Descendants and other kin of Arta McLean Seely and Alfaretta Neff Seely: DO YOU KNOW? ...who in our family...

• Has been accepted as a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator?

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Presidents of the Church and members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are formally sustained as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. At this writing (2004), two of our relatives hold those ranks:

Gordon Bitner Hinckley, President of the Church 1995-2008.

Joseph Bitner Wirthlin, of the Quorum of the Twelve 1986-2008.

It is not a coincidence that these distinguished men share a middle name. They are first cousins, great-grandsons of Anna Barr Musser Bitner Starr, thrice-widowed pioneer sister of my great-great-grandmother Mary Barr Neff. That makes them my mother’s third cousins, and therefore my* third cousins once removed.

I haven’t hunted through all the Church leaders since Joseph Smith, to see how many of them may be our kinfolk to one degree or another. One famous former president of the Church, however, is our relative by marriage. By several marriages, in fact:

	Brother Brigham, in addition to his other distinctions, is our:* Great-great-uncle (GGU—by his marriage to our GGA Vilate Clarissa Decker ) Step-GG-grandfather (by his marriage to our GG-grandmother, Lucy Ann Decker) Step-GGG-uncle (by his brother Lorenzo Dow Young’s marriage to our GGG grandmother Harriet Page Wheeler Decker Young)
Brigham Young President, 1847-1877