More Photos of North Creek, Beaver, Utah USA

More News about the Merchants in Beaver/North Creek Utah

1) Old Anvil near the Merchant Home (turn sideways) 2) Merchant mailbox in front of home 3) Merchant Family name sign on front porch

Last weekend, we finally arranged a trip together to the Beaver, Utah area. We stopped by the DUP Museum first as it holds so much promise for information about the Merchants. It didn't open until 11 am so we headed for the North Creek area where the Merchants settled in the late 1850's.

Not much had changed since last year when Jayne discovered the area...or so we thought. We got brave and stopped at a home, hoping to meet someone who could answer our questions. The only thing we met at first was a barking wiener dog. J., the brave sister, wanted to approach the dog and said the wagging tail was a sign that he liked us. Me, the cowardly sister, thought only of the dog piercing my leg with his teeth. I noticed a neighbor across the street checking his mail. We quickly walked in that direction.

We asked if he knew of any Merchants living in the area. He nodded and said "Darrell Merchant lived over by the pine tree there but he died 3 months ago." J.and I both sighed. Darrell was about 91 years old. It would have been nice to have met him.

We went over to his place which had been moved in the 1930's from near the river to higher ground. We took a bunch of pictures and then headed back into town. The DUP museum was now open and we asked questions about Darrell. The hostess told us her husband interviewed Darrell last year and they will try to transcribe the tape and send it on to us. We again felt encouraged that our attempts to find out more about Elizabeth will continue and someday be successful. Enjoy the photos of North Creek!

New Information From Australia

We receive some exciting new information from Australia recently. Dennis Overton and his wife Denise recently went into the area where Elizabeth and Richard Merchant lived at Campsie, between Gresford and Vacy. They obtained a history of the Merchant Family from the Gresford Historical Society. It contains a great deal of information about the family and their role in the settlement. It also contains names and dates of family members and is quite interesting. They sent a CD full of photos of the area which looks very beautiful with green hills and farms. Also on the CD are photos of headstones of some of the Merchants. Thanks to Dennis and Denise for their kindness and genealogical expertise!

A Unique Christmas Gift

For a Christmas gift to my parents this year, I created a unique sort of gift. As I have been studying the life of Elizabeth Barnes and the time period in which she lived, I realized that my paternal great-great-great Grandfather, Henry E. Day, had several similarities with Elizabeth. In recognizing this, I decided to create a timeline of both lives and the events/places we know about in these two ancestors. I had it printed on clear sheets, one for Elizabeth and one for Henry. As you lay them on top of each other, you can see where their life events could have overlapped. Then I took the historical data that I have found in the last 6 months and created a looseleaf of the data according to the places where they lived. I even found pictures of women who lived in San Bernardino when Elizabeth lived there. It was such fun. I think my parents liked it also. Not sure what to focus on next...it's hard to stop thinking about them.

The Puzzle Continues

We are discovering more each day about Elizabeth Barnes Merchant.

Are Numbers Enough?

Are numbers enough to confirm a puzzle piece fits the puzzle?

This week has been full of different sorts of numbers in connection with our search for puzzle pieces that fit. A microfilm with the number 1279404 on the British Isles floor at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City contains the parish records of Highworth, Wiltshire, England…1600-1880 approximately. That piece looked like it would fit and it did.

After finding the right machine with the right magnification with the right take-up reel with the right angle with the right threading with the right focus…I began to be able to see the records. I scrolled down until I found…again…the right numbers…1776 (Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Dodd’s birth year), 1805 (Elizabeth’s birth year), and the brothers… 1809 (Richard Barnes birth year), 1811 (William Barnes birth year), 1812 (another William Barnes birth year…Curious, huh…more about that later), 1815 (James Barnes birth year), 1818 (John Barnes birth year),1824 ( Mary’s Death year and Henry Barnes birth year).

As I continued to find evidence of their existence, the last number seemed very puzzling. Mary died in 1824 (supposedly from complications from the birth of Henry). William (Elizabeth’s dad), Elizabeth and her brothers left in June 1825 for Australia. The ship records show that Richard, William, James and John sailed to Australia with their dad and sister, Elizabeth on the “York” 470 tons from Cowes in England.

I began to wonder about Henry. What happened to him? He wasn’t taken to Australia according to the records. I’ve wondered if he was left in England with relatives or did he die at the same time as Mary? I really doubted that we would ever find the piece to this section of the puzzle. But I felt compelled to continue to look.

