Llanfoist and the End of the World

This was just to good to pass up. From the Monmouthshire Merlin, 9 September 1843:

I will have to add this to my "History of LDS Church in Llanfoist" page.

Llanfoist Tithes, Page 9: Now Indexed for John Vaughan

Let's hope the Centerville South Stake meets its Family Search Indexing Goals without me. I did my few hundred (Brazilians, off the Rio de Janeiro Registro Civil). Now I'm obsessed with the tithing maps from Archives Wales, that is Archifau Cymraeg, y Prosiect Cynefin. I love fixing the data points to link the old maps to the modern. I did one from Llanieu, close by Talgarth and Glasbury and really difficult because it was up the side of the Black Mountain.

Here's what the indexing part looks like from Llanfoist:

Chapel House, Likely Vaughan Home in Llanfoist

Thanks to Twitter at: Archives Wales retweeted

ArchifauCymru @ArchifauCymru · 
8 hours ago

New tithe maps website @ProsiectCynefin http://cynefinblog.archiveswales.org.uk  #ARCWforum @CynefinProject
I just did the coolest thing!

The Welsh National Archives are asking for our help to index and orient the tithe maps of Wales from the 1840s! I was able to locate several data points that matched a modern Ordnance Survey map with the 1843 Tithe map for Llanfoist, Monmouthshire! (By the way, I also learned that Welsh spelling for Llanfoist is Llanffwyst. It makes a difference.) You can see my work here. Click on "visualize" and you will see the overlay based on my data points.

A Probable (and Positive) Elinor Sighting

First, I need to lay out why I am convinced that Elinor Jenkins Vaughan, Jane Vaughan Lewis, and her son John Samuel Lewis ended up in Jacks Valley, Nevada. It was by following at least three of the "Five Jolly Welshman" to the gold and silver fields of the Sierras. John James, appearing to be one of the five, ended up in Genoa near modern-day Carson City, Nevada (back then it was still Utah).

So, naturally I looked at the 1860 Census for the area:

Please note that this is still Utah Territory, but more importantly, the date of the census was supposed to be "as of June 1" (see column no. 3), but this census was not taken until September 28th. This evidences the general governmental disarray in the area as we have previously discussed.

Now, look at the entries for the "Johns" Family:

Another Beautiful and Possible Grave Site for Elinor

Free use courtesy of Jim Herman - Many thanks!

Elinor Jenkins Vaughan could be here! We know that her daughter died and was buried in Jacks Valley - also in an unmarked grave. It is very likely that Elinor was too. The earliest grave identified in this beautiful cemetery is from 1860. There is plenty of space and apparent mounds for lost grave sites.

John Lewis & the Gold Country

We still do not understand the "why" of John's and Jane Vaughan Lewis's separation. We know that he was interested in mining because of his letter to Brigham Young and he may have been discouraged by the response. And it seems pretty clear that John did go to the gold fields in California, was drafted into the Union Army, and returned to the gold fields and the saloon business after the Civil War. Then, his death seems well-documented and a match with the right person in the right place.

The geography helps along with the National Park Service map for the California National Historic Trail. Remember that John first reappeared in Bridgeport, Nevada County, California. (And that's a different place than Bridgeport in Mono County, California.)

There were several trails over the Sierras as there were through the Great Basin. There were many bad choices because there was no good one. Yet please note that there is a direct route from Mormon Station (Genoa), Nevada to the Sacramento Valley. Follow No. 7, the Georgetown/Daggett Pass Trail to No. 5, the Georgetown Trail, and you end up in . . . Georgetown, just a few miles south of Bridgeport.

California Trail, GPO 2008-339-126/80149 Reprint 2006

The Lost Mormons of Carson Valley

Genoa (Mormon Station), Nevada, Pioneer Cemetery

There is another tempting title for this, "Journey to Genoa" that has already been used for a highly fictionalized novel of some of the pioneer people of this area, including my family. It isn't very well written in a literary sense. Most of the entertainment value comes from the whoppers of wrong information such as the Cavalry riding in to rescue disaffected Mormons (in 1853) and a questionably historical visit to a San Francisco bordello and opium den. Sigh.

The different title might have distracted web searchers from the book which is decidedly anti-Mormon. And putting the title in here might have the same positive effect.