I have to admit - I have not always been that interested in my family history or heritage. I guess I had heard some bad things and figured I didn't want to know much about them anyway. I also thought it seemed overwhelming to trace back so many people and could never keep track of who's who. Then I was called to be an extraction worker (for those of you who aren't familiar with extraction work - it is the process of taking old records that are hard to read and inaccessible to most people and extracting them to a format that everyone can read and access easily). I started to become really intrigued with who these people really were as I typed their names and families names. Sometimes they didn't have any family listed and I questioned if there were people out there that thought about them. It made me start to study my own family history. I have since been doing family history work sporadically here and there when I get time between dirty diapers, driving kids around and preparing meals. So I recently found out that one of my Great Uncles was the first president of Brigham Young University. (I didn't really have a preference of Universities before this, maybe I do now:)) He was instrumental in converting the school from just an academy to an actual University. His name was Benjamin Cluff Jr. and he was the brother of my Great, Great, Great Grandpa. You can read his contributions to the university at this web address.
http://unicomm.byu.edu/president/cluff.aspx
Picture of Benjamin Cluff Jr.
I also just happened to run across a Cluff family website with some old contact information from 2005. I went ahead and contacted them with little hope of a response. Sure enough someone did respond, and in less then 24 hrs. even WOW! He has already sent me information on my Great x5 grandpa David Cluff who was the first to join the church in my line. What a legacy Grandpa David started! How excited I will be to read more about it! If any of you other Cluffs want more information please let me know. I will be happy to share what I have.
