BYU students solve Mormon mysteries

PROVO, Utah — The questions usually start simply enough.

As the full-time editors of each volume of the Joseph Smith Papers program comb through the journals, histories and other documents of Joseph Smith, questions will pop up from the history of a reference to a meeting's minutes, mail or weather at a particular time. Their questions could involve a book from special collections or scriptural allusions in newspaper editorials. They may need to explore the different laws of the Prophet's time period or chronicle Joseph's role at meetings in a time period, said Kay Darowski, supervisor of the research team and a volume editor.

"It's anything in a document to help understand in the context that's been given," she said.

The questions are then logged electronically and sent to Darowski.

__IMAGE1__She clarifies and prioritizes as needed and puts each in the stack for one of the student researchers to tackle.

The BYU students here pick up their work — one of the little mysteries — from a stack just inside the door of their office, which is filled with LDS Church history reference materials, books and a handful of computers.

It's historical sleuthing for student research assistants Chris Crockett, James Goldberg, Jason Olson, Cort Kirksey, Timothy Speirs, Mary-Celeste Lewis and David H. Smith.

And their work helps the 33-volume Joseph Smith Papers project to chronicle the papers of the Mormon leader. At any one time, 10 of the volumes are being developed.

There are about 1,000 of these requests a year, and since the project started, there have been more than 6,700 requests directed to the student researchers.

"We have never run out of work," Darowski said of the work, including several ongoing projects like line-by-line comparisons of copies of the same revelation or a glossary for one of the volumes. The six or seven students she has per semester since students started working on the project in 2002. Many go on to other graduate work at Ivy League schools or other prestigious programs.

Finding answers

One question Crockett was recently looking into was finding U.S. and Illinois laws from around 1840 as they relate to arrest warrants and fugitives from the law, something that requires searching court records from that time period.

"It's a treasure hunt," said Crockett, of Preston, Idaho, who is a second-year law student who also has a master's degree in history. "I've always been fascinated with history."

Through searching, he's found that the Illinois Historical Society has records up to the late 1840s.

Goldberg was working on finding out more about tiny towns that may have been settled by the Saints during the Nauvoo period that were briefly mentioned. There, he's looking for primary sources on what might have happened to this town, from church historical documents, journals and possibly the local newspaper at the time.

Admittedly, some of his favorite assignments have some component of finding when the early church leaders alluded to the scriptures.

"I really love digging through scriptural language," he said.

Olson had just picked up an assignment that in March 1835 there was a blessing on the temple laborers.

"I'm searching for other reports of the blessing," said Olson, of Scottsdale, Ariz., who is a senior majoring in Middle Eastern studies. His search included combing through newspapers like the Millennial Star and Messenger and Advocate. But for another request, he was looking for how Joseph Smith and his contemporaries viewed the House of Israel. For that one, he ended up looking through early patriarchal blessings looking for themes and allusions to scriptures.

Then there was the question that came up about a reference in one of the Prophet's journals about the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio, that Kirksey was trying to sort out.

In digging through microfilmed land records, he found that Johnson had been assigned a steward over the land in order to redo the deed so that he was the owner.

"The exciting questions are the ones where you try so hard and come up on dead ends and then finally finding the answer," said Kirksey, of Modesto, Calif., who is a third-year graduate student majoring in English.

Each student researcher has a list of several questions he or she is trying to answer. Sometimes they hit a dead end on one, so they start working on another. They have access to many of the same historical documents the editors in the Church History Department do. They also use maps, references on the period's culture and politics and online search engines — like Google books — to help find answers.

"We have a saying," Darowski said. "That 'when you stop looking for something, that's when you find it.'"

Sometimes tracking down original sources of letters or editorials can be tricky because many times newspapers reprint them or the authors don't use their names. Or doing the first round of the three-part transcription process of letters and other handwritten journals, all with unique handwriting and references. Or, when the transcription is finally done, there is only a few details about an event that was probably common knowledge among the Saints.

Testimonies

Through their research about the Prophet, their testimonies have grown, too.
"In looking at his life closely and his interactions with others, he's the most selfless and forgiving man," Olson said. "He forgives people who plot to take his life."

"Look at his indomitable spirit, and his never-give-up attitude," Kirksey said.

While the scriptures give one account of his life, there are other perspectives.
"You get a sense of what problems he would have dealt with and a sense of the day-to-day financial struggle," Goldberg said.

That and the context of the how and when things were spoken can make a difference, Darowski said. They have to be careful, too, especially in Sunday School last year when church history was the course of study and in Relief Society or elders quorum when the lessons were from the "Teachings of the Prophets: Joseph Smith."

"You don't want to be 'that person'," Darowski said.

"In Sunday School, you have to keep your hand down," Crockett said.

But there are times when they feel like they can comment. "I keep my mouth shut a lot," Kirksey said. "But sometimes, I don't. ... I find it hard not to share details about the stories."

"I spent a lot of time on Joseph Smith's letter from Liberty Jail," Golberg said, adding that when that came up, there was more about the friendships of the men he could share.

Transcriptions

Sometimes, part of answering a question is transcribing a handwritten journal or letter. And at some point everyone gets to help with the first or second drafts of the multi-step transcription process.

In the Willard Richards journal volume Goldberg was referencing, Richards and other missionaries are crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

So, take the 19th century handwriting in pencil while on a swaying boat with parts of the journal and it takes time to work on the first draft of a transcription, Goldberg said.

"The information is valuable," said Goldberg of the faithfulness and diligence Richards had in recording details.

At some point during the journey, the cook got into a fight. Also, when Richards and Wilford Woodruff were on deck, there was a wave that drenched Woodruff and they were worried about his health. And Richards recorded it in his journal.

"When you get through a line like that, it's all worth it," Goldberg said.

Sometimes, part of answering a question is transcribing a handwritten journal or letter.

When they were transcribing a letter from James Arlington Bennett to Joseph Smith, they had the first draft done except for this one line written vertically in the margin, Kirksey said.

Three of them gathered around a computer looking at it and trying to make out the handwriting.

"This letter should be strictly confidential," the margin note read.

"We see this as we're getting things ready for worldwide publication," Darowski said with a smile.

No definite answers

Once the questions are researched, the results with sources attached are delivered back to the volume's editor for possible use in the volume.

But not all the questions have a definite answer.

In Joseph Smith's family, there are Alvin, Hyrum, Samuel, William, Sophronia, Catherine and Lucy, which all seem like fairly common names from that era.

But then there is Don Carlos.

So Kirksey starting digging through census records to see what he could find.

When Don Carlos was born in 1816, there were only a few in the United States with that name, including one in the Smiths' community.

There were more in the 1840s in Hancock County, Ill., presumably named after the brother of the Prophet, Kirksey said.

In the end of the 1790s, there was an opera about Don Carlos, a Spanish king, that was fairly popular and it seems that might have been where the name came from. But would a farming family in a small, rural community, like the Smiths, been aware of the play or was there a different naming tradition in play?

"I didn't find a solution," he said.

E-mail: rappleye@desnews.com