Early Riser...

My eyes pop open at 6am whether I like it or not.  I actually look forward to the  early  summer mornings  where I don't have to rush to be somewhere.  A quiet peaceful uninterrupted  couple of hours to spend online working on my Family History is a luxury I enjoy very much. Sometimes I find some wonderful old photographs and stories .  This morning I found this...

Painted by Charles Marion Russell...

It seems a second cousin of mine Jane Sheffield born in England in the 1850's married a man by the name of William Skelton Gate ( born 1851). His mother Martha Skelton born in 1836 had a younger brother also born  in 1851 who as a young man emigrated to Montana, America.

William was a Pioneer settler in the Judith Basin and became friends with Charles Russell  known as the "cowboy painter".  Charles used William as a model for the above painting.

"cowboy painter"

Charles Marion Russell


Although "cowboy art " would not be something I would like to hang on my walls I enjoyed the little verse Charles Russell put on the Christmas Card he painted after a hard winter in Montana.

Wonder what I will find tomorrow!

Pioneer Days...

Crossing the Plains

July 24th, we celebrate the arrival of the Utah Pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

My husbands Family Tree has many stories to tell.  I was very surprised to discover I also have Pioneers on my Family Tree.  My 5th Great Grand Father Joseph Sheffield born in 1714  had three sons..

Thomas born 1741

George born 1745

John born 1758

I am descended through his second son George.  His oldest son Thomas married Ann Carlisle. Their second son John born in 1768 married Mary Garner and records show several of his children became members of the LDS church in the very early days after the Church was established and missionaries were sent to England to preach the gospel.

Of these descendents several were pioneers crossing the Plains with the Handcart Companies.

Quite recently I found a documented history of  Louisa Jane Sheffield my 4th cousin 2x removed.

Louisa Jane Sheffield 1854-1924

Louisa was born in Salt Lake City and died in Georgetown, Bear Lake, Idaho.

She married Alma Hayes his second wife in a polygamous marriage his first wife was Annselena Thomas only three years older than Louisa.  The 1880 Census shows them both living in the same home with Alma.

Later Census Records show them in separate houses in 1882 a Federal Law was passed prohibiting Polygamy.

  That must have been a very difficult time in the  history of the church for those families that were involved.  From what I have read it wasn't until around 1902 when Utah was accepted as a State that the Church fully enforced that Law.  In the 1930 Census Alma and his fist wife were living in a Soda Springs, Idaho while Louisa was alone with some of her children.in Georgetown.

Alma Hayes and Louisa had 10 children.  Alma and Annselina had 13 children.
The above family picture does not identify the individuals.

Alma Hayes 1846-1935

A written story of Alma depicts him as a hard working and honorable man, born in Missouri to parents who were converts and died there after being persecuted for their beliefs.  Alma and his brother Nephi were very young  at the time of their parents death and were sheltered and taken in by other families as they crossed the plains to Utah.

He was used to hard work and employed as a farm laborer until he was eighteen.  Then came the troubled times of the Blackhawk War in 1865.  He joined the ranks of forces fighting against the Indians.
See historytogo.utah.gov

He was greatly respected and loved by all who knew him.

As we celebrate the 24th with Parades and Fireworks and Picnics and Family Reunions I know I will pause and remember the sacrifices and hard work of many who made the Salt Lake Valley and Utah the beautiful place it is today.

From Strickland Gate, Kendal to Queensland …

When I was younger I made the trip north several times on the way to the Lake District or to Scotland.  Usually by bus.  One of the first rest stops  along the way was Kendal.   At the time I had no clue that so many of my ancestors had their beginnings in this charming little town 69 miles from my hometown of Preston.  It felt like forever on that Bus as it wound through the countryside of England and over Shap on the way to Edinburgh to visit my sister. No fast Motorways then, 159 miles was slow going!

This was nothing compared to the distance the descendants of one of my 4th Great Grandfathers traveled.

George Sheffield and Mary Hope were born in Wigton, Cumberland in the mid 1700’s and had many descendants of course, some of which I have previously written. This is the story of two of their Granddaughter's who made the long trip from Kendal to Australia. Children of my Great Aunt Mary Sheffield.

Recently found on ancestry.com were Photo’s of these two sisters and their families.

The first to leave for Australia from Plymouth , England in 1883 was Frances Catherine, she married Robert Woof in 1869 along with their eight children the youngest daughter had recently been born in January of 1883.

In 1887 her sister Mary Eleanor left England with her husband David Casson Sawrey and three children born in England they had six more children born to them after arriving in Australia.

