Marie's Children

We of the 21st century should never become so lulled by modern medicine  that we think of childbirth as easy or take surviving childhood nonchalantly. We are fortunate to have such advances since the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s. Marie lost children in infancy or childhood. This is true in today's generation, so we will ever keep a place in our hearts for grieving parents and siblings of infant angels.

I will be relating the stories of the sons that did survive and from whom Marie has a great posterity; I do not forget nor do I wish to diminish the loss she experienced in the children she grieved for:

Jorgen Fredrik Nielsen Garff (1844-1845)
Inger Katrine Nielsen Garff (1845-1849)
Jorgen Garff (1847)
Infant Son Garff (1850)
Niels Garff (1854)
Josephine Patrine Garff (1855-1857)
Joseph and Hyrum Garff (1856)
Jacob Gudmundsen (1865-1868)

Son Deacon Westmorland Garff, born as the family crossed the Atlantic Ocean died about age 29.

I desire that whatever I learn of the families that descend from the remaining children- her sons Peter Garff, Christian Garff and Lauritz Garff and Abraham Gudmundsen and Isaac Gudmundsen- I am able to relate it so that this simple woman of strength, resolve and faith, traveling around the world from stability of means to hardships of pioneering a new country can be seen in all we have done, and who we have become.

This will  not be an LDS record- and as it can be said that we would not have the record at all if Marie had not accepted and found faith with the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints - I have researched primarily the secular, or public records for the story I have learned of our family. A quick reading in any of these lines will show that many do continue today as active and contributing members of that church and faith, whether in Utah or the many places we have moved to as our times and our world changed and shaped our lives. Others have taken alternate paths.

The families of Marie's sons have served their churches, their communities and their country. We have built businesses, raised families, doctored and nursed our neighbors; we have served in active and reserve military positions, served in elected and volunteer positions, taught school, encouraged and protected the young, the disabled, and the homeless. We have moved the world!