Palmyra and Fabius, New York (May 6-8, 2008)

Before we arrived in Pennsylvania, we enjoyed a few days in Palmyra, NY, near Rochester. We arrived first at the visitor's center which is at the base of Hill Cumorah; the main feature inside the visitor's center was a display about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we enjoyed. While in Palmyra, we stayed at the Liberty House Bed and Breakfast (http://www.libertyhousebb.com/).

After lunch, we headed to the Joseph Smith home, the rebuilt cabin where the Smith family first lived and then the two-story home where they later moved. This is the upstairs of the reconstructed cabin on the actual site where the Angel Moroni would have appeared to Joseph Smith. There were two beds where the six boys slept upstairs.

Across the road was the Sacred Grove; we were the only ones walking through the grove so it was a great experience to stop and just listen--birds were humming, the brook was singing for us...

The next day we drove to Fabius, New York, about 90 minutes away from Palmyra, to do some family history work! This is the small village where many of the Rowleys lived, were born, married, and died. My great grandmother Olive Rowley was born here before her family moved to the Iowa area where she met and married James Shelby Neal.

Olive's father was David Reynolds Rowley (married Arlatia Woodruff) and David's father was Newell Rowley (1814-1897), and David's mother was Eliza Jennet Porter Rowley (1814-1847). In the Evergreen Cemetery in Fabius, we located the graves for Newell and Eliza.

After working on their family history, we enjoyed getting a connection to this village (located in a beautiful area near the finger lakes area of New York, lots of hills and trees, apple tree orchards, and other scenic vistas) and especially the people. These ancestors, Newell and Eliza, would be my great great great grandparents--three greats!

In the same vein, we attended a temple session in the Palmyra temple--small, quaint, and very friendly officiators. It topped our visit to this "cradle of the church restoration," as it's called here.