Researching information and genealogy details on my
ggg-grandfather, Lemuel White, uncovered a connection that I was not fully
prepared for, nor had it ever been raised by family members; my mother was a
direct descendant of a Mayflower family.
From that knowledge, I was able to dig a bit further to then map out
that I was in the 12th generation of descendants from William and Susannah
White who made the original voyage in 1620-1621. I thought that was a pretty fun fact to be a
Mayflower family descendant and then read that I was in good company with 38
million others!
BREAKING THROUGH: The
first 4 generations of the first Mayflower voyagers were pretty well
documented. Further I had a decent
collection of information and sources for generations 5 through 12. However, connecting
generation 4 and 5 with a “primary” record that would satisfy the Mayflower
Society, has been a challenge. That
research dig continues and continues…hopefully one day I will find it!
NEW INFORMATION: I
have had a lot of fun researching the White Family, meeting and connecting with
various relatives in my search for answers.
I traveled to Iowa, Indiana and Illinois (hopefully soon to Ohio), to
verify court records, church records, churches, cemeteries, newspaper articles
and genealogy societies & museums. A
lot of fun and some success…and, not surprising to fellow hunters of genealogy
answers, a number of brick walls. With
the White Family, I have seen church records across a number of denominations,
the most surprising of which was a sole generation of Latter Day Saints: Lemuel White.
This was surprising to me as I had come across of A LOT of
German and Swedish Lutheran affiliation in my family as well as a fair number
of Irish Catholics….and, a Baptist, Methodist, and Quaker here and there as well as
the religious faiths of the Mayflower descendants through the first 5 or 6
generations. What was even more
interesting to me was that Lemuel White and his wife, Nancy (Morrow) White
became involved with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints during a fairly turbulent and controversial time of Mormon church history. Prior to discovering this, I had been looking
for baptismal, marriage and burial records in the local established churches in
the cities that Lemuel and Nancy had lived:
Jackson, Preble County, Ohio; Whitestown, Boone County, Indiana; and
Shabbona Grove, DeKalb, Illinois. Now I
know why I was unsuccessful...Lemuel and Nancy did not attend those churches that I could find.
 |
| Map of Whitestown, Boone County, Indiana (noting the land donated by Lemuel White, "White's Addition) |
The Mormon church was organized in 1830 with Joseph Smith
dying in martyrdom in a violent massacre in 1844 (Brigham Young assuming
Presidency the same year); this was a time of significant controversy. I had found reference to Lemuel in “The True
Latter Day Saints’ Herald”, Volume 2, Number 1.
(February/March 1861) noting that in Whitestown, Indiana, Lemuel White was a “priest”…and,
also referenced in this newsletter was the Trout family whose daughter Martha
Ann married Lemuel’s nephew, Valentine White (through his brother Elisha). This article was highlighting that they were
organizing a church in Whitestown.
By January
1865, another article noted that they had been “laboring in… spreading the
truth” and, that they found “a great deal of prejudice existing in the minds of
the people”. I have been unable to learn
more of how this difficulty impacted the White family, but they moved from
Whitestown (some research state the town was named after Lemuel for donating a
great deal of land to form the town...see above map) in November 1865 to live in Shabbona
Grove, Illinois. The Whites continued
their belief in the Mormon Church as they were buried in a cemetery of fellow
LDS believers.
However, none of their
five children who survived to adulthood continued with the Mormon religion…the
two oldest daughters died young, the youngest daughter moved out to Southern
California by herself around 1900 to live as an artist (never married, never
had children), and their two sons followed the religion of their spouses.
It was an interesting time and I have so, so many
questions. Sounds like a research
opportunity.
