How the Parkers and Riggses got together again

Here's a modern family history story by Lauren Parker from the January 1999 Ensign magazine.

A Parker who is a Riggs ancestor

As I commented yesterday on the previous post before Ginger invited me to join the blog, at the stake family history center, we discovered that Submit Parker was one of Ginger's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great (that's eight great's) grandmothers. Submit was born in 1715 in Groton, Massachusetts. Her ancestors are on the FamilySearch Web site back to James Parker who was born in 1591 in Marlborough, England. James died in Massachusetts, so he was the first of that line in the Colonies.

Submit married Reuben Wood, and their daughter Anna married William Beal.  William and Anna's son Abel married Anna Franklin, and Abel and Anna's son William married Clarissa Allen.  Their daughter Harriet Sylvania Beal married Alma, the son of Artemas Millett and Susanna Peters.  Artemas was the subject of Ginger's previous post, for supervising construction of the Kirtland Temple.  We show him with two t's in Millett.

It will be interesting to see if Elliott's line goes into Submit's line.  Then at some point Andrew, Ethan and Emma would go back through more than one line to the same Parker ancestor.

A Fish in the Family

This link is to a gentleman named Charles Fish, who married a Barbara Maxfield. Barbara Maxfield is in our line, and Fish is a name on Elliott's side, so it will be interesting to see if these two make us "kissing cousins"!

Melissa Ermizade Averitt

This woman is not actually directly in our family line. She was married to William Thomas Riggs, but his lineage to us is through a different wife, Clarissa Ann Millett. Still, I thought her life sounded interesting... she had so many children. I decided to include her story here.

MARRIAGE: She was married at the age of 13 to William Riggs. She later married William Turnbeaugh. CHILDREN: She had two children by William Riggs. She had 19 living children, and two sets of twins who were premature and died at birth, making a total of twenty-five children born to her. One of the children weighed fifteen (15) lbs. at birth. Source: Mrs. Minnie Paxman BIOGRAPHY: She was the first white child born in Manti, Utah. She came to Dixie (Washington, Washington, Utah) in 1862. Her parents were the first to be baptized after the organization of the Church. They came across the plains in 1848. Her father helped work on the foundations of all four temples in Utah. As a girl Sarah would help pick cotton and shear sheep. Sarah was a queen and a loving wife and mother. It gave her joy to have her friends come in and talk of the gospel for she was a devout Latter-Day Saint. DEATH: April 13, 1927 at Cedar City. Funeral services were held in Washington, Washington, Utah. She was laid to rest by the side of her husband in the Washington Cem., Washington, Washington, Utah.

Artemus Millet

This is one of our more famous (by Mormon standards anyway) relatives.

Artemus Millet was born in 1790 in New Hampshire. He was a builder, farmer and a stonemason. He was converted to the gospel by Brigham Young in 1833. He became the chief superintendent of the building of the Kirtland Temple, and also helped in the construction of the Nauvoo temple. He moved to Utah in 1850, and died there in 1874.

Apparently, he kept a good personal history, but his housekeeper burned it after he died. For more information about him, see this article.

In the book, "Remembering Joseph", a story is recounted how Artemus had become afflicted with cholera. Joseph Smith Sr, and his brother John came and administered to Artemus, but the blessing did not heal him. He said the pain was so excruciating that his pain was heard by the prophet Joseph who was approximately 250 yds. away. Artemus was told that he called out "Let Joseph Smith Jun. come and lay his hands on me and I shall be healed and know it." but he does not recall saying it. The prophet came to the home, which was crowded with people, and laying his hands on Artemus' head "asked God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ to heal" Artemus. The sickness he was experiencing stopped immediately, and Artemus says he began to get better at that very moment.

By the way Dad--- The PAF file you sent me has his name spelled Artemas, rather than Artemus, as all the other histories of him are spelled.

John Riggs

The name John Riggs is very common in our family history. the 6th, 7th, and 8th generation males on my paternal side all have this name.
The 6th generation man bears the middle name Lyle. He was born in 1824, in Greencastle, Putnam, Indiana. How funny that I have ended up in Indiana too.
The 7th generation John Riggs was born in the 1790's, in either Indiana, Kentucky, or Connecticut. He died in Indiana
The 8th generation John Riggs was born in 1772 in Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut. I don't have too much other information about him yet.

Interestingly enough, Elliott is reading a book called, "Remembering Joseph", in which the saints who interacted with the prophet Joseph Smith , Jr. recount their memories of him. The book has 2 different stories from a John Riggs who was born in Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut in 1812, and later ended up moving to Utah.

Elliott's sister Leslie has also given me information about some Riggs in their family line. These Riggs hailed from Connecticut (albiet a different part) in the late 1700's also. As soon as I get the Primary Program written, I plan to look into the connection.

Welcome

This blog will be reserved for interesting stories in my family history, plus some mysteries in history that maybe others can help me solve.