After finding record of Mary’s burial on July 25th, 1824 in Eastrop, Highworth, Wiltshire at age 47, I found no evidence (in a quick search, mind you) of Henry’s birth/baptism or death in that year. I again wondered if we would ever know. A quick thought came into my head…”Look at the next year”. I continued to slowly turn the microfilm to the year 1825. I was thinking maybe they were slow taking him in for the baptism because of the mother’s death. No “Henry Barnes” on the birth/baptism list in 1825 I scrolled down to the burial list. My heart jumped when I found a burial record for “Henry Barnes” age 11 months from Eastrop on March 20th. I also noticed on that page between March 14th and March 22nd, 6 other children were buried that week in Eastrop. I felt a sad sigh inside.

Back to the question of numbers. As I’ve thought about this search as an “age, date, place” search, I’ve found a little reward. But as I’ve thought about them as people with lives, responsibilities, happiness, sickness, and death, I’ve begun to feel a connection with them as part of me. (by Karen---Jayne will write next week!)

A Question to Think About: Why did they leave Highworth?

From Highworth, England to Beaver, Utah - Quite a Journey

The love of a good book was instilled in me very early in life. Richard and Elizabeth’s great-granddaughter was Marjorie Wilson Kitchen (born June 30, 1908; daughter of Alfred Raymond Wilson and Emma Jane Bingham) and was my maternal grandmother. After losing her husband to a cerebral hemorrhage on July 3, 1953, Marjorie found herself needing employment. After returning to school to brush up on some skills and after a short time working for the Red Cross, Marjorie was hired by Provo City as a librarian.

I remember climbing down the steep, cement stairs where the children’s library was located to pick Grandma Kitchen up from work. She didn’t drive and walked to work every day. The musty smell of the books permeated the room. The long skinny drawers of the card catalog were very fun to pull out as long as you didn’t pull too hard. We’d watch Grandma finish checking out books, marking the date due with a unique date stamp hooked to the end of a pencil. Picking Grandma up from work was not a daily occurrence as we lived 50 miles away but I remember the excitement as we entered the doors of the library.

Learning to love books is a lifetime process but for me, learning to love the library was easy. So when the “Barnes-Merchant puzzle” presented itself, I naturally thought about going to the library to find out more. The library I thought of is not your typical library. The world famous Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is only 20 minutes from my house and I’d been there several times. I was quite confident that I could find factual information to help piece together this puzzle.

I determined a time to initiate the factual search when Jayne was in town. We had a short hour to begin the treasure hunt. We did find some books about Australia and the Australian Agricultural Company. One book contained the ship log of the journey to Australia which Elizabeth took with her father and brothers. To actually see their names was very rewarding. My love for non-fiction books grew exponentially that day.

On my next visit to the library, I decided to try and find out more about Elizabeth’s birthplace – Highworth, Wiltshire, England. Knowing the library has a whole floor for the British Isles, I was pretty sure I could find what I was looking for. A kind woman volunteer, about 70 years old, met me as I got off the elevator. She questioned me about what I was looking for and I described Elizabeth Barnes and my interest in her. She suggested I first determine if this Elizabeth Barnes and her birth date are the right ones. In my mind, I chuckled…of course, it’s the right one. This very knowledgeable woman helped me search out the possibility of a mistake, showing me that about 12 Elizabeth Barnes existed during a certain time frame in this location. I very easily could have made a mistake. We determined I did have the right name and date. I need to do the same with Richard, I guess. Whew!

Then she showed me how to find the parish register and the bishop's transcripts for the Wiltshire area. Most of those are on microfilm but I got the numbers. I decided to save that for another day. She told me the bishop's transcripts were birth, christening, and death records which the bishops of the Anglican Church turned in on a yearly basis and are a good source of information. They have a scanning copy machine to scan microfilm and save it to a jumpdrive.

She took me over to the giant map books and showed me how to find a location, such as Highworth and Faringdon (Farrington). We used the Index to the Gazetteer. We found Highworth in Wiltshire and Faringdon in Berkshire and concluded they were about nine miles apart. Finding Richard and Elizabeth’s birth records on the microfilm would be very helpful to verify the possibility of them living so close together in their younger years.

She helped me find "A History of Highworth" pt.2 written by the Highworth Historical Society which was a tremendous find. It had just what I wanted - a description of what the Highworth area was like when she was born. It had some great old photos also. I made as many copies as time permitted.

Grandma Kitchen passed on a great lesson…one can find much joy in a library! by Karen

To be continued….