Reed and Katie Madsen on Family History, Faith, and Finding Belonging in Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches of Lehi

Reed and Katie Madsen share their journey to Lehi, Utah — FamilySearch, DAR service, pioneer heritage, and neighborly love. A Roots & Branches of Lehi oral history episode.

Reed and Katie Madsen on Family History, Faith, and Finding Belonging in Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches of Lehi

Reed and Katie Madsen share their journey to Lehi, Utah — FamilySearch, DAR service, pioneer heritage, and neighborly love. A Roots & Branches of Lehi oral history episode.

Reed and Katie Madsen on Family History, Faith, and Finding Belonging in Lehi, Utah

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Who Are Reed and Katie Madsen, and Why Does Their Story Matter?

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Episode Overview

Guest Names

Roles in Lehi

Time Periods Discussed

Host

Primary Topics Discussed

Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

Compton, Knott's Berry Farm, and a Childhood Across the Street

American Teenagers in Tonga

"Consider Yourself Asked"

Becoming the First DAR Patriot in Her Family Line

Naturalization Ceremonies and a Daughter-in-Law's Journey

The Red Build Emergency and Moving FamilySearch to AWS

The Pioneer Who Fed Saints from Utah Lake

"I Come From Good Stock. I Can Get Through This."

Miracles Through Medicine

What This Interview Teaches Us About Lehi

Community & Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics & Archive Connections

Explore More Stories from Lehi

Suggested Photos & Visuals

Full Transcript

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From Compton and Tonga to FamilySearch and the DAR — a story of pioneer resilience, neighborly love, and a marriage shaped by music, faith, and divine timing.

helps families achieve the dream of homeownership in Lehi and across Utah.

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Reed and Katie Madsen have spent more than a decade as part of the Lehi community, bringing with them a lifetime of global experiences, deep family history roots, and a commitment to service. After years in Texas, their move to Lehi connected them with neighbors, church community, and the support network that has become essential — especially as Reed navigates Parkinson's disease. Their story blends small-town belonging with worldwide perspective, from Katie's childhood in Compton and Orange County to Reed's teenage years in Uruguay and Tonga.

Their interview highlights the heart of Lehi's community spirit: neighbors helping neighbors, shared faith, and a love of preserving stories. Katie's leadership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and Reed's long career at FamilySearch reflect their passion for genealogy, education, and civic service — values that resonate deeply in Lehi's history of pioneer resilience, family legacy, and community connection. Their journey reminds us why Lehi remains a place where roots deepen and branches reach outward across generations.

In this episode, Reed and Katie share their unlikely love story that began with a violin performance at BYU, their decades of service to veterans and new citizens through the DAR, Reed's pivotal role modernizing FamilySearch's global software infrastructure, and the pioneer ancestor who fed starving Saints from the ice of Utah Lake . They also open up about faith, medical miracles, and the lessons they hope their grandchildren will carry forward.

For anyone interested in Lehi Utah history , Reed and Katie Madsen interview , Lehi community stories , FamilySearch engineer story , DAR Utah chapter regent , Lehi genealogy stories , Utah Lake pioneer fisherman , American Fork Symphony violinist , Lehi faith and heritage , Utah naturalization ceremonies , or the Roots & Branches of Lehi podcast , this interview is essential listening.

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Reed and Katie Madsen

Katie: DAR Chapter Regent, Violinist with American Fork Symphony. Reed: Retired Software Engineer at FamilySearch.

1960s–2020s (California, Uruguay, Tonga, BYU, Texas, modern Lehi)

Ryan Harding

Katie describes growing up in Compton during the 1965 Watts riots before her parents relocated the family to Orange County. Their ward building sat directly across the street from Knott's Berry Farm , and as a teenager she and her friends spent countless hours there before fences and admission fees changed the experience. "We had a great time just hanging out at Knott's Berry Farm."

Reed recounts attending high school in Tonga after his father accepted a church building assignment. The cultural shift was immense — "Tonga is very different than Utah" — but Reed and eight other American teenagers formed a tight-knit group. "We did everything together. Go to the beach, go to the movies, go to school, do our homework, rinse and repeat." That shared experience created bonds that transcended the usual one-on-one dating culture of American high schools.

Reed and Katie's love story began when Reed woke up in sacrament meeting to see Katie playing the violin — an impression he felt was divinely guided. When he asked her to homecoming a month in advance, his coolest pickup line was: "Consider yourself asked." Katie immediately recognized the parallel to her own father's proposal — "Best we go" — and the symmetry made her laugh. It was the beginning of a marriage that has now lasted nearly 52 years.

