Mrs. Robert A. Leishman,
Box 72
Wellsville, Utah
84339
Dear Sister Leishman,
I have a letter copied from a letter
sent by the Genealogical Society of Utah to Mrs. Jack H. Lewis of Rexburg,
Idaho. I will give you some of the contents of this letter dealing with the Lewis
genealogy. Quoting the letter “We have made a survey of our sources for information
to extend your Lewis line, and submit our report and recommendations. A brief
check was also made of our files for additional data we may have relating to your
Griffis and Lewis families, but due to the limited
time of a Research Survey this was not followed by an examination of out early
Church records, Etc.”
“When Ivan Lewis received his
endowments in the Endowment House, he gave his data and place of birth as 1853,
South Wales. His parents, Thomas Lewis and Mary Ann Griffis,
were endowed in the Logan Temple, 4 Apr. 1917, under the heirship
of their daughter, Esther L. Gunnell; at the time
their dates and places of birth were given as 1823 and 1825, respectively,
Cardiganshire, Wales.
Several charts are filed in our
Archives for the Lewis family, but none of them did we find information in addition
to that on your chart.
The next step of your search, as we
see it, is to obtain a definite locality in Cardiganshire, for the residences
or birthplaces of the Lewises and their mother, Mary
Ann Griffiss [sic]. A search cannot be commenced in a
country without information regarding a town or parish to localize it. With
this in mind we made a thorough examination of our early Church baptisms,
patriarchal blessings, emigration lists, and biographies and histories of the
first Utah settlers for a clue to the origin of the Thomas Lewis Family in
Wales.
As Evan Lewis was endowed in the
Endowment House, we checked the Endowment House baptisms for the dead for any
ordinances work he may have done for his relatives, but without success. We endeavored
to examine the Logan Temple baptisms for the dead, administered 4 April 1917,
for additional work performed under the heirship of
Esther L. Gunnell, but were unable to preceed as the Logan records of that recent date are not
filmed and in our Society, but are kept in the Logan Temple Archieves
[sic].
Inasmuch as we did not have a
locality in Cardiganshire for the residence of your family, we could not check
the conference records for early baptisms in the time permitted by your
remittance. However, under emigration lists we did find the family were seeking
who sailed on the ship “Golconda” 4 Feb. 1854; namely,
Thomas Lewis, Age 32
Mary A. Lewis, Age 36
David, Age 9
Esther, Age 6
Eleanor, Age 4
Evan, Age 3
Margaret, Age 1 month
With the names of the children of
Thomas Lewis and Mary Ann, we rechecked our endowment and early Church records,
but in no instance did any of them give their complete place of birth.
Unless you are able to obtain the
information necessary to continue the search from family, death and possibly
Bible records, we suggest an examination of all the Cardiganshire conference
records for the baptisms of Thomas and his family, and possibly a search of the
1851 census returns of Wales and Welsh vital records filed at Somerset House,
London. The conference records of Wales in some instance are very complete and
in others very meager; therefore, we cannot assure you that they will disclose
the desired data, but recommend that they be considered before correspondence
is undertaken to England. The 1851 census of England and Wales is an invaluable
source for genealogical research; it gives the ages and birthplaces
of all the individuals listed, and records the population according to
districts and families. However, the place of residence of the Lewises in 1851 must be determined before the search can be
undertaken. The birth certificates of the children of Thomas and Mary Ann may
be obtained from Somerset House when their definite birth dates and approximate
birthplaces are known. This last step, however, will not be necessary if we are
able to find information concerning the family in the conference records.”
On the records it said Evan Lewis
gave his time of birth as 1853 at the time he was Endowed,
that couldn’t be if he was three years old when he came over on the ship in
1854 he would have to be born in 1851.
Only one of his sons married the other
one died in 1918 with the flew
[sic]. The other son has six children they are all married, last time I checked
There were as follows
Jack Lewis has 5 boys and one girl
Rulon
Lewis has 2 boys
Wava
Lewis Olsen has 4 girls and 3 boys
Devesta
Lewis Wilson has one boy
Arch Lewis has 2 boys
Leatrice
Lewis Lush has 1 boy
This Mary Hill is a sister to Arch
Hill that lives there in Wellsville, who married one of Alex
Hill daughter.
It seem nice
to hear from you to know that you are interested in Genealogy. I hope this will
help you with this family of Lewis. We are working onour
[sic] Fourth generations of our Pedigree.
I’ll see you the next time I come to
Wellsville, trusting to hear from you at any time I remain,
Sincerely Your’s,
Lavon E. Darley
Route #4
Rupert, Idaho
