Item Detail
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Park, Margaret Wilson
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1902-
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MSS SC 1106
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Autobiography
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Margaret Wilson Park was born in 1902 to Thomas and Margaret (Morton) Wilson in South Africa. Her parents had emigrated from Scotland to South Africa in 1901 when they had three children. They later had four more children in South Africa, totaling seven children. Margaret 's mother joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1908 and her father Thomas joined in 1909. Margaret was raised as a Latter-day Saint in South Africa, where there were few members. In 1930 when Margaret was 28 she had the intention of settling in the United States. She lived in Ogden, Utah for two years and then returned to South Africa in 1932. Shortly after her return, she married Alvin Park in April 1933. She and Alvin had a daughter, Laverne, on 24 December 1936; they were sealed in the Swiss Temple in 1968. Margaret and her husband traveled across the world and also served two missions for the Church, one to the London, England Temple and another in South Africa.
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Margaret submitted her autobiography in 1978 while living in South Africa. The manuscript is two pages long, handwritten in blue ink. It also includes a black and white original photo of Margaret in her later years. Margaret briefly covers her youth and talks mainly about her life in the Church. She mentions an experience of seeing the Salt Lake Temple for the first time while living in Utah; she was speechless when she saw the temple because she could feel the spirit so strongly. She mentions how she treasured her time in Utah. Margaret traveled to Scotland on her way home from living in the United States. She did much family history work while there. She writes a little about her husband and daughter, but focuses on her travels with her husband. Margaret and her husband visited every temple (that was built by the 1970s) while they were traveling across the world, except for the Arizona Temple. She briefly describes her different callings in the Church.
(Margaret's autobiography is included in a collection with four other women who were living in the South Africa Mission, their names are: Valerie Evelyn Allderman, Barbara Mann Donaghue, Pearl Elizabeth Ek, and Jean Wood Newbold.) Couple Missionaries