The pictures above are of my Great-grandfather, Martin Van Buren Taylor, and my Great-grandmother, Johannah Smith Jennings on their wedding day. Both were early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Pioneers who came to Utah in the 1800's. I have a great respect for my pioneer ancestors, who are many.
Erin and Wade are participating in a Pioneer Trek in April and will be Ma and Pa to a bunch of crazy teenagers. I do not envy them, not my idea of a good time. Erin had asked me to find some stories about our family pioneers to share with her "children". I have been interested in Family History for a while and decided to see what I could come up with for her.
I joined the Family History class during Sunday School, and have been looking through lots of records since. I have copies of some of what my Mother had, but like most of my possessions they are in storage in Sheboygan, out of reach. I am starting from scratch, so to speak, wanting to collect what I can.
I find it interesting to search for dates and places, but my real interest lies in the stories of these people. I purchased Family Tree Maker software that came with 3 months of Ancestry.com. Putting this all together is so much easier than when Grandma Belliston did it. I have found pictures, stories, information and a few puzzling things. That brings me back to Martin and Johannah.
Johannah was the 3rd of his 4 wives, the 3rd and 4th being married to him on the same day Nov 16, 1867. I'll bet that was an interesting wedding night. These 4 wives bore him 32 children. Johannah had been previously married to a man named Norman Taylor. In the records that existed a few years ago, it stated that this man was from Tennessee, where she was raised, but no dates were given. What happened to him? In reading one of the glowing biographies of Martin it states that his 3rd and 4th wives were widows, and his marrying them gave them homes and stability that they had never known. So did Norman die? Several years back I realized that Martin had an older brother named Norman Taylor. Could this be the same Norman that Johanna was married too? Some of the info stated that Norman had been married to a Johanna Jennings. I remember asking my Dad about this years ago. He told me that Martin had probably won her in a poker game! There was no love lost between my Dad and his Grandfather. He said he was a mean taskmaster who made his children work in the fields while he stood around in a top hat giving orders. The histories of Martin paint a much different picture. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.
I decided to do some research on Norman and see what I could come up with. Reading a biography of him I found out that Norman was a great pioneer, who came to Utah with the first company with Brigham Young. It is said he drove the 2nd wagon in to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He had 5 wives and 18 children. His third wife was Johanna Smith Jennings who he married on August 19 1861. This biography states that this marriage didn't last very long...hmmm. So maybe Martin did win her from his brother after all. Its time for all you Taylors to chime in on this mystery. There aren't many documents out there for Johannah. I would love some proof about this?
It has been so fun looking at old census records. I never realized how many of the settlers of Levan (where my Dad was born) came from Denmark, where his mother's family was from. I think about 3/4 of the people living there in 1870 were from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. A few, like my Great-grandpa Bosh came from Germany, except it was Prussia then, as was Denmark, some from England and the Jennings' from Tennessee. the Taylors from Massachusetts and them Ohio. They all merge in tiny Levan.
Sorry this is so long. I'm sure I lost most of you 20 lines ago. But since the only people who read this are my sisters, maybe they hung on until the end. The genealogy bug has bitten me. I never though it would. I might have to give up my Facebook Farm.
