Edyth Jenkins Romney (seen to the left of the blog name in the header image) was born in Freedom, WY, in 1906. She attended Utah State Agricultural College—after graduating, she taught elementary school in various places in Idaho and Wyoming. During these years, she put her professional career on hold to serve a nearly three-year mission in Canada. In 1938, she married her first husband, Hans E. Hansen. Following his death in 1945, she married Thomas C. Romney (himself a historian) in 1947. Around this time, she began what would be a forty-three year career with the Historical Department in which she eventually transcribed more than 80,000 pages of historical documents. After her retirement in 1975, Leonard Arrington found ways to keep her involved—eventually they would “slip her a $10 bill every so often privately, to help her out.” Her transcripts formed the basis of many important works of Mormon history: Brigham Young: American Moses, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets, The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, On the Potter’s Wheel: the Diaries of Heber C. Kimball, and many others.
In a unheralded way, Edyth Romney contributed substantially to the cause of Mormon history. It is in her honor that this society hopes to make similar contributions.
The society exists to foster the transcribing and archiving of important documents in Mormon history. Transcriptions made by contributors to the society are archived here for the use of researchers and historians
The Edyth Jenkins Romney Society 