24 September 2011.  I've changed birth dates for Wallace's wives according to information provided by my great-uncle Lynn Wallace.  Thanks for catching those errors!!  I have also added an ancestry section which as of now contains only a pedigree chart provided again by Lynn.  If anyone has any additions or corrections to make they would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure, by the rest of us family members! 

 

11 September 2011.  The big news in my personal life is that we are now moved into a lovely home in Springville, Utah, and so far I am really enjoying my job at BYU.  For the website, the big breakthrough this summer came during a visit to Dean Wiese and his wife Anne Wallace.  They had inherited a lot of genealogical information from Anne's father, Gilbert Wallace, who passed away last year, and were kind enough to share it with me.  Of particular note is the Eastern States diary, which is now available on the website via the "Primary Sources" page.  I was also able to update the descendants list, thanks largely to information that Dean shared with me, and would like to thank Stephan McDonald for pointing out an error in one of the biographical sketches (which is now corrected).  In the coming weeks I hope to add a "Pictures" section to the website to display pictures of GBW, his wives, and his children.    

 

2 April 2011. This is an exciting time for me personally as I just completed my dissertation and will have my formal defense and graduation next month.  I have been fortunate in today's difficult job market to have been offered a tenure-track position with BYU's history department, and so we will be moving from Princeton to Provo (or thereabouts) this summer.  I look forward to being much closer to the libraries and archives that will help forward this project along and to a much larger set of his descendants.  

 

20 October 2010.  I just updated the grandchildren and great-grandchildren page to reflect a bit of information sent in by a fellow descendant.  I also hope to be able to get GBW's 1869-70 diary posted in the near future.  Otherwise, progress has been slow as I am currently trying to finish my dissertation on the Soviet penal system while applying for jobs.

 

5 June 2010.  I just received from the Bureau of Land Management and posted under "Primary Sources" the land patent for GBW's homestead in Granger.  It is dated 23 February 1892, although he had occupied the land since approximately 1875.  For the land to be formally granted (at no cost) from the federal government, the occupant had to demonstrate after several years that he was inhabiting and improving the land.  Special thanks to Markay Perrero for the lead on this document. 

 

10 December 2009.  The last several days I have been able to locate more references in published sources and in newspapers (more of these are becoming available online, which is very convenient).  I will likely be going through Wilford Woodruff's journals tomorrow.  One connection that I did not realize earlier is that the King family that GBW befriends in England emigrates in 1853 and the mother becomes one of the most well-known poets in territorial Utah: Hannah Tapfield King.  Meanwhile the daughter that GBW attempted unsuccessfully to woo while in England ended up marrying one of GBW's best friends from the mission: Claudius V. Spencer.  Very interesting.  Today I also created a "Links" page that points to some excellent online references.

 

2 December 2009.  I uploaded a new biographical sketch and a primary document.  I've also been finding brief references to GBW in published journals, such as those of Patty Sessions (which helped me correct the birth date for George B. Wallace, Jr.).  Having this website has definitely got me excited about this project again!

 

30 November 2009.  Today was a big day for the site.  For the first time since its inception it appeared on the first page of hits in google's search engine when searching for both George B. Wallace and George Benjamin Wallace.  Still no hits on the Yahoo or Bing search engines.

 

27 November 2009. Yesterday I announced the creation of this site to my immediate family and the guestbook was signed for the first time.  Today I uploaded a few more primary sources--GBW's patriarchal blessing, SLC temple cornerstone dedicatory prayer, and a sketch of his house.  

 

25 November 2009.  I have uploaded four diaries and five biographical sketches and updated the chronology.   

 

24 November 2009.  Today I figured out how to create internal pages in the site and hyperlinks to them from the main pages.  Now I can get to work uploading primary sources and biographical sketches (some of which still need to be transcribed).

 

16 November 2009.  The domain name is officially registered and the outlines of the website constructed.  My experience in web design is limited to a class taken at BYU about ten years ago where one assignment consisted of creating a small personal website.  Fortunately there is a nice sitebuilder program provided by the web host, but it still requires some figuring out.