Allen Handcart Pioneers, Horizon/Martin Co. Ireland/England


IsabelC
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Hello everyone,

I have been looking around on the web for an Mormon based forums in hopes of learning more about the genealogy workings of the LDS church and in finding out more about my ancestor, Eleanor Allen, who was a handcart pioneer with the Martin Handcart Co. in 1856.

I am fairy new to genealogical research so if anyone knows of any good resources for searching for free (I don't have the income for Ancestry.com) please let me know.

I would really love to connect with anyone who has connections to the Allen Family from the Horizon. There were several family groups, all headed by women, and I suspect they may have been related-since they all bear the last name Allen, but since they were almost all widows that may mean they are related by marriage.

I just think that any Handcart Pioneer should have a full genealogy, and I'm hoping there's one out there somewhere, but if not, I'm hoping I can find it!

Thanks,

Isabel

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The local LDS stake center should have a family history library with people called to help with research. I don't think it's very widely known, but that library and help is open and free to anyone, not just church members. I think you came to a good place, though. I'm sure you can get some good guidance from people here.

Have you looked at https://familysearch.org/ ?

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Thanks Eowyn!

I just signed up for Family search. My ancestor shows up on there, but only info since the Horizon trip (mother, sister) and nothing before. I'd love to find their English/Irish locals and ancestry, and also hopefully find some living cousins. I just think a handcart pioneer is too important not to be researched!

Isabel

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If you know roughly were in the UK/Ireland they came from you could start by researching census records and old parish records - in the UK census is held in the first year of every decade so 1801, 1811 etc and take it from there. However because of things that have happened in the past there is a lack of Irish records so that will make it harder

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It looks like she traveled with her mother and sister. Her mother died on the trail at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Here is a short page about her on history.lds.org. I also found information about her, on FamilySearch. It looks like she married George Neal in 1858 and was divorced two years later. She remarried John Schrepel and had at least six children. She died in 1911.

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Thanks James and Smudge. Yep, I have all of that, and found today the actual log book from the Horizon, saying the three women were all widows (43, 21 and 18!) and they came from Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, even gave a street address! So I have something to go on, but what gets me is if they are all widowed then were the girls' husbands related to Mary Allen or is this their maiden name?

I found somewhere that the Father's name was William Allen, but that's like being named John Smith!

I'll have to start looking at the census'.

Yes, apparently she was the second (of two or three) wives of George Neal, which means she was a polygamist but apparently didn't go for it so divorced him. LOL, I had to laugh, we have all sorts of interesting characters in my family!

I hope I can find something. I also need to figure out how to get around on FamilySearch.org and I hope there's a way to contact people who have put up info...someone has posted something for one of Eleanor's children, so there may be living relatives in at least one other branch.

Oh, just by some odd chance...There's a movie called "Sweetwater Rescue" Willie Martin Handcart Story" and in it, there's a photo showing people ready to board ship, and there's a woman that looks strikingly like my mother! Eleanor would be her great grandmother...I wonder how I would find out where/who that photo is or came from..I tried a Google image search but no luck.

Ah, it's fun to look for these people!

Thanks again for all of the ideas everyone!!

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I found them in 1851 Macclesfield! Interestingly Mary is living with Thomas Allen, a 2nd husband (I think)-ALONE, and the girls are with their Grandparents, Richard and Elleanor Burgess. So that got me somewhere.

But in 1841, Mary and Elleanor (Ellen) Allen were living with the Burgess' Thomas Allen was in a boarding house alone, and Maria apparently belongs to another family !!!

So who knows who Ellen Allen's real father was, or why Maria comes to live with Mary and Ellen...

The other interesting point, is that always, on every record, Ellen is listed as born in Ireland, and everyone else (except Thomas, who is also from Ireland) is from Macclesfield...

My husband says that that's odd, that an English woman would have fathered a child in Ireland and then come home to Macclesfield, since Ireland was extremely poor (like we would think today of a "third world country") And 1841 is as far back as census' go.

I guess that's as far back as I can take it. I'll keep looking though.

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  • 6 months later...

Hello Isabel and other Eleanor Allen and Fred Schrepel descendents.  I am Charles William Fox, descended from Eleanor and Frederick's daughter Charlotte Lizette Schrepel O'Connor,l who was my maternal grandmother.  "Coincidentally, I have just completed her life story as far as we could research it.  I am awaiting final review by another O"Connor cousin before posting it on familysearch.org on her site.  So far, all us O'"Connor based cousins believe it's pretty comprehensive.  We had a hard time finding anything about Marie and looked for records during our two missions at Martin's Cove.  We finally found there, a record of Marie's arrival in Salt Lake.  Then found a a reference in Mr. George Morris's journal that she had "Dropsy" and was not expected to lived.  Hearing about polygamy, she d id not want to die unmarried, so requested marriage to Mr. Grorge Morris, which marriage was performed late at night and she died about 3 hours later.  We could find no burial records in Salt Lake.  Frederick and Eleanor are buried close together in the Salt Lake City cemetery.

 

I would be happy to send what I have documented, it's about 7 pages in MSW format.  It focuses on Eleanor but with Martin's Company stuff thrown in because they suffered so.  I don't have any information about any other siblings of Charlotte, except that I heard her mention names of "Maggie", Fred, and particularly Aunt Lou (Louisa).  My recollection of her was tall, with reddish hair.  I also vividly remember that early one Sunday morning as we were getting ready for church, Grandmother O'Connor came into our home dressed for travel instead of church as usual.  My father asked her where she was going.  Charlott's response was she was going to the train and going to St. Louis, because Aunt Lou died last night and came to  visit me.  My father took her to the Grand Central Station in Los Angeles and saw her off.  Later that afternoon we received a telegram stating that her sister Louisa had died the evening before.  We are closer to the other side than we normally believe aren't we.

 

Which line of Eleanor are you descended from?  It would be nice to organize a somewhat larger organization.  I can forward the O'Connor cousin's list if you'd like.

 

We have done some temple work for others of the Schrepel family that we could find.  I remembr the name "Hoch", the two brothers married Schrepel sisters if my memory is correct.

 

Charlie Fox, Alpine Utah

My email is [email protected]

phone: 801-885-1683

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