Family Journey

I do admit, I don't know the exact reason why my family came to America, neither side has any record of our ancestors. I do know what inspired them later on: religion. 

My mom's side of my family was involved in a major event that most in Utah were a part of, migration of Mormons to Utah. Unlike many who went to Utah, my ancestors ended up in the area of Iona, Idaho. I only know that my five times great grandpa, Arthur W. Schwieder, moved to Iona in 1924. (See below for more information.) St. George and Iona share one thing in common: memorials to the Mormon Pioneers.

On my dad's side, I know that my ancestors are of Russian/Scandinavian origin. Their lives are dictated by their religion: Holdeman-Mennonites. Their religion hinders them in many ways: lack of high school education and prescence of sexism. I do believe that they are cult-like, but I am unsure if they are or not. My dad left this in order to acquire a further education, luckily for me.

I beleive that the two sides of my family influenced my outlook on religion. Since I am from two minority religions, I've gotten a different outlook than most on religion, and I hope every religion will get along one day. Unfortunately, I am not close to either side of my family because of my perspective, and especially my lack of religion creates a bigger rift between my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Noteworthy People

My four times great grandfather, on my dad's side, is a noteworthy person on my dad's side of my family, because he created a religion that branches off of the Mennonite religion: the Holdeman-Mennonites. I believe that he is a person of interest, is for the reason of why to create this religion. I beleive it to be a cult now, but I don't know if it was different when he created it. If it was the same circumstances when he created, I want to know his motivation to create this kind of controlling religion.

I have a six times great grandfather that was a pirate with the name of Daives. His name is the origin of my mother's maiden name of Davis. I have no further information from my family about him, but when I researched it, there was a famous pirate by the name of Howell Davis, whose nickname was Davies, that was a welsh pirate, so there is a possiblity that my family is related to Howell Davis. The only issue with this, is that Howell Davis was alive in the 1700's, and that would have to make him more than ten generations back, and that is way too far back to be my six times great grandfather.

Arthur W. Schwieder is my five times great grandfathers and a full blooded German. He was one of my first ancestors to move to Idaho. He moved to Iona to run a school house, and also ended up converting to Mormonism, and becoming a bishop. He was a candidate for Governer of Idaho, but didn't win. I find it interesting that he converted to Mormonism, I want to know his reasoning, but he did have a wife that believed it, so he probably did it for her