“(Russ) Taylor, who is currently the department chairman of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at the BYU library, helps oversee a vast collection of rare books, films and artifacts.  With so much to see and read, it is not uncommon for researchers to continuously find and rediscover pieces of the past, and for Taylor it has been no different.

“He had probably walked right past the box of unnoticed almanacs before, but thanks to a set of unlikely circumstances, Taylor would find within one of the collection’s 300,000 books a part of his family history.

“While preparing for an exhibit on almanacs, a visiting professor reached into a box full of almanacs and pulled one out at random.  The professor, after noticing this particular almanac had interlaced writing paper, handed it to Taylor in order to show him an example of almanacs that were used as diaries.

“When Taylor began to examine the almanac, something stood out to him.

“‘I saw on the page ‘diary of my grandfather William Partridge born 1753 H.W. Partridge,’ and I got goose bumps,’ Taylor said.  ‘I thought this could be a relative of mine, this could be a distant cousin of my third great-grandfather who was Edward Partridge, the first bishop of the church.’

“After researching it more, Taylor quickly discovered that this undocumented diary penned on the pages of an Old Farmer’s Almanac was in fact the personal diary of his fourth great-grandfather, William Partridge.

“To some this discovery might sound like luck, but Taylor believes it was more than that.

“‘I don’t think it was chance.  The veil was pretty thin when we started looking at those almanacs and that one happened to come out of the box.’ Taylor said.  ‘I don’t know if it was pulled out, or if it jumped out.’

“After looking through more than 200 almanacs in the special collections, Taylor was able to uncover and document 45 different almanacs that William had used to document his life.

“Although William’s writing and personality matched all 45 of the almanacs, the only one that bore William’s name was the first that Taylor had seen, making the chances of such a discovery quite literally one in a million.

“In the face of such odds, Taylor concludes family ties must have helped connect him with William.

“‘I have come to feel that there are indeed bands that tie me to this man William Partridge,’ Taylor said as he recounted the story during a BYU devotional.  ‘Seven years ago he reached across the veil and placed into my hands an account of his life here upon the earth, an account that he had always intended for his descendants to have.’

“Since initially finding the first almanac, Taylor has now transcribed each entry and included historical notes and context for the dates and places William Partridge describes…  Taylor has not been able to determine how the almanacs originally found their way to the library shelves…”

Mormon Times, December 4, 2010, pg. 1 and 6)