Sunday, March 14, 2010

The New Johnson / Hokanson Family Blog

About half of the boxes in this photo are filled with Johnson / Hokanson Family History Media.

Well, here goes...

Welcome to the new Johnson / Hokanson Family Blog!

I'm Chris Johnson and my Great-Grandfathers are William Oscar Johnson & Hyrum Pehr Hokanson.

When Grandpa (Clifford) and Grandma (Lavell) passed away, my Dad inherited all of the family history media they had. Dad just kept all of it in boxes and when he had his first stroke in 2003 all of the family media ended up in a trailer at my Sister Stacy's house.

Dad was a bit of a pack rat, so I realized his stuff in the trailer needed to be cleaned up and organized and that's when I found the majority of the family history media. When I asked Dad about it, he wanted me to have it so I've kept it with me ever since.

What I've inherited is an absolute gold mine of family history that I feel I need to make accessible to the enitre family, but as I've begun going through it I often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of organizing it, so I'll admit I've largely put it off.

As of the time of this writing I work long hard hours at two jobs, so I've considered Sunday my rest day, but today we had a lesson on "birthright" that really spoke to me and I realized I need to stop trading some of my (and our) birthright for time sleeping or playing video games.

So I decided to create this blog today and begin posting segments of family history media as I get it organized and input into the computer. I realize it will be slow going, but with time, patience and the Good Lord's help I'll get it done for all of you to enjoy.

Any help, information or other family media any family members would like to contribute to this site would be much appreciated!

Thank you for your help and support!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Chris,

Your amazing, Thank You for all your hard work. I look forward to seeing and being apart of ths growing. We are so blessed to have the wonderful grandparents and family that we have. Thank you for your supporting our family with our recent loss. I can only imagine how happy grandpa, grandma, uncle Glen and my mom are reunited again.

I love you,

Cliff

Chris G. Johnson said...

Cliff,

Thank you for giving me so much support. This project has been eating at me ever since Kirk's funeral and I'm glad to finally get it going.

Gwen was always very nice to me and I know she missed Dad very much. In fact, something kind of interesting about Gwen's funeral...

We had lunch afterward at the Golden Corral and I was thinking about how that was the last place I saw Gwen and Dad together.

I'd gone to lunch with Dad and we happened to see Gwen there and they were so happy to have bumped into each other.

I remember Dad was sitting down and Gwen gave him a hug and said, "Take care baby brother," and Dad said, "Love you sis."

I'm sure all the family that's passed on is so happy to be together again and I hope they're smiling down as we draw closer through the incredible family history they've passed on.

Thank you for being a valuable part of the family and the project!

Love,

Chris