Mystery Solved: Zina Eliza Gibson's Secret Second Husband Discovered (at least a little bit)!

Thanks to the new Familysearch, a question I have always wanted to know the answer to has now been resolved . . . at least in part. Zina Eliza and Alma Abinadi Gibson were divorced.  Aunt Ruby (who is their granddaughter) told me that her father, Grandpa Gibson, told her just before he died (laughing while he told her) that his mother had been sealed to her childhood sweetheart, who was deceased, sometime after the divorce.  She did not know his name.  So, in other words, that gives us another line of ancestry we are sealed to, but without any idea who they are.  Now for a family historian like myself, a mystery like that is irresistible.

A little digging today on FamilySearch with my Uncle John Horne and another phone call to Aunt Ruby to confirm what she had previously told me, and voila things begin to unravel.  FamilySearch shows Zina Eliza Gibson (born in East Millcreek, Salt Lake, UT on 14 November 1854 and died in Burley, Cassia, ID on 20 December 1933) married twice: to Alma Abinadi Gibson (born in Wheatland, Monroe, NY on 20 May 1846 and died in Burley, Cassia, ID on 17 April 1832) and to William H. Hooper (born in England on 16 September 1847 and died in January 1890).  She married Alma Abinadi Gibson on 12 July 1869 in the Endowment House when she was almost 15 (in this post I won't go into the fact that Alma Abinadi was her 23 year old uncle.  I will talk more of that on another day, but yes, you are inbred.  Sorry to disappoint you.)  FamilySearch provides no marriage date to William H. Hooper, only a sealing date of 27 March 1913 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Or in other words, they were sealed 23 years after he passed away.  When we found this crazy piece of information, I immediately thought of the story Aunt Ruby had told me, and we decided to call her.  She said that she been had never been certain the story was true since Grandpa Gibson was laughing as he told it to her, but had thought that the person he had told her about had died when he was still young.  Since there is now a little evidence in support of the story her father told her, she thinks that she may have been either misunderstood or been misinformed concerning his age when he died.

So now we have a name and sealing information . . . and that is all. So, who is this fellow we are sealed to?  I guess that means we are responsible for them, too.

AUNT RUBY'S CARROT CAKE

This is simply the BEST carrot cake recipe you will ever find.  Aunt Ruby proved recipes for the Lion House and used to be a professional recipe editor.  

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups raw carrots, grated*

1 cup crushed pineapple with juice

3 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons soda

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1 ½ cups raisins (optional)

½ cup shredded coconut

¾ cup chopped nuts

Set oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12” x 17” x 2” pan OR a 9” x 13” an 8” x 8” pan OR in three 8” x 8” pans.  Mix above ingredients and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

*Grated raw carrots for this recipe may be substituted with 2 bottles of JUNIOR size baby food carrots.  It makes life easier (tip from Carma Rogers).

Welcome to the clanGIBSON blog!

This blog is available to all descendants of William Henry Gibson and Mary Elmina Meacham and allied lines. Please share family stories and geneology for the Gibson family, so the rest of us can learn about our awesome heritage!

Thanks Audrey!

Yippee! Audrey is setiing up this great new blog for us. I look forward to meeting lots of new cousins. Thanks Audrey for all of your work that will help us all stay connected.