At a Dallas genealogy conference, Katie sat next to a DAR member and decided to join — despite the fact that no one in her family had ever done so . She became the first person in her family line to document a Revolutionary War patriot, a two-year paper-trail process completed in 1999 before the internet made research faster. "What I like about [DAR] is you get to be the good in the world."

One of Katie's favorite DAR responsibilities is speaking at naturalization ceremonies . She draws on her daughter-in-law's citizenship journey from South Africa to connect with new Americans. Her speeches weave together the seal on the back of the dollar, John F. Kennedy's "Ask not" address, and her own family's immigrant roots — creating moments of patriotic reflection for people who have just taken their oath of citizenship.

Reed was hired at FamilySearch to solve a crisis: software builds were failing every single day , and recovery consumed the team's mornings. Within a year, Reed and his team eliminated the "red build emergency" meetings entirely. Later, he led the migration from FamilySearch's own data centers to AWS , where on a Sunday afternoon 4,000–5,000 servers now handle millions of requests. "Things have happened during my stay there that could only have happened through revelation."

Reed's great-grandfather Peter Madsen , a Danish fisherman and bishop of Lake View, Utah, used his knowledge of ice fishing to save the community during a devastating crop failure year. "The year that the seagulls came and ate the crickets, they did not save the crops. The crops were decimated." Peter set up fishing operations on Utah Lake at the mouth of the Provo River, feeding Saints from across the Intermountain West. A plaque with his name still marks the location near the Provo Boat Harbor.

Katie draws daily strength from her ancestors. When she and Reed sat drenched and cold in the Salt Lake Tabernacle during an organ recital, the musician began playing "Come, Ye Saints." Both felt instantly that their ancestors were present with them. "We just felt like our ancestors were right there with us in that tabernacle." For Katie, ancestor stories are not just history — they are reservoirs of resilience. "When I have hard days, I just think: I come from good stock. I can get through this."

In April 2024, Reed was diagnosed with prostate cancer . After hormone therapy and two months of daily radiation, his doctor delivered the news: he was in remission . But Reed's message is nuanced. "Sometimes miracles don't come through administrations of the priesthood. Sometimes you have to go through the trial." He urges others not to deprive themselves of medical miracles by waiting for supernatural ones alone. "If we didn't take advantage of the medical information that's out there, we'd be depriving ourselves of many miracles that could have been made."

Reed and Katie's interview illuminates several threads of Lehi's community fabric. First, it demonstrates how ward-based neighborhoods create built-in support networks that become essential when residents face health challenges. Reed's Parkinson's disease has made him dependent on neighbors for tasks he once handled himself — and he receives that help generously. "I rely on my friends and neighbors here in Lehi. They come over and help me out."

The interview also documents Lehi's role as a destination for families returning from out of state , drawn by community cohesion and church involvement. After 17 years in Texas, the Madsens chose Lehi specifically because of the percentage of church membership and the integrated social structure that accompanies it.

Lehi's growth parallels the expansion of FamilySearch and the broader genealogy industry, which plays a significant role in Utah's tech and cultural landscape. Reed's decade-long career at FamilySearch places Lehi residents at the center of one of the state's most consequential technology missions — preserving humanity's family records at global scale.

Local arts participation — such as Katie's role in the American Fork Symphony — remains a vibrant part of Utah County's community identity. The symphony provides not only cultural enrichment but also intergenerational continuity: Katie plays on a violin her grandmother bought during the Depression, and her daughter plays on the matching instrument purchased at the same time.

Finally, the interview reflects Lehi's broader culture of preserving pioneer stories, family records, and intergenerational heritage . From Peter Madsen's Utah Lake fishing operations to the DAR's historical preservation work, the Madsens embody a community value system that treats the past as a living resource rather than a distant memory.

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This episode connects to broader themes explored across the Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Listeners interested in Reed and Katie's story may also want to explore these related subjects from other interviews:

The Roots & Branches of Lehi archive captures the voices of educators, entrepreneurs, public servants, artists, farmers, and families who have shaped the city. Each episode adds another thread to the story of who Lehi is and who it is becoming.

To enrich this archival page and preserve the visual history of this conversation, the following images would complement the written record:

This transcript has been lightly formatted for readability while preserving the complete conversation. Speaker labels and paragraph breaks have been added; minor verbal filler has been trimmed for clarity. Chapter headings organize the interview by topic.

An oral history archive capturing the stories, people, and traditions that make Lehi, Utah unique. Hosted by Ryan Harding.

Reed and Katie Madsen on Family History, Faith, and Finding Belonging in Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches of Lehi