Last summer I found a third cousin, once removed, in my father's line that goes back to my 3^rd great grandparents, Thomas and Jane Pierce.  The young man's name was Earl Robert Hulse, born 1923 in Kansas (G6TX-H6T).  He went off to war, and was lost at sea in the Pacific Ocean on 21 July 1942.  His parents are gone, and his only sibling died in 1995.  He was unmarried.  There is no close relative left who would be able to see to his temple work.  The man gave his life for our country.  I, therefore, requested permission from the temple department to do his temple work.  Permission was granted.  One of my grandsons was baptized for him in July, and I personally did his initiatory work, endowment, and sealing.  After the making of such a great sacrifice, I considered it a great honor and privilege to be able to do his work.

More recently I found Paul Wesley Le Crone (G6WN-936), born 5 March 1913.  A picture of him is found in his 1932 yearbook in Oklahoma City.  He's 18, handsome, and a sweet-looking young man.  He graduated from law school, and joined the Army in November 1940.  One year later he was married.  In 1944 he and his wife had a baby boy.  In November 1944 he was shipped overseas to France.  Two months later he was killed by an artillery shell.  In 1948 his wife died.  I found the baby living with his wife's parents in the 1950 census, but that young man has since passed on, also.  No near relative is left to do Paul's temple work, so I requested permission, and was granted the privilege to do it.  The next time a grandson goes to the temple. I'll have Paul baptized.  My heart goes out to these young men who gave their lives for us.

Having recently completed going through all of the descendants of my 8^th set of 3^rd great grandparents, I prayed to know which of the remaining eight sets was most anxious for me to work on their line.  I find and correct all of the vital information about every descendant of those 3^rd great grandparents, and ensure that their temple work is completed.  That exercise requires painstakingly going through many hundreds of names and thousands of records.  I follow each line down to 1910-12, and untangle the messes that I find.  I don't usually go beyond 1912 because I can't do temple work for anyone born within the last 110 years without obtaining permission from their living descendants.

When I prayed which family to go to work on, the Johnson family jumped off the page.  I didn't want to work on that family because there were so many descendants that it would take me forever.  I also knew that I would have to work through some severe tangles and mistakes.  But I began.

I'm currently working on the family of Thomas Levi Beem.  His wife, Sarah Johnson, was the sister of my 2^nd great grandfather, Freeborn Wesley Johnson.  The record said that Thomas and Sarah had 13 children.  Number 6 was Levi Beem (M253-PJ8), born June 1835 in Illinois.  A supposed sister was born in March of that same year.  Why are some researchers so careless as to make such blatant mistakes?  Siblings born in March and June simply isn't possible.  Besides that, all of the other siblings were born in Spencer, Owen County, Indiana, and he was born in Illinois! This couldn't be right.

Further research, however, showed Levi listed with the Thomas Beem family in the 1850 census.    The other children were all listed in order of birth, but there at the bottom of the list was Levi, age 15, born Illinois.  He was an afterthought, and was obviously not a sibling of the others.  Why was he with that family?

And then, lo and behold, another researcher had placed him in the family of Enoch and Phoebe Beem, whose other four children were born in Spencer, Owen County, Indiana just like Thomas' children were.  This family couldn't be right, either, because the record said that Enoch had died in 1832, three years before Levi was born.  How stupid was it to put him in that family?

I searched and searched for information about Levi, but the only record that shows he ever existed was that 1850 census of him with the Thomas Beem family.  I left a note in both families stating that Levi didn't belong in either one, but that I couldn't determine where he actually did belong.  I left everything as I'd found it, and gave up.  I wasn't going back.  I'd done all I could.

That night, all night long, Levi troubled me.  In the night it occurred to me that Levi had to be a relative of the families since his last name was the same.  Could Thomas and Enoch possibly be brothers?  Was Levi a son of another brother who perhaps went to Illinois and died?

As soon as I got up in the morning, I went to the computer.  Sure enough, Enoch and Thomas were brothers, five years apart in age.  They had three older brothers, but none of them had been in the right time or place to be Levi's father.  I found Enoch's grave.  He had died in Gridley, McLean County, Illinois.  His tombstone said he died August 1835!  The information in Family Search about his death was wrong.  Suddenly everything became clear.  I knew what had happened.

Enoch had taken his wife, Phoebe, and their four children and moved from Spencer, Indiana to Gridley, Illinois.  There they had baby Levi in June 1835.  In August Enoch died.  Phoebe was left with five children ages 10 down to the baby.  She couldn't run the farm, and needed to be near family for help.  She returned to Spencer, Indiana.  Perhaps she was hard pressed to care for the baby.  Perhaps, just perhaps, she needed someone who could care for the baby and nurse it.  Thomas and Mary had just had a baby in March, and Mary would have been able to nurse the baby.  I don't really know if that kind of help was necessary, but it would explain how Levi ended up in Thomas' family.  For whatever reason, he was there during the 1850 census when he was 15 years old.  Beyond that time, we can't determine what happened to him.

But he belongs to the Enoch and Phoebe Beem family.  This I know  He is thus not my relative at all.  He is sealed to both families.  I will remove him from the Thomas and Mary Beem family, and leave explanations for other researchers to follow.  Levi will then be where he belongs, and another insoluble tangle will be solved.