Comfort DAVIS - 1801 Newent and Mormon trek (General)

by mikedavies , Huddersfield, Sunday, October 09, 2011, 18:37 (4790 days ago)

Comfort Davis (born 1801) married John Bowkett Boulter 7.5.1822 in Newent, and they went on to have three children, Elizabeth, William and John, all baptised in Bran Green/Upleadon and all of them were listed on the 1841 census. Elizabeth subsequently married John Jarvis in Ross 14.12.1845. After that I had lost track of them, but now find that they all boarded the ship (James Pennel) from Liverpool to New Orleans on 2.9.1849 together with Elizabeth and John’s 2 year old daughter Augusta Comfort. This ship carried “236 souls of the latter-day Saints” from various parts of the UK who were on route eventually to Salt Lake City.

Although Comfort and John die in a cholera epidemic in Iowa on August 1850, the rest of the family where involved in one of the Mormon Pioneer overland treks to Salt Lake City. No other members of their extended families (the Davis's) were tempted to follow them it seems, as they continued to stay in and around Newent.

Elizabeth and John and their daughter are listed on the ships passenger list as Ennis. I presume this is just a transcription error from their listed name as “Jarvis” on FOD records?

Presumably both families “converted” prior to the voyage, particularly as Elizabeth and John had a Christian marriage in 1845. Can anyone help with information on Mormon missionaries/meeting places etc in the Newent area around 1845 -1850, as it would appear that there was a Bran Green branch and Cliffords Mene branch of the Church of the LDS with original records of members held in Utah (which I will try and track down).

I can access a lot of information after the journey across the Atlantic, but it’s what happened (and why and how) between 1845 and the voyage that I’m keen to discover, so any help or direction would be appreciated.

Mike