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Guide Home > Prophets > Latter-day Prophets > Smith, Joseph > Family and Background

Additional Topics

The following are additional topic areas related to Family and Background. If there is a bracket number after the topic, that number indicates how many actual articles there are related to that subject. If the link for the topic is not live, it simply means the topic is a 'planned area' for future growth.

FAIR Resources

These links are either to Web pages hosted on the FAIR Website, or to FAIR Papers. FAIR Papers are short articles about specific topics or questions, written by members of FAIR. These articles can be downloaded and read in PDF format and are intended to be distributed by e-mail or print for the general use of our patrons. (To read FAIR Papers you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. It can be downloaded free from the Adobe Web site.) Click on a title below to visit a FAIR Web page or to read the latest version of a FAIR Paper.

"Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision," FAIR Wiki (City Unknown: FAIR) This FAIR Wiki article examines the claim that Lehi's vision was simply a reworking of a dream that Joseph Smith Sr. had many years earlier.

Ensign Articles

These articles cited below provide information on the topic of this page. The Ensign is one of the official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When you click on one of the article links below, you are whisked to the article found in the archives of the Church's Web site.

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Heritage of a Prophet," Ensign, February 1971, 15. Joseph Smith's family background.

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Joseph Smith's Brothers: Nauvoo and After," Ensign, September 1979, 30.

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Joseph Smith's Home Environment," Ensign, July 1971, 57.

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "The Alvin Smith Story: Fact and Fiction," Ensign, August 1987, 58.

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "What were Joseph Smith's sisters like, and what happened to them after the martyrdom?," Ensign, March 1979.

M. Russell Ballard, "The Family of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Ensign, November 1991, 5.

Donald L. Enders, "Faithful from the First," Ensign, January 2001, 52. Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith, among the first to hear of the appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ, faithfully and devotedly sacrificed the rest of their lives for the gospel restored through their son Joseph Smith Jr.

Ronald K. Esplin, "Hyrum Smith: The Mildness of a Lamb, the Integrity of Job," Ensign, February 2000, 30. "Blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me" (D&C 124:15)

Gracia N. Jones, "My Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith," Ensign, August 1992, 30.

Jaynann Payne, "Lucy Mack Smith: Woman of Great Faith," Ensign, November 1972, 68.

Other Resources

The resources listed below are related items available on the Web that should be of interest. These links are to information not located on the FAIR Web site.

Milton V. Backman and James B. Allen, " Membership of Certain of Joseph Smith's Family in the Western Presbyterian Church of Palmyra," BYU Studies (1970) When Joseph Smith wrote his personal history in 1838, he said that about the time of his first vision, in 1820, four members of his family had joined the Presbyterian faith: his mother, Lucy; his brothers, Hyrum and Samuel; and his sister Sophronia. Until recently Mormon historians have presented little corroborating evidence, but an examination of the Presbyterian Church records in Palmyra has shown that at least three of the Smiths were part of that congregation in 1828, although by that time they had become inactive.

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Last Updated September 28, 2008
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