A few weeks ago Dad and I went to the Family History library with our neighbors, Mark and Sherrie Mccleery. I was specifically looking for the marriage record of my great grandfather, Richard Brimley and his wife, Ann Southworth. I wanted to see how his father's name was listed, because in our records that is where the name changes start. So Mark helped me look in census records. We found Richard in his father's home until after he got married in 1845. We also saw him with his own family. We found one record that listed him as an agricultural worker and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mark had never seen membership listed like that on a government census. We wondered if Richard worked on a church farm, or something. But we never found a marriage record. Mark had had success sending to England for marriage records for his own ancestors, so he sent for a marriage record for Richard and Ann.
Yesterday he brought over the envelope for me to open. He was as excited as I was. Here are some of the things we learn. Not the bride, groom nor the witnesses could read or write. At the time of the marriage, Richard was living in Farington and he was a servant. His father's name is John BRIMLEY, and he was a weaver as was Ann. (We already knew his father was a weaver.) Ann's father, Sylvester Southworth was a farmer. While at the library Mark and I looked at LDS church records for the time and found that Sylvester was the first baptism listed on the record. His wife, Ann Clitheroe, was second. We also saw the baptism record for Richard and the following year for Ann. All of this research has been done before, but it is exciting to see the names of the people who got us where we are.
I know that Daddy talked and wrote about how much he loved his grandmother. I am grateful to all of these people for listening to the missionaries, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, and recognizing the truth and also for making the effort to travel to this country.
