JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - Americans can learn much about their nation's history through genealogical research, said Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Family stories can do more than inspire appreciation of the past," Cheney said at an invitation-only gathering. "They can enlarge our understanding of the present."

Cheney spoke to about 200 people at the first of the National Museum of Wildlife Art's Distinguished Lecture series last Monday.

She said one of her great-great grandmothers, Katurah Vaughan, came to Utah from Wales along the Mormon Trail. Vaughan, who was in her early 20s, lost her husband and newborn son to cholera on the journey west.

After reaching Salt Lake City, she met and married a fellow Welsh Mormon immigrant and had six children and 36 grandchildren. One grandchild was Lynne Cheney's grandfather.

She said that while researching the story as a Christmas gift for her daughters, she found the larger story of Western migration even more impressive.

"The experiences of immigrants to this country and of people who made the journey west are simply awe-inspiring," she said. "They are inspiration and they can be joy."

Cheney learned of another great-great grandmother, Fannie Peck, who walked the Mormon Trail barefoot as a 7-year-old.

"At the same time that we bolster institutions that foster historical awareness, we should also try, each of us as individuals, to become more knowledgeable about the American past," she said. "As parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles, we have so many chances to pass along our amazing national story to upcoming generations."

Some of that history will be shared in Cheney's upcoming children's book about great American women, available Sept. 16.

Cheney also found that one of her husband's ancestors, William Cheney, became the first of the Cheney family to immigrate to the United States in 1635 and settled in what was then the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

She also learned of A. Nelson Cheney, a 19th century fly-fishing expert who was the official "fish culturalist" for the state of New York and a published author.

Cheney said that although she learned a lot about the appeal of fly fishing from her research, she still isn't interested in joining her husband on any of his fishing expeditions.