Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Help from the Other Side



Brae Beck
Teaching in New Mexico, USA

I have a cool family history story to share this week.  So on Tuesday, Elder Nicholson and I went to the family history center for our weekly hour of working on our family history.  And I was reading a story about my Great-grandma Ila's grandfather John Crossley.  Let me share a portion of the story with you:

John Crossley was born in Crags, Yorkshire, England, 9 March 1814, the son of Sarah Standhaven and Anthony Crossley. John Crossley married Hannah Elizabeth Crabtree (maybe Crandall) about 1836. They had 7 children, although records for only 6 have been found. The family lived in Bradford, and Halifax. He and his family heard the Gospel from Joseph F. Smith while he labored as a missionary there. He made the Crossley home his headquarters. The Saints used a large room there for a meeting place. His wife, Hannah Elizabeth died in Bradford, 23 November 1855, of asthma. A daughter, Elizabeth, died as a child and one son died as a young man. John Crossley had a beautiful home and owned a shoe store. He was also a carpenter by trade. He later learned the trade of cobbler. When John decided to come to America, an older daughter, Sarah Ann was married and chose to remain in England. He came with two daughters, Mary and Hannah Maria, and a son, Levi. They sailed on the ship “Antarctica”, on 25 September 1863. They spent 9 weeks on the water. It seems that John Crossley left his three children in the East while he came ahead, we suppose, to make a home for them in “Zion”. It took him 12 weeks crossing the plains in the company of Captain Peter Nebeker. The three children came later, in another company and joined their father in what is now known as Bountiful, Utah.

So, the part of the story that stuck out to me was that his older daughter Sarah stayed in England.  I looked on my family tree and realized, that none of her family was on there.  So that means that they didn't join the church with her father's family.  So I started searching on ancestry.com for England census records showing Sarah Ann and her husband.  Lo and behold, I found one that  listed her and her husband Lawson Widdop, and their seven kids.  I was able to plug them into Familytree, and now I've requested their ordinances so that after my mission I can go to the temple and do their work!  Throughout this whole experience, I felt the spirit with me a lot.  It's like my "clicks" were guided to find the right information, and I know without a doubt that those cousins of mine were on the other side helping me out.  Family history is so amazing.  I'm thoroughly addicted.