Hadlond – A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark V – Week 6: Thomas Hadlond

My Great x4 Grandfather, Thomas Hadlond, was most likely born in July 1814, in Churchill, Oxfordshire, England, on the fringe of the Cotswolds. Thomas was born only a couple of months after Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to Elba.

If July is the month in which Thomas was born, there was an seemingly long time before he was baptized, which occurred on September 4, 1814. The English records, including Thomas’s baptism registration, show that the family name was primarily spelled “Hadland”.

It was not until Thomas came to the new world that the spelling was recorded as “Hadlond”. Other variations in England included “Haddlond” and “Headland”. An example of the differences can even be seen in records of the same event, such as the registration of the marriage of Thomas’s parents, John Hadland and Ann Tidmarsh. In one record, it’s “Hadland”; in another it’s “Headland”.

John “Hadland” and Ann Tidmarsh, married August 9, 1802

John “Headland” and Ann Tidmarsh, married August 9, 1802

Thomas was the youngest of four children. It appears that during his adulthood, up until he married, Thomas lived in Finstock, Oxfordshire, where he worked as a labourer. On December 11, 1837, Thomas married Rachel Franklin in nearby Charlbury. After the marriage the couple likely settled in Finstock, as their first child, Charlotte, was born there.

Thomas and Rachel’s marriage registration. What I find interesting about this is that it appears that Thomas could not write, as he signed with his mark (“X”), while Rachel signed her full name. Speaking of Rachel, I’d love to decipher what was entered for her “Condition”, which to me looks like “gloump”.

By August 1838, the family had moved west to Cheltenham, Gloucester, on the other side of the Cotswolds. There Thomas worked as a domestic servant. Thomas and Rachel had six children in Cheltenham, starting with my Great x3 Grandmother, Maria Hadlond.

In 1846, Rachel joined the Mormon church, but it appears that Thomas never did. This is evidenced by the fact Thomas was not baptized into the Mormon church until June 13, 1893, a year after he passed away.

Sometime after 1851, Thomas and family left England for North America. They were still in Cheltenham when their daughter, Alice, was born on September 1, 1850. As well, the 1851 census shows that the family was still living in Cheltenham, at No. 38 Rose & Crown Passage.

Rose and Crown Passage in Cheltenham as shown on Google Maps as of March 2026.

The family left England sometime before June 1853, because Rachel gave birth to a son, Franklin, somewhere in Canada. While the family ultimately settled in the United States, this indicates that they most likely landed somewhere in British North America (the former British colonies that came together to form Canada).

By 1856, Thomas and his family were living in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time of the 1860 census, Thomas was working in St. Louis as a hostler (a person who took care of horses, usually at an inn). During this time, the US Civil War erupted and the United States initiated a military draft in 1863. All men ages 20 to 45 were required to register. Thomas was 44 at the time. Thomas registered as Class II, which applied to married men ages 36 to 44.

Thomas’s registration for the draft during the US Civil War.

As of 1870, the family had moved across the Mississippi River to East St. Louis, Illinois, where Thomas was employed as a labourer. In East St. Louis, Thomas and Rachel had two more children, twins named Ella and Alphius, born on August 21, 1858.

Rachel passed away in March 1879. Shortly afterward, Thomas moved in with his daughter, Eunice, and her husband, Richard Cottam, at 2317 Exchange St. in St. Louis. They moved several times within the city. In 1885, they were at 3962 Cook Ave.; in 1889 they were at 4364 Vista Ave. in St. Louis.

Sometime shortly afterwards, Thomas moved to Nebraska City, Nebraska, to live with his daughter, Mary Louisa and her husband John Wischmeyer. He was not there for long, as Thomas passed away there on November 2, 1892. Thomas is interred at Wyuka Cemetery in Nebraska City.

52W Mark IV – Week 39: Card B13 Maria Hadlond

We’ve reached the last card in the deck for my mother’s paternal line and the last of my Mormon ancestors who I’ll be looking at for this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge.

Maria Hadlond, my Gx3 Grandmother, is my most recent ancestor from England. I have to go back another five generations on some of my other maternal lines before I can come upon anyone else from Old Blighty. Maria was born in Cheltenham, Gloucester, England on August 27, 1838, to Thomas Hadlond (1814-1892) and Rachel Franklin (1817-1879).

Thomas and Rachel were originally from West Oxfordshire, but were living in Cheltenham, on the edge of the Cotswolds, in the years before they emigrated. At the time, Thomas was working as a domestic servant.

Sometime in the late 1840s, the Hadlonds heard the preaching of some Mormon missionaries. On November 23, 1846, Rachel was baptized into the church. Several of their older children were baptized in the next two years, including Maria who was baptized on December 21, 1848, when she was 10 years old. I have the impression that while Rachel was a fervent convert, Thomas wasn’t too taken with the new religion and never actually joined it in his lifetime. He wasn’t baptized until 1893, a year after his death.

