Mormon – Page 2 – A Deck of Ancestors

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.

52W Mark IV – Week 37: Card B11 Elizabeth Joseph

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: my Gx3 Grandmother, Elizabeth Joseph, was not Jewish. I cannot find a shred of evidence to support the suggestion, which definitely falls short of the Genealogical Proof Standard. Elizabeth also wasn’t Scottish, which I’ve also addressed before.

Elizabeth was born on September 16, 1818 in Muff, Donegal, Ireland. It is very likely that she was baptized on November 1, 1818. While the document is not available online, my great aunt Fon Hogg (née Burgess) apparently had or saw a copy of a church record showing Elizabeth’s baptism, which is definitely contrary to her being Jewish.

While there has been a nominal Jewish presence in Ireland for centuries, it was miniscule and largely confined to Dublin or the south coast. However, exclusionary laws resulted in the decline of the tiny Jewish population up until the early 19th century. By the time of the Great Famine, there were only about 25 Jewish families in Dublin. The Jewish population in all of Ireland in 1871 was only 258. Muff is about 8 km north of Londonderry, where the Jewish community was not established until 1893. In 1894, there were only 43 Jews in Londonderry. As of 2016, there were only 25 Jews in Donegal. I also have not seen any DNA test results of Elizabeth’s descendants suggesting that have even a trace of Jewish ancestry. So it is extremely unlikely that Elizabeth was Jewish.

I know nothing of Elizabeth’s life between her birth and marriage to Robert Nelson on December 12, 1842 in Muff. One thing I find interesting about Elizabeth and Robert is that they had remarkably similar lifespans. Robert was two weeks older than Elizabeth and died three months before she did.

The other interesting thing is that Elizabeth and Robert left Ireland for Scotland by 1844 – a year before the Great Famine. However, their departure was not unusual. Ireland was poor, many Irish worked in Scotland as seasonal migrants, and emigration was already on the rise before the Famine.

Elizabeth and Robert had three children in Scotland. While there, the couple joined the fledgling Mormon church and were baptized in 1848. In 1850, Elizabeth and Robert joined the exodus of converts travelling from the UK to Utah. The family travelled from Liverpool to New Orleans in September 1850.

However, upon arriving in the United States, Elizabeth and family did not immediately make their way to Utah. Rather, they spent a year or two in Missouri. In May 1852 in St. Louis, Elizabeth had another child, her first daughter, Mary. Within months of Mary’s birth, the family were in Utah, settling in Farmington. Elizabeth had four more children in Farmington.

In 1860, Elizabeth and Robert moved for the last time, to Smithfield, Utah. There, Elizabeth gave birth to her last child, a daughter named Jane, in September 1862. Elizabeth spent the next forty years in Smithfield, where she died on September 12, 1902.

_{Deseret Evening News, May 16, 1902 (Last Edition), Page 7}

52W Mark IV – Week 36: Card B10 Robert Nelson

Anyone who has done genealogy long enough knows all about the family trees you can find online that are wildly incorrect, have blatant errors, or don’t have a scintilla of evidence to back them up, which are then replicated and used by others, perpetuating and spreading the error. Nowhere in my tree is there a better example of this than my Gx3 Grandparents, Robert Nelson and Elizabeth Joseph. There are a lot of myths, legends, and erroneous information posted about them online that simply are not true.

This sort of thing pre-dates the rise of genealogy on the internet, usually in the form of family lore that was (and still is) passed around. One such story I heard from a relative was that Robert Nelson was a descendant of famed Scottish poet Robbie Burns. While I knew enough not to accept the suggestion as truth, I was thrilled by the possibility because he is one of my favourites. In the meantime, I was excited by the idea that I might have Scottish roots.

It did not take long to dispel the myth that Robert was a descendant of Scotland’s bard. Robert Nelson’s mother was a woman named Martha Burns. Martha was born in 1787. So while her surname was Burns and she was born at a time Robbie Burns was busy fathering numerous children, that is where the correlation ends. None of Burns’ children – legitimate and illegitimate – were named Martha. Besides, Robert Nelson and his mother weren’t even Scottish, they were Irish, although Robert spent about eight years living in Scotland before emigrating for the United States.

Robert was born on September 4, 1818 in Muff, Donegal, to Samuel Nelson and Martha Burns, both of whom were also born in Donegal. I know very little about Robert’s life in Ireland. Beyond his birth, the earliest thing I know is that he married Elizabeth Joseph in Muff on December 12, 1842.

