Thursday, September 6, 2012

Morman Overland Trail Database: Part 5

This is the 5th post on the Mormon Overland Pioneer Database.  The 4th is here.

This post is about the family of James Sheen Sr, my 4th great grandfather.  The Sheen family crossed the plains in the Edmund Ellsworth Company in 1856. This was the very first handcart company to cross the plains.  They left Iowa City, Iowa on June 9, 1856 and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 26, 1856.  Traveling with the family were the following (and the information in the database is quite confusing):

James Sheen Sr.
Son Robert Sheen
  -Robert's Wife Eliza Elizabeth Taylor Sheen
  - Child Mary
  - Child Louisa ??
  - Child Annie
  - Child Emma (Died en route)
Son James Jr. (my 3rd great grandfather)
  - James' wife Mary Shields Jaynes (3rd great grandmother)
  - Child Annie Eliza  ?????
  - Child Sidney (Died en route)
Daughter Hannah
Daughter Ellen


Questions:
1.  Who is Louisa a child of?  I guessed Robert and Eliza but I'm not sure.
2.  James Sr. wife, Maria Loveridge, came across on the ship but isn't listed here.  My genealogy records indicated she dies on June 9, 1856 (the same date the handcarts set out from Iowa City) but no mention is made of this anywhere here in the Mormon Overland Pioneer Database.  Need more info on this.
3.  Annie Eliza.  This is apparently my 2nd great grandmother.  However her death certificate, obituary, and headstone all show her as having been born in 1860 in Utah.  There's something going on here that I need to sort out.  Maybe this Annie Eliza isn't the daughter of James Jr. and Mary (as is indicated in the database) but of someone else.

Below is a journal entry that mentions the death of Sidney

23rd Came 14 miles to 4 mi. Creek 4 mi. from the Fort Des Moin[es] town. burried a litle child Sidney Chein [Sheen] 3 mos & 14 days old[.] suposed to have ben lain on by its mother during the night[.] I burried him about 30 yds South of the Bridge on the E. Bank

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