Whatever Thomas’s beliefs, the family left England for America to join the migration of Mormon converts who hoped to join the settlement in Utah. It is most likely the family left England sometime after September 1850, when their daughter Alice was born, and before June 1853, when their son Franklin was born. In fact, while their destination was ultimately the United States, it seems that the family entered North America through Canada, as Franklin was born in the Province of Canada (likely Canada West, which is modern-day Ontario).

By no later than 1856, the Hadlonds were in St. Louis, Missouri. It seems that the family’s circumstances were such that they did not plan to move to Utah anytime soon. However, I have not been able to determine whether this was because of finances (many Mormon migrants took years moving west while saving up for the trip) or because Thomas was not an adherent or all that serious about the church.

When Maria was 16, her mother met a Mormon missionary by the name of Preston Thomas who was passing through St. Louis on his way to Texas. When Rachel learned that Preston planned to arrange for a company of Texan converts to migrate to Utah, she “begged” him to take her three oldest children with him. This included Maria. Thomas did as requested and took the three Hadlond children to Utah. Ultimately, Maria’s two siblings returned to St. Louis and lived out the rest of their lives there. Maria remained in Utah.

Two years later, on October 8, 1856, Maria married Preston in Brigham Young’s office in Salt Lake City, with Young himself officiating. Preston was 42 years old at the time; Maria was 18. Moreover, this was a plural (polygamous) marriage, as Preston had two other wives. Preston’s first wife, Sarah Jane Morehead, was born the same year as Maria’s mother and they had a daughter only a few months younger than Maria. Preston’s second wife, Maria Foscue, was 16 years older than Maria. In order to avoid confusion between the two wives, Maria went by “Molly”. Molly and Preston had nine children together. This was in addition to the nine Preston fathered with Sarah Jane and four he fathered with Maria.

For the first four years after Molly married Preston, the entire family lived in Lehi, Utah, where Molly gave birth to her first two children. This included Ella Thomas, my Gx2 Grandmother.

Four generations: Maria with her granddaughter Maria (“Mimie”) Lamb (née Thomas) holding great granddaughter Rulon Lamb, and Ella Nelson (née Thomas), my Gx3 Grandmother.

In 1860, Brigham Young had Preston join a team exploring an area in northern Utah, where Young intended to form a new settlement that is now Franklin, Idaho. However, at the time, and for many years afterwards, the inhabitants thought they were in Utah. They only discovered later that the town was a mile north of the Utah-Idaho border.

Young directed Preston to return to Lehi to collect his family and join the first settlers. In addition, Young appointed Preston as the first Bishop of Franklin. Preston did as he was asked (today we might say “voluntold”), but it appears that Maria Foscue might have refused and remained in Lehi with her children.

In 1863, Brigham Young formed a team of 12 to 15 men to explore the Bear Lake Valley in Idaho, not far from Franklin. This group included Preston. By September 1863 a settlement had been erected in Bear Lake Valley where Paris, Idaho now stands. Preston moved the family there in the spring of 1864. A few years later, Preston moved the family to Fish Haven, about 20 kilometers south of Paris.

During the family’s time in Idaho, Preston carried out at least one more major mission to the South. This was in addition to Preston’s other endeavors, which included a term as a judge of the Utah Probate Court (when it was still believed that Franklin was in Utah) and a run for office for the Idaho territorial legislature (after the discovery Franklin was in Utah). This obviously left Sarah Jane and Molly without his support while they raised a significantly large household of children.

Preston’s absences from home were compounded when he left this world following an accident that occurred in 1877 while he was building a house on his property. Molly’s youngest child was seven months old at the time.

Maria with her three youngest children: Daniel, Letitia, and Rosabell (seated).

I have not yet tracked where Molly lived in the years immediately following Preston’s death, so I don’t know if she remained in Idaho or moved back to Utah. However, over the years several of her children joined the Mormons who were settling in Canada, in what is now the southern part of the province of Alberta. For example, her daughter Ella had moved there with her husband John Nelson. So in 1896, Molly and four of her children – all of whom were now adults – moved to Cardston, Alberta. Census records show that in 1901 Molly (who was going by Maria again) was a neighbour of one of her sons.

In 1902, Maria moved back to the United States and settled in the “Sugar House” neighbourhood of Salt Lake City, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city. Maria remained at the same house for the rest of her life. She passed away at home on May 29, 1907. She is interred in Franklin at the Franklin Cemetery.

Next week we start the last suit, covering my mother’s maternal line, who are Germans from Russia.

52 Weeks – Week 33: Service

I’ve written about military service and religious service, so the twist I’ve taken for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, “Service”, is to look at domestic service. Most of my ancestry consists of labourers and agricultural workers, so none were so posh as to have had servants. However, I do have ancestors who were the servants.

