This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Monday is the big celebration of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley 170 years ago. If you're a descendant, you may take a moment to ponder the heroic deeds of your venerable ancestors.

By all accounts, the early Mormon pioneers endured great hardships and loss while venturing into the middle of nowhere and making a go of it in the name of God.

Uplifting stories abound regarding handcarts and angels, miraculous conversions, and other events that (more or less) prove Heavenly Father had a personal hand in getting the pioneers happily to Zion.

But have you ever stopped to think that your pioneer ancestors might have been a little crazy as well? Don't get mad. I'm just saying that we might be victims of one side of a multifaceted story.

Not all the pain was felt by our valiant pioneers. While watching the parade, I'll be thinking about William J. and his wife Mary Askie Silver, who trekked to Zion from England.

Neither of the Silvers is related to me by blood, but both have a bearing on how I ended up where I am today.

While working in the iron business in England, William boarded with a family named Askie. They were Mormon and had a daughter, Mary, about William's age. One thing led to another and William became a Mormon and got hitched to Mary.

William's parents were more than a little annoyed that he had joined a cult. They immediately cut him off, a common sacrificial thread in many Mormon pioneer stories.

Note: In LDS history, such familial disavowal is regarded as senseless persecution for one's strength of conviction. When we do it today to family members who join another church, come out as gay, or switch political parties, it's regarded by some as being for their own good.

Nevertheless, William stuck with his new faith, fathering children with Mary and eventually becoming president of the Bath, Somerset, LDS branch.

Enter another Mary. My maternal great-great-grandmother, Mary Louisa Pile, was baptized in the Bath branch when she was 14. Her parents disowned her.

All this disowning, cutting off or renunciation of loved ones over religion makes you wonder, doesn't it? It does me. I wonder if something we regard as a heroic sacrifice today works both ways. Is risking family ire to be one's authentic self still praiseworthy?

Anyway, back to my pioneer story. In 1855, the Silvers decided to come to Zion. Since they aren't related to me, why should I care? Well, because, after two days at sea on the ship Cynosure, William excused himself for a moment and returned with — you guessed it — my great-great-grandmother, Mary Pile.

It is said that upon seeing her on the boat, William's wife, who by then was well aware of the Mormon practice of polygamy, promptly fainted.

I'm running out of room here, so let's jump to the end. Upon arrival in New York, and during a disagreement in their apartment in Castle Garden, Mary Askie, beat my great-great-grandmother with a broom.

The consequences of this caused Mary Pile to be sent on ahead with a different wagon company. Two weeks after her arrival in Salt Lake City, she became the third wife of my polygamist great-great-grandfather Nathaniel Henry Felt. She bore him three children.

Meanwhile, the Silvers settled in Salt Lake City's Marmalade neighborhood, where William's wife Mary Askie eventually died in 1862.

Great-great-grandma Pile promptly divorced Nathaniel and married William. She became one of Salt Lake City's first female doctors and died in 1912.

I'll think about this pioneer story while I watch tomorrow's parade honoring the deprivation and loss that got me to Salt Lake City.

Mostly, though, I'll think about Alexander and Sarah Pile, as well as William and Miriam Silver, the parents who supposedly disowned their children over religion and as a result never saw them again. Now that's real loss.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley.