Proc thing that men and women are equal AND the man presides in the family. So the equality thing still has a major asterisk.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

But it's still established at the beginning of the current endowment that men become high priests to God while women become high priestesses within the N&EC. The responsibility of men presiding was even inserted into the sealing ceremony.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I welcome the change! But leadership wouldn't see a material difference. The earlier wording was for women to obey/hearken to the husband AS the husband obeys/hearkens to God. That was obliging *both* men and women to obey God's commands.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

But Bingham is correct that the doctrine hasn't changed. The 2023 portion of the endowment makes it sound like the relationship between God and man mirrors the relationship between God and woman, but the other portions of temple liturgy still show a God>man>woman structure. It's cosmetic.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

With the release of the Joseph Smith Papers, folks researching contemporary records found Joseph denying and condemning polygamy. At that point, it became easy for them to claim that historians were wrong about polygamy. It was just like the priesthood ban, started by BY and misattributed to JS. 2/2

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

This is partly the Church's fault. Once the RLDS Church accepted Joseph Smith's polygamy in the early 1980s, the LDS Church dropped the topic. In later decades, Church materials promoted the love story between Joseph & Emma, which made the polygamy Gospel Topics Essays a massive shock. 1/2

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

They don't understand norms and rules. There is supposedly some sponsorship by the UVU history department for this year's conference, but I don't know the exact details. Kofford Books is publishing the hard copies of the journal.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Just techbros who believe that "automating lead filtration" will revolutionize missionary work. www.cwicmedia.com/blog/mission...

cwicmedia.com

Missionaries With

Jonah Barnes returns to Cwic Show with an update to the Gathering Israel Missionary Program. Hint - It's amazing!

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

The TFH Leadership broadcast focused on three elements: (1) focus on the Savior, (2) use Ordinances Ready, and (3) add what you know. The TFH Callings panel speakers tried to argue that doing research is implied in the third step (add what you know).

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Another was the FH Dept Leadership Roundtable, where Elder Bragg talked about AI being able to scrape family info from the compiled genealogies in the FamilySearch Library holdings and creating family trees from them (at 51:04).

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Another one was the Temple & Family History Callings Panel. They pointed out that only 3% of people care about genealogy (see about 37:55) and it's unfair to ask others to. A questioner called it out at 54:37, asking if we're supposed to just rely on the work of non-Mormons to get names.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

"We can buy collections of books that document families in a farmland in Germany. We can then digitize them, put them into an AI program, pull out the family names, and AI will be able to populate a family tree, and we'll be able to put that family tree in FamilySearch." 2/2

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

"There are always going to be a lot of members that love family history and love doing that work. There are going to be a lot that don't have that capacity or don't have the time, and we're going to be able to build out the trees [for them]... 1/X

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

It was multiple talks. The most concise quote comes from a YouTube interview with Elder Bragg beginning at 6:18. youtu.be/Hikv0mk2sOk?...

youtu.be

Could we ever run out of temple names? Elder Mark A. Bragg on why family history is accelerating

YouTube video by ScripturePlus

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Working a TFH calling is frustrating enough without church leaders declaring research a low priority (our FamilySearch Center staff will be thrilled), but stealing the intellectual property of non-LDS folks is going to make the genealogical community hate FamilySearch even more than it already does.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

When you're a genealogist... at Rootstech... and LDS leaders say it's unrealistic to expect members to do their own family history research, but it's okay, because we can use AI to scrape info from compiled genealogies and have it put together the tree for us.

media.tenor.com

a man is covering his face with his hand and saying `` seriously '' .

Alt: a man is covering his face with his hand and saying "seriously."

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Containment. There must be a limited area for them to destroy if you're going to try anything (like send an email or, Heaven forbid, take a nap). Playpens saved me when my youngest stopped doing their afternoon naps.

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Reposted by Mary Ann Clements

Joseph Stuart @jstuart.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

There’s a gofundme to help pay for funeral and headstone costs, keeping her blog alive and functional, and to support the Ardis E. Parshall Award at the Mormon History Association. Consider donating? www.gofundme.com/f/honor-ardi...

gofundme.com

Donate to Honor Ardis Parshall by Preserving Her Life’s Work, organized by Joseph Stuart

Ardis E. Parshall spent her life lifting people whose stories had bee… Joseph Stuart needs your support for Honor Ardis Parshall by Preserving Her Life’s Work

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Congratulations on the baby, and condolences on not getting admitted.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

"I don't know if this actually happened or not..." 21st century discourse: facts are irrelevant.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

The bad press is a short-term loss, and it's a drop in a bucket of crazy news stories. They basically won the "Bad Mormon" trademark thing. If anything, it seems like them taking on "Mormon Stories" after 20 years shows they are emboldened. They have unlimited time and money. Dehlin doesn't.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Right, but that's where the 21st century "fake news" element really shines. In the 19th century, RLDS folks *did* accuse LDS leaders of forging the 1843 revelation and getting people to lie in the 1869 affidavits. The current effort to claim that Clayton forged his personal diaries, though, is new.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

We have sealing and divorce records proving Sarah Lawrence's plural marriage to Heber C. Kimball, so why in the world do people say that this is a straight-forward denial? She's clearly coping with some serious trauma and wants to erase ALL memory of polygamy, not just her marriage with Joseph.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Honestly, the way we've thought about this history needs to change. Everyone makes a big deal that Sarah Lawrence denied being married to JS. What's the evidence? It's Helen M. Kimball's statement that Sarah denied in 1872 ever being "connected" to Joseph Smith OR Heber C. Kimball.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

The unique aspect of the current skeptic movement is that it's built on a 21st century mix of anti-intellectualism, anti-institutionalism, and unprecedented democratization of access to digitized historical records. It's all about determining which evidence to dismiss and why.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Oaks argued that it was okay within the legal context of that time for the city government to halt the printing. He clarified that it was NOT okay for them to destroy personal property (hence, they were still liable in that quote).

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

And I haven't even touched all the juicy stuff that happened in Utah with the Lawrence family!

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

The story told to descendants was that the widow (Clarinda) found out that the Butterfields were leaving for CA, and she applied to go with them as cook. Josiah balked at allowing an unescorted woman in the all-male wagon train, so he offered marriage as the condition for her to join. She said yes.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Josiah was listed as head of household for the family in a December 1852 ward census. That means Josiah Butterfield was present when Margaret died on 1 January 1853 in Salt Lake City. Josiah and several of his boys moved to CA in spring. He married a widowed lady in Salt Lake shortly before he left.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Oh, and Margaret (Sarah's mom) never separated from Josiah Butterfield. They were still acting as a married couple when they sold their Nauvoo property a few months before Margaret & the kids migrated west with the 1850 Edward Hunter company. Josiah arrived in Salt Lake by the end of 1852.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Sarah turning 21 meant that A. W. Babbit couldn't serve as Sarah's guardian in wrapping up the Illinois portion of the Edward Lawrence estate. She had to be present to sign the papers with her older sister, Maria. The Illinois portion of the estate stuff didn't get wrapped up till 1848.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Oh, and Sarah Lawrence? She was originally scheduled to go west in the 1847 Edward Hunter company with the Joseph & Isabella Horne family (fellow Canadian converts). The reason she opted to go back to Nauvoo instead was because she turned 21 in May 1847.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Of course, this discovery made possible by the digitization efforts of the fantastic people at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City: catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/1297c...

catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Sarah M. (Granger) Kimball wrote on 30 March 1850: "Sister Heywood I should have before mentioned the departure of our Friend Maria Laurence[.] I think she gradually failed from the time you left until last nov[ember] when she sweetly fell asleep[.]"

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I don't understand how historians keep cool discoveries under wraps. A couple days ago I found out that the real death date for Maria Lawrence (an important figure in Mormon history) was November 1849 instead of the long-believed 1847! It was mentioned in an 1850 letter.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

In case someone hasn't pointed it out yet, you've turned John Turner into a prophet. Been loving the videos on the origins and impact of D&C 132.

Screenshot of text with the name John Turner underlined. It should be John Taylor.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I'm 80 miles away from Evanston, WY, and I felt this. 😳

Earthquake map showing 4.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Evanston, WY, on 22 Jan 2026.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Maybe the thinking is if girls go on missions straight out of high school, they'll be less inclined to pursue higher education?

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I first heard Karin Wulf speak about genealogy at MHA several years ago. As a family history hobbyist for almost two decades and now a Certified Genealogist, it's always jarring to hear professional historians admit they didn't really respect genealogy as a discipline until forced by some event.

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Not exactly the first person to take the path from "I will be the one to single-handedly guide the Church and nation through the apocalypse and into the Millennium" to "Satan's minions have infiltrated church leadership and actively seek my destruction."

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

The FP & Q12 dedicated a place in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in 2020 for them to use while the SL Temple is under construction.

Text: On Jan. 7, 2020, the city issued a “certificate of occupancy,” which was apparently the day it was move-in ready.

That substitute space was then “prepared” and “dedicated,” church spokesperson Doug Andersen said Wednesday.

“During the time that the Salt Lake Temple is undergoing renovation,” he said, “senior church leaders will meet in a dedicated space that has been prepared in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.”

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Maybe you could use someone's backyard? I've attended both weddings and ring ceremonies in nice backyards. Congratulations, btw!

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Mary Ann Clements @maclements.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Also, an interesting tidbit: Rasband confirmed that, even though the Q12 had been working on the Family Proc since fall of 1994, the general RS presidency was unaware of its existence until shortly before Hinckley presented it at the 23 Sep 1995 RS meeting. It had zero official female input. 5/end

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