William Odell Tolman wrote in his journal, “The more I taught (genealogy extension classes for BYU), the more my testimony increased concerning this great program of the Church. During that period of time, often I would visit with Myra Tolman Patterson when I would drive from Provo to Salt Lake City. She was a great inspiration to me as she repeated faith-promoting experiences which she had in connection with this program. Early in January 1959, this great woman when to the LDS Hospital… She suffered great pain… and on 19 April 1959, she passed away.”
“With four other volunteers, I started meeting once every month, trying to decide what to do with Aunt Myra’s records. No one in the family organization knew what she had done or where she had been in her research. We had to evaluate these two problems before we could go ahead in this program. During the next three and a half years, we came up with several ideas. When we would get back, in the next meeting, we knew that our previous ideas were not the solution.”
Picture: William O. Tolman, Tolman Family Genealogist from 4 April 1959 to 26 September 1980