There are many unsubstantiated legends around their marriage. One story, with many iterations, is that Joseph and Elizabeth became stranded overnight by a storm during a picnic. To ameliorate the disgrace of spending the night together, Joseph did the honourable thing and married Elizabeth. Another myth, without a shred of evidence, is that Elizabeth was Jewish and was disowned by her parents when she married a Christian. Rubbish.

Within two years of marrying, Robert and Elizabeth were living in Linwood, Scotland, about 15 kilometers west of Glasgow. Robert was a labourer there. While in Linwood, the couple had their first child, a son named Samuel, born in 1844.

By 1847, the family was living in Greenock, Scotland, a port town west of Glasgow. There Robert worked for Brown’s Sugar House on Roxburgh Street as a sugar baker. Sugar bakers refined muscovado sugar, an unrefined brown sugar imported from Barbados. While in Greenock, Robert and Elizabeth had two more children.

Meanwhile, the first Mormon missionaries arrived in Scotland in the early 1840s. Within ten years, there were two to three thousand adherents to the new religion, with about 70 branches. Many of these people began to emigrate to the United States to join the Mormons who had settled in Utah which, perhaps ironically, resulted in a decline in the church in Scotland.

Robert and Elizabeth joined the Mormon church and were baptized in December 1848. They joined the exodus of people from Scotland who were heading to the New World.

Robert and his family departed Liverpool on September 3, 1850 aboard the ship North Atlantic. All they brought with them was two boxes of clothing. For years I thought “north Atlantic” was a description of their route, until seeing the ship’s manifest. Robert and Elizabeth were part of a group of Mormon converts travelling aboard this ship, which showed at least one other passenger who had been a sugar baker at Brown’s.

*Passenger list for the ship “North Atlantic”, which left Liverpool on September 3, 1850*, *showing the Nelson family travelling from Liverpool to New Orleans.*

The North Atlantic landed at New Orleans. Robert and family spent about the next two years in Missouri, where they had a daughter, Mary, in 1852. Within months of Mary’s birth, the family arrived in Utah. They settled in Farmington, just north of Salt Lake City. In 1858, while still living in Farmington, Robert became an American citizen. Robert and Elizabeth had another four children while living in Farmington, including my Gx2 Grandfather, John Alexander Nelson.

*Excerpt of the Invoice of Passengers for the ship “North Atlantic*“

Sometime around late 1859, Robert and family moved to Smithfield, Utah, not far from the Idaho border. Robert and Elizabeth’s youngest child, a daughter named Jane Margaret, was born there in 1862. There Robert was a farmer in Smithfield. According to the 1870 census, Robert owned $400 in real property and $300 in personal property. In 1880, Robert was elected to at least one term as a school trustee in Smithfield.

It seems that typical of all my Mormon Gx3 Grandfathers, Robert may have also been a practitioner of polygamy. According to my Aunt Fon, who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, Robert was “sealed” to two women on the same day, November 15, 1855. This is an ordinance (rite) in the Mormon church by which individuals are sealed together for eternity. Robert was 66 at the time. Beyond the fact the rite occurred, I know nothing about either woman beyond their names, Mary Ann Burns and Elizabeth Dixon.

Robert, who was only two weeks older than Elizabeth Joseph, died in Smithfield on February 10, 1902, three months before Elizabeth died. Robert is buried at the Smithfield City Cemetery.

52W Mark IV – Week 35: Card B9 Susan Ann Elizabeth Turple

What rhymes with “purple”. Nothing? Not so fast! Meet my Gx3 Grandmother, Susan Turple!

Susan was born on March 17, 1818 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to William Turple and Frances “Fanny” Robinson. While she was born on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s unlikely that Susan was even the least bit Irish. Her direct paternal line came to Nova Scotia from what’s now Germany around 1750. The rest of her lineage was most likely English and was in Nova Scotia by the mid-1700s.

Around 1841, when she was in her early 20s, Susan married Charles Brady, a musician who was born in Boston. I don’t know when Charles came to Nova Scotia and have no idea how he met Susan. It was a short marriage, lasting long enough for the couple to have a daughter, Amelia, who was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1842. Why Charles and Susan were living in Charlottetown at the time, again, I do not know why.

Some sources I’ve found suggest that Susan was widowed following the “untimely death” of Charles. This probably would have come as a surprise to Charles, who lived to be 67 and died in Washington in 1881, eight years before it became a state, as well as his second wife, Anne Dillon, who he married in 1855.

Rather, first-hand accounts written by Susan and Amelia show that Susan left Charles around 1843. Susan wrote that Charles was away from home a lot and that when he was home he mistreated her. Amelia stated that she did not know much about her father, because her mother left him when she was 11 months old. As far as I can find, Susan and Charles never formally divorced.

