We Were Smiths

We Were Smiths: Escaping the Shadow of Joseph Smith’s Mormon Legacy is a unique, insider account of growing up within the Mormon Church, where lineage and family birthright define one’s standing and importance. My great-great-grandfather, Samuel, Joseph’s younger brother, was one of the few Smiths to come west as a young orphan with Brigham Young, making my family a rarity in Utah with a bloodline connection to the Church’s original founder and prophet.

My first-person account details how my sister and I both break away from The Church and our family, leaving Utah for the unknown worlds of Manhattan and

San Francisco. Our departure is the beginning of the implosion in our family that results in a deep division between believers and non-believers, an abyss that seems impossible to bridge.

And while my sister and I try to jettison our past and create new versions of ourselves elsewhere, we discover that the past and its burden can’t be outrun so easily. I share a vivid account of our different challenges, and, sometimes similar struggles, to survive outside the Mormon faith and culture, resulting in our vastly different outcomes.

What is the cost of autonomy and freedom? How is family loyalty and identity defined? How do we heal from past trauma and move past it, especially if we want to stay connected to our family? I share what I’ve learned about family estrangement and my family’s journey to healing and wholeness.