 

 My thought on discovering the many cousins who emigrated in those early days of travel always go to the difficulties they must have endured at sea.  And the sadness they they must have felt as they said goodbye to parents, siblings and friends, realizing they would never see them again.  Not to mention the uncertainty of what lay ahead.

Painted by John Dolman in 1884.

John Greenwood Shipman…

John Greenwood Shipman

John was born in Manchester the only son of John Shipman and his wife Ruth (née Sheffield). Ruth Shipman was the aunt of George Sheffield (1839–1892), the Manchester artist.

He went to school in Northampton and afterwards at Hurstpeirpoint College. He undertook his further education first at London University where he passed the first LL.B examination with honors.

He then went on to New College, Oxford and took a second class in the final year of jurisprudence in 1875, a first class in the Bachelor of Civil Law examination in 1878 and was Vinerian Law Scholar in 1878. In 1877 he had obtained an Inns of Court studentship in civil law and in 1878 gained a scholarship in common law given by the Inner Temple

The plain black gown was adopted by most barristers in 1685 when the bar went into mourning at the death of King Charles II.
They have apparently never gotten over it as in England this garb is still worn today. Or as one source I read said “no one told them they could stop.”
In 1892 John entered the political arena as a Liberal candidate. According to Wikipedia the final meeting of his campaign was a scene of considerable disorder. He was prevented by the mob from speaking from the platform. After he left a fight took place. Fireworks were thrown and several people were injured.
Five years later he returned and in 1900 he was elected. In 1909 he retired stating ill health as the reason.
Personally I am quite conservative when it comes to politics, but I must say I do admire the Bill he introduced in Parliament (Qualification Of Women). It’s purpose was to involve women more greatly in many areas of activity, such as housing the poor, managing the female side of “lunatic asylums” the prevention of cruelty to children, the supervision of industrial schools, the supervision of midwives and baby farms The Bill eventually became law in 1907.
John passed away at age 70 on the 20 Oct 1919 at his home in Northampton.
To this day his life is remembered in good works as in 1930 his widow donated his former home to Mansfield Hospital, Northampton to be used as a convalescent home. Currently the John Greenwood Shipman home is used as a center for disabled children.
In 1932 the home was visited by the Duke of York and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on an official visit to Northampton.


I am proud that my cousin could rise from humble circumstances to become a well educated person who cared for others and did something to help them.

I Hate to Brag..

But when your own talents are very limited and you come across an ancestor who was very gifted you feel like sharing.

I am talking about George Sheffield my 3rd cousin 3 times removed.

SHEFFIELD, GEORGE (1839–1892), artist, son of a draper at Wigton in Cumberland, was born there on 1 Jan. 1839. His uncle, George Sheffield, had been a student at the Royal Academy, and had considerable local reputation as a portrait-painter. From him and from Henry Hoodless, also a Wigton resident, Sheffield obtained help in his youthful studies. While still very young he removed with his father to Warrington, where he received his first art teaching in company with Mr. Luke Fildes, R.A., in the art school of that town. At first he adopted the sea as a profession, but after a few years' experience of this life he settled at Manchester, studying in the school of art and becoming a pattern-designer. He soon turned his attention to landscape-painting, and from that time practised every variety of that art, painting with great facility, truth, and beauty, seascapes, coast scenes, and landscapes. He worked in both oil and watercolour, and produced some fine works in both mediums, but undoubtedly his forte was the use of monochrome. His drawings in sepia and black and white are unrivalled in their variety and delicate beauty of atmospheric effect. He worked with great speed, and produced a vast number of drawings. In 1869 he was elected an associate of the Manchester Academy and a full member in 1871. From 1868 he was a regular exhibitor at all the Manchester and other local exhibitions, and between 1872 and 1890 he showed six pictures at the Royal Academy and eleven at other London exhibitions. Nearly all his best pictures are in the collections of Mr. Robert H. Edmondson and other Lancashire connoisseurs. There are in the Manchester City Art Gallery two works by Sheffield—an oil painting, ‘A Hundred Years Ago,’ and a water-colour, ‘The Trough of the Sea’—but neither shows him at his best. There is an excellent portrait of Sheffield in ‘Momus’ (a Manchester periodical) for 26 Aug. 1880. Sheffield died in Manchester, 2 Oct. 1892. His wife predeceased him; eight children survived him.

Some examples of his work-

Liverpool Docks

A Hundred Years Ago

Evening Snow

Low Tide

Coastal Scene With Seagulls

And My favorite - Grave Yard At Bettws-y-Coed, Wales.