Orson Pratt descendants honor his heritage

Though they had personality differences and clashed on some points of doctrine, President Young reposed enough confidence in Orson that he assigned him to write 16 pamphlets in defense of the church. In 1879, Orson helped divide the Book of Mormon into chapters and verses.

Serving as Church Historian and Recorder from 1874 until his death in 1881, Orson is considered the first serious genealogist in the church. In cooperation with the Rev. Frederick Chapman of Connecticut, he obtained and helped publish the names of thousands of his relatives.

In fact, a topic of discussion at the reunion will be the Chapman book, in which Orson, in his own handwriting, kept meticulous genealogical records of the Pratt family, a record that has been donated to the church. Before his death, Orson founded the Jared Pratt Family Association, charging his descendants to keep track of one another. Those descendants include Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, two U.S. presidential contenders.

"We have a computer database with maybe 32,000 descendents of Jared, and we think it's about half-complete," Grow said.

For more information about the reunion, contact Mauri Pratt at jaredprattfamily@gmail.com or call 801-380-8836.

Email: rscott@desnews.com