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Smith descendant seeks end to familial Young-Smith enmity spanning 150 years

I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely lady this week. She has a beautiful serenity. Tears flowed just thinking that she is a direct descendant of Joseph and his lovely Emma.

This is the kind of thing that gangs and feuds are based on. "My great-grandfather hated your great-grandmother, so therefore I hate you." Get over it! It's nice that olive branches are being extended, but honestly, what authority did Emma have to say who should lead the Church? None. 150 years later, if descendants are still upset about this, they need to get a hobby.

Wow, Mrs. Jones will definitely have a special place, a mansion of mansions, reserved just for her in heaven for ending this feud. All is well, all is well!!!

It does not matter if Emma had authority or not to decide who should lead the church. What should matter was that she was one of the most remarkable women to ever live on this earth and she was human, with human emotions and feelings.In life she had to share her husband and also in death. As church members we are used to that now, she was not. If anyone had a right to "loose it" it was Emma. The fact that she held it together as long as she did is a credit to her. The church was a link for her to Joseph, of course she would feel it should stay in her family, she was grieving for heavens sake. cut her some slack. Hurt often takes time to go away and for those we love so dearly, it may take generations, That these families are trying to deal with the hurt is admirable and our prayers should be with them. Prophet or not, Brigham Young was very insensitive, but he too was human, and he too, one of the most remarkable to ever walk the earth.

There is great significance in the fact that it was a descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith who initiated the contact and resolution, rather than one of Brigham Young's more numerous descendants.

It's tragic that some people view this as a "my side has more authority than your side" issue. The social and yes political factors disrupting the church in the 1840s were complex. Simplistic views of who was right and who was wrong displays a grand ignorance of those factors and the many alternative possible solutions presented to solve the serious multi-directional rupture and diaspora that Mormons suffered following the deaths of both Joseph and Hyrum.

The Smiths mistrusted Brigham Young, and rightly so. Brigham Young disparaged and slandered the Smiths who refused to follow him. When he could have chosen Joseph's uncle or son or another Smith, he instead "ordained" his own immature son to be an apostle, simultaneously denying the principle of prophetic descent that everyone, including Young himself, accepted to that time.

The two families' social reunion is a great blessing to the families. For this to have any affect on any church must depend on sincere, official apologies and a very serious reexamination of the beliefs and lack of forgiveness that allowed this gruesome bitterness to fester for over a century and a half.

I bet Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are looking at their decendants at this very moment and said to each other, "our silly decendants."

Nice posts by Mk and Eutrepismus. This is great to see both families stepping up to patch up a very old and unfortunate falling out. The years after Joseph's death were hard on Emma and Brigham and everyone else, and everyone is better off to just forgive Brigham and Emma for their mistakes and move forward. People will never leave the relationship between these two alone because it's interesting history, but it'd help if a dozen (or a hundred) positive facts about Emma and Brigham could be mentioned alongside with each mistake they made. They were both remarkable people and history should recognize them as such.

It makes sense for both families and both faiths to forgive and forget -- in the end, that's the whole point of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. End the criticism of each other, forgive and forget, and move forward. I hope both families can accomplish this.

I'm not sure I understand. Joseph Smith had about 40 wives. Are they saying Gracia Jones is Smith's ONLY descendant to join the LDS Church, or that she is the only descendant of the Jospeh/Emma marriage to join? Surely some of his other descendant's made the journey west, no?

OK then. Eutrepismus has proof that over 150 years no Young desendant tried to reconcile with the Smiths, but failed. Whadda great historian.Not that I approve of one side over the other, but as you are making your 'claims', why not mention that there has only been one President of the LDS church with the last name of Young. How many Smiths?

The healing process had already started in 2005 during the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Joseph Smith, when both groups got together in Sydney Australia. There was a great spirit of unity present.
Were you aware that approximately one third of Joseph Smith's direct descendants ( over 300 ) are Australians? Inez Smith daughter of Alexander Hale Smith, and grandaughter to the Prophet, married Sidney Wright of Australia. Sidney took his bride back to Australia where they had 10 children and were most prolific in helping to populate the country.
During our mission experience we had the pleasure of interviewing and photographing the great great grandson of Joseph Smith (Max Wright) in New South Wales, who bears a most striking resemblance to the Prophet. Although to our knowledge none of the Australian descendants are members of the Church they are great people --- most honest and trustworthy.

Dear Riley,

Joseph Smith only fathered children with Emma. All of his descendants come through Emma, and Gracia Jones was the very first descendant to be baptized after the Saints went west.

Gracia's children and grandchildren are members, but still there are relatively few members that are related to Joseph Smith.

"Martrydom"? Is that what an objective reporter calls it?

In response to Riley: Joseph Smith did have plural wives (about 34 is the generally accepted number), but it has never been proved conclusively that he had children with any of these. Smith only really started taking plural wives in 1841, just 3 yrs. before he died. Consequently, Joseph's only known descendants, his children with Emma, were separated from the main body of the Church until Gracia Jones was baptized. She is not the only Smith descendant who has joined the Church, but she is the first descendant to come back to the Church; other descendants of Joseph and Emma have since joined.

The Smiths that made the journey west were descendants of Hyrum Smith and John Smith, the Prophet's uncle. For more info on Joseph Smith's plural wives see Bushman's "Rough Stone Rolling" and Todd Compton's "In Sacred Loneliness."

I was once asked by a historian who knew very well the enmity between Brigham and Emma and how Brigham had treated her boys, "So what is it like being a Smith in a church run by the Youngs?"

I replied that back in the day when there was a drug store lunch counter across the street from Temple Square I could have gone in there and mentioned my Smith name and gotten a cup of coffee for 25 cents. I suppose now, after this reconciliation, the same would hold true at any SLC Starbucks, except that it would cost $4.25.

YareEupisstatme, Joseph F. Smith, George Alber Smith, and Joseph Fielding Smith are descendents of Hyrum, not Joseph.

JCH, what do you know about reporting? And what do you know about "martyrdom"?

Yes Martrydom, JCH that is objective!

I think Joseph and Brigham are looking down and chuckling! As for the martyrdom comment... the state of Illinois lists his death as a Murder.

The Gospel is either true, or it is not. The animosty add nothing to the matter. Pray and ask the Holy Ghost to tell you. Live in peace with your conscience.

Lightly (3 posts above):
You say Joseph Smith did not father children with anyone except Emma. Are you sure? How have you concluded that? I am curious because of an ancestor of my wife who appears to come from a plural wife of Joseph Smith.

I've always felt it sad and ironic that President Joseph Smith for so long was without family in the Church. I read with interest of any and all small steps toward gathering them to him and Sister Smith.