Work continues on the Aroet book.  We have made great progress in research.  Aroet’s extensive journals have been transcribed and research has been done, and continues, on the history of the land and culture he was a part of.  A master time line has been created and artifacts continue to come in related to Aroet.  At the Temple gathering in February 2012 Lee showed the family a book of Aroet’s poetry that had recently been given to him by a relative.  The biography of each wife has also been written, with editing and a little more research left to be done.  I (NiCole) personally know that as I have helped with Olive’s biography, my understanding of her and Aroet has grown exponentially, and my love for them and appreciation for the sacrifices they made has strengthened.

This has been a laborious project, and we still have details to finish.  We could use more help as we wrap up the Aroet book project.  Specifically, if you are interested in writing a short history on each of Aroet’s children (or a few of them), we would appreciate the help.  We can provide you with the data the committee has already gathered and give suggestions about where you might do more research to fill in the blanks.  We have an editor so you don’t need to worry about verbiage and syntax–we just need people to sift through information and create concise summaries  This project can be done in small chunks, and every bit of help is welcome!  Use the “Tell Us Your News” link and I will get you in touch with the committee.

We were blessed with wonderful weather this year, and the Logan gathering went as planned.  On February 25th, 2012, the Hale family filled the banquet room in the Logan temple with over 80 family members in attendance!  Temple work continues with this great family of ours!

At our general meeting, we discussed some things that members of the Hale Family are currently part of.  For more information on those activities, please see “FAMILY NEWS” through the link on the right.

Lee spent some time taking suggestions on the newsletter content, we discussed the need to celebrate the lives of our recently deceased (although space does not permit in the newsletter we can post obituaries on the website), and David had a few minutes to update everyone on the use of the website.

One suggestion was made that stands out to me personally.  We have a great opportunity here as we gather together as family.  There is still much work to do.  If we organized ourselves, communicated needs, and worked together on projects, more would get accomplished as we focus our time and energy together.

To that end, we now have a “HOW YOU CAN HELP” page with a link in the right hand sidebar.  Please check it monthly for new projects and updated status reports.  If you have suggestions, please contact Lee or NiCole via the “Tell Us Your News” link.  Our purpose as an organization is to get the work done–and it will only happen if we work together!

(Update 25 Feb 2011)

Because of severe weather conditions in and around Logan, we must unfortunately cancel the formal meeting which we had scheduled for 26 February at the Logan Temple. Family members are encouraged to visit their local temples as possible. Because of the delay in sending out this message, please forward this to others who might be planning on attending this event.

We would like to extend an invitation to all who are able to meet us in the Logan Temple February 26th for our annual Hale Family Temple Day.  Our schedule is as follows:

Gather in the temple cafeteria 11:00
Lunch/Family meeting 11:30
Dismiss to prepare for session 12:15
Session 1:00

This day commemorates the time Alma and Aroet Hale spent in the temple each year from January to February, performing ordinances for their ancestors.  Specifically, it celebrates the “Lighting of the Logan Temple,” a  phenomenon witnessed and documented at the culmination of their temple work in 1896.  A summary of this event is here.

It is an honor to meet together and carry on the tradition of our Hale ancestors.  If you cannot meet in the Logan temple, the HFO encourages you to participate in spirit through your own local temple.

The Hale family organization is nearing completion on a book of Aroet Lucius Little Hale (1828-1911), the oldest orphan of Jonathan Harriman Hale and Olive Boynton.  Aroet was a great man with an adventurous spirit.  His extensive journals tell tales of:

• traveling with Brigham Young on advance parties to prepare for the westward migration of early Latter-Day Saints;
• leading his orphaned brothers and sister across the plains;
• serving several early missions to settle areas in the southwestern United States for the church;
• negotiating with antagonistic Native Americans; and
• raising a large posterity.

The book committee has used Aroet’s journals to lead them through the compilation of this book, while researching extensively by visiting the areas Aroet lived in and settled, speaking with some of the relatives who actually remember him, and investigating other written sources to give us a better perspective of Aroet’s life and adventures.  Chapter biographies of each of his wives will be included, along with short excerpts on each of his children where information has been available.  Also included will be a CD paf file of Aroet’s genealogy.  Research for this book has been going on for over a decade.

The HFO would like to finish this project up but we could use your help.  Specifically, if you are interested in writing a short history on each of Aroet’s children (or a few of them), we would appreciate the help.  We can provide you with the data the committee has already gathered and give suggestions about where you might do more research to fill in the blanks.  We have an editor so you don’t need to worry about verbiage and syntax–we just need people to sift through information and create concise summaries  This project can be done in small chunks, and every bit of help is welcome!  Use the “Tell Us Your News” link and I will get you in touch with the committee.

If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact us!  There is plenty to do.

After our family website was hacked from a recently published security hole, I decided to wipe off the old site and start fresh, just in case there were lingering security problems from any of the other applications. I have installed the newest version of WordPress for the main portion of the site and PhpGedview for the genealogy portion. The newest version of PhpGedview doesn’t have the same security hole that existed just a month ago. It is great having people like John Finlay working to fix these issues as soon as they are discovered!

The biggest loss was that the hacker deleted our entire user database, but left our genealogy database intact. Any family member who used to have access, but no longer can login, will need to create a new user account using the same process as they did previously.