Welcome to MaryNews.com. This is my personal website where I share with all of my family, extended family relatives and friends my family history research, photos and documents. I will also post announcements on family reunions. 

When I first began the website in about 2000, I wrote "We have great family times together including weekly dinners after Church on Sundays, a Family Home Evening each Monday night where the individual families meet together, family service projects, an annual 3-day JAMS event, as well as fantastic Family Reunions we enjoy with extended family and friends."

Now, in July 2010, I am moving to a smaller home and we won't all be together as we used to at my home, but we gather at Heber and the families continue to enjoy weekly Family Home Evening on Monday nights. I get to visit with them often in their homes.  We've adjusted and adapated over the last ten years to our larger family and to growing older.

Over all the years, many things remain constant. Our family believes there is a purpose for life and that 'families are forever.' We share our testimony with all that God lives, that we are his children and he loves us. We testify that his son, Jesus Christ, is literally our Savior and Redeemer. We are so grateful for the scriptures which we love to read and study together. We hope you will click here to learn more of our family beliefs.

A little about the parts of the website:

(1) The Joel and Mary Schwartz family organization which we call JAMS includes Joel, Mary, our five children and twenty-three wonderful grandchildren.

(2) The Family History section is where I share all of the wonderful information I've gathered for more than 50 years about our ancestors. I hope you will enjoy the information and that it will be a benefit to our family. You will be able to save files, photos, documents, videos, recordings and more. If you want to have a gedcom of the data, please just email me.

(3) Heber is our log home near Heber City. We enjoy sharing this with many others. We need to find a better way to schedule and to establish our rules (which are few but important to us).

(4) Ontario is our "Heritage Homestead" near Niagara Falls, Ontario. In 1850 Jacob and Catherine (Spoo) Goergen immigrated from Neuerburg, Germany and settled on this property. In about 1875, they added on to the loghome and we have restored the property back to the period of about 1875 or before. It is about 90 miles from Palmyra, NY and about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls.