RLP 287: Flew the Coop: Harriet (Huggett) Kelsey

Nicole (0s):
This is Research Like a Pro episode 287 Flew, the Coop Harriet Hugget Kelsey. welcome to Research Like, a Pro a genealogy podcast about taking your research to the next level. Hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder Accredited Genealogist Professional Diana and Nicole are the mother, mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket dot com and the authors of Research Like, a pro A Genealogist guide with Robin Wirthlin. They also co-authored the Companion volume, Research Like a Pro with DNA, join Diana and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research, and solve difficult cases. Let’s go.

Nicole (40s):
Today’s episode is sponsored by newspapers.com, break down genealogy brick walls with a subscription to the largest online newspaper archive. Hi everyone and welcome to Research Like a Pro

Diana (51s):
Hi. Nicole. how are you today,

Nicole (53s):
Really? good. I have been just really enjoying my research and for the holidays, How about you.

Diana (1m 0s):
Same I have been doing kind of a fun little follow up project to my study group project on Clumsy Klein You. know I’m using her for the DNA study group that we’re starting soon and I want to reach out and get a few more test takers to be able to analyze their DNA and I found, especially one who comes from a possible sister So. in thinking about that, I decided to set up a page on FamilyLocket where I could explain the project and upload my reports, put a little diagram in there for people to see the family. So that’s been really fun working on that. And I wanna get that finished up and send message people or email people a link so they can go see that and then hopefully they’ll decide to be part of the project.

Diana (1m 49s):
So that’s kind of been a fun follow up to the fall study group.

Nicole (1m 54s):
Yeah, what a great beginning for the new year and start really attacking that research question and getting as much DNA evidence as you can. And I love that you’re going to be messaging people and sending them to that link that you made so that they can kind of understand the project and really dive deeper and click around and read a report to feel like they understand more about what you’re asking when you ask them to share their DNA results.

Diana (2m 20s):
Right. And this has been a brick wall for everyone, Clumsy, and different people have assigned different Klein men as her father, but there’s no evidence whatsoever out there for it. So I have done two complete projects and I have a good hypothesis now, and I am just hoping DNA will back it up, so it’s going to be great. Well, let’s do some announcements. We have our Airtable quick reference guide available on PDF on our website. And so if this is the goal that you have maybe for 2024 to learn Airtable, I would invite you to check out the guide and then get started with Airtable as You know.

Diana (3m 4s):
We love it. And then for our Research Like, a Pro Webinar series starting in 2024, we have got a wonderful presentation by Amanda Sherwin. And the title is Who is Robert Stewart’s wife, using DNA Clusters in Genealogical Research. This will be held live on Saturday, January 20th at 11:00 AM Mountain Time. And for the description, I will just read what what Amanda has written for us. Robert Stewart, born 1785 in Virginia, had his first son in 1819 in Missouri. One of his third great-granddaughters searched for 50 plus years for the name of his wife.

Diana (3m 47s):
There were no records of any kind, marriage, land, or wills. DNA shared clusters identified several DNA matches with similar last names that had never been part of the family. By building out the DNA matches and using traditional records, two cousins were able to put the two words and the new family in the same place when Robert and his wife would’ve met and married. Further research helped identify which of 10 men was the likely father-in-law. Well, I love this idea of identifying a wife such a difficult thing, especially when we’ve got that migration from Virginia to Missouri where it’s hard to decide who is who and records get lost.

Diana (4m 29s):
So I’m excited to learn from Amanda about her case study.

Nicole (4m 33s):
Yeah, that sounds like a really great one.

Diana (4m 36s):
It does. Well, we have our Research Like, a Pro DNA study group beginning very soon on February 7th and early bird registration closes January 10th, so that will be just two days after this episode airs. And then final registration ends February 1st. So now that the holidays are passed and you’re thinking about what you want to do for 2024 to become a better researcher, we hope you will join us and start applying DNA to your research. As always, join our newsletter for coupons to find out where we’ll be presenting to my new blog posts, podcasts, and all of the news from FamilyLocket.

