Yes, Family History is a collaborative effort. While I was taking a step back and looking at all the other pioneers of the Edmund Ellsworth Handcart Company of 1856 that had come from Elinor's neighborhood in Wales, Judy did us one better by going through the Ellsworth list to see if any of her married daughters had come. And she found Jane.
On Ellsworth's list is John & Jane Lewis with son John eight years old. A quick check to the 1851 Census found them in Bedwellty, Tredegar, Wales - with wife Jane having been born in Hay, Breconshire, and son John, born in Llanfoist, Monmouthshire. We have a match!
The Lewises crossed the ocean ahead of Eleanor on the S. Curling to Boston.
They had an infant with them named Parley. He doesn't appear in the Ellsworth Company and that is very sad. Temple work needs to be done. Give us a chance to find more details.
The problem is, they seem to disappear once they get to Utah. They are not on the 1860 Census, not on Findagrave.com, they are barely on Family Search with no additional info, we can't find them anywhere! -So far.
So we post this preliminary, if very exciting, report to announce an ALL POINTS BULLETIN for someone to find John, Jane, and John Lewis, Jr. in Utah and where they ended up. I bet we can pick up Eleanor in the process. We'll try Springville again as we round up the usual likely suspects.
It's one thing to lose one person, but four? Maybe they left Utah? Left the Church? But why go through all that trouble to get here. And wouldn't they have sent some word back home to discourage anyone else? Willie & John & family still came 30 years later! And here we are - and they're after us.
While we have work to do, I feel a great sense of relief to know that Elinor did not walk to Zion on her own.
Thank you, John, Jane, John . . . and Judy!
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