After Susan separated from Charles, she and her daughter Amelia moved back to Halifax and moved in with her parents. Apparently Susan’s parents primarily raised Amelia during that time.

Around 1838, the first Mormon missionaries began preaching in Halifax and the Latter Day Saints established a church there in 1843. Susan, her mother Fanny, and several of her siblings joined the church in the late 1840s. Susan was formally baptized into the church on May 18, 1849.

At that time, the Latter Day Saints were in the midst of a succession crisis, which had been ongoing since its founder Joseph Smith was killed in 1844. Susan, as well as her mother and some of her siblings, aligned herself with James Strang, who claimed to have a letter from Joseph Smith appointing Strang as his successor. It appears that many Halifax Mormons simply found themselves following Strang by default rather than actually taking an active interest in who their leader should be.

Strang’s faction of followers was about a fifth the size of those following Brigham Young. The schism resulted in the establishment of a separate church, also known as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often distinguished as the “Strangites”. The Strangites fell into decline after Strang’s death, and further fractured into two separate groups. By 2000, neither branch of Strangites had more than a few hundred adherents.

In 1851, a delegation loyal to Brigham Young travelled to Halifax to re-establish their control over the Mormons there. Once there, this delegation excommunicated those who were loyal to Strang. This included Susan and those of her family who were members of the church.

Susan “confessed” her “error” shortly afterwards and was rebaptized back into the church on October 13, 1851. While Susan’s family members also recanted their “error”, they ultimately left the Mormon church. It seems that Susan’s family had stronger feelings about the church leadership and would not follow Young. Only Susan remained with the Mormon church.

This led to estrangement from her family, based upon Susan’s desire to leave Halifax for Salt Lake City. This estrangement is evident from her father’s will, which made provision for every one of his children – including a son from a first marriage – but left nothing to Susan.

Susan set out with her daughter for Boston in April 1853, aboard the Brig Halifax, with the intention of joining the Mormon migration to the west. They arrive in Boston on April 14, 1853. Susan was still using the surname Brady. As well, while Susan was 35 years old at the time, the passenger record lists her as having been 30.

The passenger list for the Brig Halifax showing Susan and Amelia travelling to Boston.

From there, Susan and Amelia moved westward and joined a wagon train that formed part of the William Atkinson company. The company consisted of 79 individuals and 12 wagons. The company left Keokuk, Iowa in May 1853. After a brief sojourn in Kanesville, Iowa, the company resumed its journey in July 1853. The company arrived in Utah by September 11, 1853.

Two weeks of arriving in Utah, on September 28, 1853, Susan married Henry Lyman Cook. How they met or how that came to be I do not know. While some secondary sources suggest otherwise, I doubt Susan and Henry knew each other before Susan arrived in Salt Lake City.

While it might be little more than speculation, I’ve wondered whether this was a marriage arranged by the church. Henry was already married; in fact, Susan was his fourth wife. Henry’s first wife died. His second marriage lasted only a few months, but there does not seem to have been a formal divorce. Henry’s third wife, Lovina, was still alive when Henry married Susan and I have no evidence the two ever separated.

Thus it seems that Henry’s marriage with Susan was polygamous, and conducted only in accordance with Mormon custom. I have no marriage record; rather, all I know is that Henry and Susan were “sealed”, a Mormon rite that binds spouses and family members for eternity. Henry was also a father to Susan’s daughter Amelia, who took on her stepfather’s surname. However, being 11 years old, it likely was not Amelia’s decision. In fact, later in life Amelia used the surname Brady.

Regardless of the nature and circumstances of their spousal union, Susan and Henry remained together until Henry died in 1869. Within a year of marrying Susan and Henry moved to Iron City in the southwest corner of Utah. Looking at the map, if the middle of nowhere had a middle of nowhere, it would be Iron City. In Iron City Susan gave birth to the first two of her children with Henry; a son who was also named Henry Lyman and a daughter, Sarah Florilla, my Gx2 grandmother. By the start of 1860 the family was in Goshen, a small town not far from Provo, Utah.

Susan lived out the rest of her long life in Goshen, on October 24, 1906, at the age 88. She was 63 when Henry died. Not only that, Susan outlived three of the four children she had with Henry. Her eldest son Henry Jr. passed away two months after his mother. Even Amelia, Susan’s oldest child, passed away within seven years of her mother. Susan is buried at the Goshen City Cemetery.

Having an ancestor whose surname rhymes with “purple”, I now need to find ones whose surnames rhyme with “orange” and “silver”.

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