AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MADELEINE MALAN FARLEY Forward Madeleine Malan Farley, born in Prassuit, Angrogna, Piedmont Italy, on September 25, 1839, was a daughter of John Daniel and Pauline Combe Malan. She was baptized and confirmed into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Elder Jabez Woodard on February 22, 1851 at Prassuit, Italy. Her family were descendants of a Christian sect called Waldenses who have the following history: "The Waldenses were a Christian sect, founded in the Middle Ages, whose members were followers of Peter Waldo. Waldo was a wealthy merchant of Lyons, France. In 1170, he gave his money to the poor and began a life of poverty and devotion. Many followers gladly took his vows of poverty chastity, and obedience. The Waldenses believes further that men should interpret the Bible in their own way, that religious works should be translated into and preached in dialects and tongues of the common people, and that any layman might preach. From the beginning amongst the doctrines they repudiated were: the worship of images, adoration of the cross, pilgrimages, and veneration of the martyrs; later, on purgatory and mariolatry and still later, indulgences and transubstantiation. There were subjected to persecution and in 1231 were excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX; but they grew in numbers and the sect persisted until the dawn of religious toleration freed them from interference from Church or State. Today there are over 12,000 communicants in Italy, and stations are maintained also in the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and the United States." Evidently the Waldenses, like the French Huguenots, were driven by persecution out of Francetheir people settling in Italy much as the French Huguenots settled in America. In fact, there are indications that some of Madeleine Malan Farley's ancestors were indeed French Huguenots; but her immediate ancestors were Waldenses as she reports in her own words. Autobiography My parents' ancestors were descendants of the Waldensesfirst called The Evangelic Church of Christ. Among the several names or reproach given them by their enemies, they were at length denominated Waldenses after one of their most eminent teachers, Peter Waldo. This cruelly persecuted people date their origin from the beginning of the fourth centurygenuine descendants of the primitive church. The first discovery of a congregation in France was at Orleans in 1017 A.D. A Catholic council was immediately convened; and the missionaries with their converts (of who were many respectable citizens) and several of the regular clergy were all burned alive. About this year 1040, they had become very numerous in Milan, Italy, The learned Alise in his history of the