Martha and five of their 12 surviving children followed him a year later, on 22 October 1881, again departing on the 'Wisconsin' from Liverpool, arriving in New York on 2 November, 1881. They were among 396 LDS emigrants to make that journey. The five children who made the voyage with Martha were Hyrum, Agnes, Lorenzo, Orson and Caroline. Two other children - Eliza Emma and Noah seem to have gone to America at different times to the rest of the family. Five, including Clara, seem to have stayed in England, and we have still to find out what happened to them: Heber Jedediah, Edith Kirton, Richard Parley and Joseph Haynes.
The researcher at the LDS Family History Centre explained to us that one of their beliefs is that the family should be sealed to each other for ever, and that church members will do this for any of their ancestors who have not been ‘sealed’ to the family in their lifetime, but that it could not be done until 110 years after their birth. Clara was ‘sealed’ to her family in 1976, which suggests there may be family descendants who we hope to try to trace eventually.
However, even after all this research, we have still not proved this is the ‘right’ Haynes family. We are almost certain that they are – we have not been able to find any other Clara Haynes born at the right time. One other thing makes us think so too – one of Clara’s brothers was called Lorenzo, which we thought was an unusual name for the times. The researcher at LDS told us that he was probably named after Lorenzo Snow, one of the LDS church’s prophets. Clara called one of her children William Lorenzo – you can see him listed on the census returns for 1891 as Wm L, which we think suggests a strong possibility that we have the right family, but we will keep an open mind.
Clara Haynes (3)
