'I'm related to Martin Harris. That's all I know, but I'm very proud of it. The Book of Mormon's shorter because of me — well, my family. You can stand closer to boys because of me.'
Melissa Michels
Darien CT
Exercise and Wellness
Senior
Laura Ferrin
'My family does a heritage dinner around Christmas. Every family has to research a person and stories with it and usually it's pioneers. We all get together and discuss the stories we've found. So, it's pretty big in my family, I just don't remember any of the stories. The stories all written in a big book.'
Providence
Psychology
Junior
'I didn't know Pioneer Day existed until I came here. ... I was at my grandparents' last week, and we were going through some old boxes in the basement. We found a bunch of old journals from Alma Helaman Hale who apparently knew Joseph Smith. That's about all I know so far. I'm hoping to look more into that.'
Morgan Barker
Flower Mound, Texas
Physics
Freshman
'I do have pioneer ancestry. Ezra Allen is my great great great great grandfather and he was one of the mormon battalion. He was one of the two that was killed by indians. There is a church movie called legacy more precious than gold and it's about his story.'
Hughson, Calif.
Psychology
Freshman
'The only real pioneer heritage that I know of that I have is that I'm related ti Levi Savage, The guy that Seventeen Miricles is based off of. bhe was the one who kind of stood up and said he we shouldn;t go we should stay here it's too late in the season. He realized that everyone was kind of in disagreement with him so he finally capitulated and said Ok I'll go with you guys suffer with you and die with you if necessary Thats the only real big pioneer heritage in my family I know there's more but I don't really know the stories.'
Littleton, Colo.
Political Science
Senior