This is my dad at age five.
Sitting next to him is his sister Louise who was born in 1918 the year
this picture was taken. Finding this picture has been one of the best
treasurer’s I have found; and one of the biggest surprises I have experienced. (Number one surprise is finding out our biological surname is WHERRETT, Dad's middle name and not the name TOMLINSON)
I was
in Salt Lake City a couple days before the Roots Tech 2015 Conference started
just for the purpose to visit sites before I got to busy to do so. On the
Tuesday 10 March 2015 I went to the Church History Library which is different
from the well-known Family History Library. The Church History Library
houses only LDS Records. To view any records, documents, pictures, books etc.
the first thing you are required to do is listen to a video that’s about eight
minutes long that explains what you can do and cannot do in handling any of
the materials you send for. Sitting at one of the many computers I put in
the surname Hepworth and found one record that caught my attention. It was indexed as “Lester Hepworth by author;
Ethel Hepworth.” Lester is not a name that is used by any of my
ancestors. But, Ethel is the name of my grandmother. After a long
thought I finally decided I should “check it out.’ And what a wonderful
surprise I almost passed up.
I
wrote the information on a pink slip and handed it to the man behind the counter.
He said it would take about ten minutes and for me to proceed through double door into the
Reading Room. Before going into the Reading Room you put all your stuff
(purse, coat, etc.) in a locker and secure it. The only thing you can
take in the Reading Room is a notebook and pencil and ID. (No ink pens) Inside you show a picture ID and if you do not have one they will
take a picture of you. Then you put on white gloves so not to soil whatever it is you ordered. Finally, the small envelope
arrived and I was told it was a photograph. Again I'm thinking who is Lester Hepworth. I immediately looked inside the small yellow covering before
I even sat down at the table and was astonished. I recognized the
dark beautiful boy as my father with his grandmother or Nana as we called her
and his mother Ethel Hepworth Tomlinson then Dad's sister Louise. On
the back of the picture was written “Lester Hepworth and her daughter Ethel and
her two children.” Looking closer I could see the word Lester should be indexed as Sister
Hepworth. Now my question was where was this picture taken and how did it
get in the Church History Library? The next clue was the name of the
place where they were living that was displayed on the building where they were living. ,Oxford Apartments. Then I remembered Dad writing in his life history of going to Santa Monica for five
months two years in a row and he wrote about attending church there. That’s it – a member of
the ward came around taking pictures of the members of the Los Angeles ward/branch and the
pictures were part of the History of that Ward then sent to the Church History
Department. Now my next question was; “How can I get a copy/” The answer
was easy, It was out of copyright and had been uploaded to the Web site..
ChurchHistoryLibrary
https://history.lds.org/section/library?lang=eng
When you type in Ethel Hepworth in the Search box the above picture
will appear.
The Church History Staff member corrected the index entry.
This is what Dad wrote in
"My Personal History" about going to California:
"My Mother had
rheumatism for years just after I was born. She went to several doctors
without receiving much help. Dr. Openshaw told her that Utah winters were
too harsh for her. So Mother, ‘Nana’, my Grandmother, Louise, (just a
baby) and I, boarded a train for Los Angeles.
It took two days for the trip. We
were met at the depot by a real-estate salesman who had found a house for us to
lease for about five months. The house was
in Santa Monica and was right on the oceanfront. A broad cement sidewalk about fifty feet wide
stretched from our front door to a sea wall some four feet higher. Then below was the sandy beach of the Pacific
Ocean. Mostly the weather was warm. Only on Sunday did I dress up. The other days I lived in a swimming suit,
and I learned to swim in the ocean. I
remember being sent on an errand to buy something on the Pier about one half
mile down the sidewalk where some commercial stores were located. It was the time of morning when it was just
beginning to get really hot and I took my time stopping frequently to throw a
stick of some other thing into the ocean below the sea wall. I made my purchase and started back home but
by this time the pavement was so hot that it burned the soles of my bare feet
so I got off the sidewalk and walked in the ocean with the sack I had held
high.
On Sunday we had to get up
quite early, get ready to go to Church, walk some three hundred yards to a huge
wooden stairway just east of where we lived.
We had to climb the stairway, about one hundred steps to the top and
when we got there we were in a little park with palm trees, flowers and some
grass. There were benches to sit on as
we waited for the streetcar which took us several miles to the center of Los
Angeles. We got off of the street car in
front of the two story building with some type of store on the ground floor,
and the second floor occupied by the Knights of Columbus organization, a part
of the Catholic Church. This K.C. Hall
was to serve as the only LDS meeting house in the entire Los Angeles area at
that time. We were one of the first to
arrive and I remember that when the door to that meeting house was opened the
smell of cigarette and cigar smoke rushed out to the hallway. We had to sweep the floor, pick up beer
bottles, wine bottles and whatever as the K. of C. had had a party there on
Saturday Night. But, we cleaned it up
and by that time our LDS people had arrived and we had our meetings; Sunday school
and Sacrament. I am proud to know that I
was a small part of the first congregation in Los Angeles.
How grateful I am that Dad wrote about this experience in his life history. Without It I would still be wondering how this picture came about. A good testimony of how important it is to write my own life history or even about the events that took place in my life.
Dad had quite a memory at such an early age. What a contrast in his skin coloring to his mother and sister Louise. I bet Grandmother more than once had to explain "He really is mine and not adopted." Dad's father was dark complected and one of the reasons why I started searching the background of our ancestors. Still no concrete reason. I was told a 'Story' of where the dark skin came from but, to this date it is just that, A Story not proven.