Sometime in my early teen years, I heard it told that during the war my paternal grandmother worked as a domestic servant. I’m unable to verify the story, as there is no longer anyone who would have first-hand knowledge of that fact. What civil records that might provide more information are not yet publicly available due to privacy laws and the lack of passage of sufficient time.

My grandmother’s mother, Elizabeth Bakker, was also a domestic servant (“dienstbode” in Dutch) before she married. It appears she spent time working in Amsterdam as a domestic servant before returning to her hometown of Den Helder, where she performed similar work until 1920 or 1921. However, by the time she married in April 1921, she as “zonder beroep” (“without job”). Elizabeth’s older sister Johanna and her younger sister Cornelia also worked as a domestic servants.

The *Bevolkingsregister* (“Population Register”) family card for Cornelis Jan Bakker and family. His daughter Elizabeth (my great grandmother) is shown as a *dienstbode* (“domestic servant”).

My third great grandmother, Maartje Mettes, was a domestic servant when she married her first husband, Klaas Buur. Klaas was also a domestic servant at the time of the marriage. My suspicion is that they may have worked in the same household, which I will need to research. However, by the time Maartje married her second husband, my third great grandfather Cornelis Komen, she was “van beroep zonder” (“without a job”).

My great x4 grandmother, Vrouwtje Hilbert Hilberts, also spent time as a domestic servant and was doing that work when she got married.

Marriage registration for my great x4 grandparents, Nicolaas Cornelisz (“Klaas”) Komen and Vrouwtje Hilbert Hilberts. Vrouwtje was noted as *van beroep dienstbode* (“working as a domestic servant”) at the time of marriage in 1811.

Although in the majority, women were not the only domestic servants in my tree. While I have not done much research on my great x4 grandfather, Thomas Hadlond, he was a domestic servant in England before leaving for America and settling in Nebraska. I also have a 3x great uncle, Petrus (“Pieter”) van der Fluit who worked as a dienstknecht (“manservant”). Finally, in another form of domestic service, William Stockwell, my 8x great grandfather, likely came over to America as an indentured servant, gaining his liberty before he married.

52 Weeks – Week Twelve

Joined Together

Twelve weeks of genealogy, my true love gave to me: the theme “Joined Together” for the 52 Ancestors Challenge. Rather than a lot of discussion, I thought this week I’d post photos of some of the couples whose unions ultimately resulted in…me!

While I have photos of other (great) grandparents, I will only post for those of whom I have the pair. First, my maternal great great great grandparents.

William Burgess (1822 – 1904)
Charlotte Liggett (1837 – 1909)

Robert Nelson (1818 – 1902)
Elizabeth Joseph (1818 – 1902)

Valentine Schmidt (1839 – ?)
Margaretha “Regina” Boechler (? – ?)

Next, for my great great grandparents on my father’s side, I only have photos for one pair. These are my grandfather’s grandparents.

Johannes Jansz “Jan” Pater (1862 – 1935)
Ariaantje Jacobs “Adriana” Bleeker (1865 – 1929)

I have photos of all my maternal great great grandparents.

Horace Conrad Liggett Burgess (1854 – 1940)
Sarah Florilla Cook (1857 – 1894)

Ella Elizabeth Thomas (1859 – 1941)
John Alexander Nelson (1854 – 1942)

On to my great grandparents. I have photos for all of them.

^{Theresia “Teetje” Pater (1894 – 1947)
Johannis Albertus van der Fluit (1894 – 1932)}

^{Adrianus Komen (1888 – 1948)
Elizabeth Bakker (1888 – 1976)}

^{Milton Leo Burgess (1891 – 1964)
Hazel Nelson (1899 – 1967)}

^{Heronimus “Jerome” Lerner (1895 – 1954)
Emelia Anton (1903 – 1997)}

My paternal grandparents.

Adrianus Joseph “Arie”
van der Fluit (1923 – 2002)
Christina Komen (1923 – 2000)

“Trouwboekje” means “marriage booklet” in Dutch. In the Netherlands, only a civil marriage is legally valid. A church ceremony can take place afterward, but is not recognized by the state. The registry office would issue one to a couple at they time they were married. They typically include an extract of the marriage registration. While they can vary from one municipality to another, a trouwboekje usually will include space for the birth information of the couple, as well as for the children of the marriage. They can also include information about religious matters, such as information about the church wedding and baptisms of the couple and their children.

My maternal grandparents.

^{Leo Cleveland Burgess (1920- 1995)
Helen Lerner (1921 – 1984)
October 1971}

^{Helen and Leo around 1947.}

My parents. Married crazy young by current standards and still together, modelling what a great marriage should be.

And then there’s mine.

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Joined Together

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