Diana (5m 18s):
And then we hope to perhaps see you live at Roots Tech, which is February 29th to March 2nd Nicole. And I’ll be there presenting and we would love to meet any of you who will be there. All right, well, today we are going to talk about one of our Ancestors, and this is my second great-grandmother, Nicole’s third great-grandmother, Harriet Hugget Kelsey. And this is a fun story to talk about. This was one of the 52 ancestors series, and the prompt was Flew the Coop. And when I read that, I thought exactly who I wanted to highlight.

Diana (5m 58s):
This grandma, great-grandmother because she was supposed to inherit a fortune in England, but was disinherited when she joined the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1841 in England. She was to have been in an arranged marriage and would’ve set her up for life, but she later married a man of her choice, William Henry Kel, which set in motion events that would end up with her moving to the United States and Utah and starting a new life. So it is fun to think about Harriet, and today we’re going to talk about some of the early English records for her life and also some of the histories that tell more of the story.

Nicole (6m 46s):
Well, let’s start with one of those histories. Harriett’s granddaughter Lettie D Peterson compiled a history in April of 1929 and writing about her grandmother. She said Harriet Hugget was one of the triplett girls of Thomas and Jane Comer, Hugget born June 6th, 1826 at Lovell Heath, char Wood Parish England. One of the babies died at birth. The remaining two were called Harriet and Esther, they were so much alike that their mother tied a ribbon on the wrist of the older one Harriet to tell them apart. When they were grown, the Mormon elders called them the London twins until they were old ladies. The appearance of these sisters was so identical that it was difficult for a stranger to tell them apart before his marriage.

Nicole (7m 31s):
Even grandfather would become confused in this regard. Harriet always called him Brother Kelsey, and Esther called him Mr. Kelsey, which helped him distinguish them. Isn’t that a fun excerpt from that history? I just love that it gives us some of these details that were clearly passed down from Harriet to her children and her grandchildren that they all remembered because they’re so fun and just interesting to think about You know them being so identical and, and clearly everyone remembered this and the granddaughter was able to write it down.

Diana (8m 5s):
Well, and the other fun thing is we have pictures of both of them. So when we look at the pictures and those are in the blog posts that I wrote, you can see that they really were very, very similar looking. And I think identical twins, often as they get older, maybe kind of develop their own look. But You know in the era, people pretty much dress the same and wear their hair similar. So it’s fun to look at the pictures and imagine these two twins,

Nicole (8m 37s):
Right? Yes, it is. And I have some neighbors with twins, and I cannot tell them apart identical twins. It can be really challenging when you see a pair of identical twins and they’re dressed the same and they look the same to be able to tell them apart, but the people in the family can definitely do it. So I always just think that’s so interesting. Well, Harriett’s twin sister Hester was often called Esther after her immigration to Utah. This was confusing until we found a family group sheet that explained that with an English accent. The name Hester sounded like Esther and researchers have often confused the records for these sisters.

Nicole (9m 23s):
And sometimes people have created separate profiles for Esther and Hester, and that’s probably com complicated by the fact that there is the story that there were triplets born and that one of the babies died at birth.

Diana (9m 38s):
Right? I go into FamilySearch every so often to see what’s going on with, with Esther and Harriet, and every so often there’s a third sister there. We have an Esther and a Hester. So I have to then go and do some merging and fixing it up. So You know we have to be careful when we, when we look at the, at these Ancestors, especially when they’re kind of confusing.

Nicole (10m 2s):
Right. And is the idea that the triplet that died was a stillborn child or wasn’t named?

Diana (10m 9s):
I think so. Yeah. I don’t think we really know anything more than the fact that one of the babies died at birth as in the history, because at this time we don’t have civil registration yet in 1826. And as far as whether anyone has searched for burials for that child, I don’t know. That’s a very good thought. Maybe that would be a good piece of research to do.

Nicole (10m 36s):
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Nicole (11m 16s):
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Diana (11m 20s):
So let’s talk a little bit more about Harriett’s early life. Although she was born into a modest economic situation, she did have an opportunity to live a very different life. And her granddaughter’s history explains that when Harriet and Esther were very small, their father died in 1828 and left their mother with a large family to care for. And as they grew older, the two twins made their home with an older sister, Eliza and her husband. And Eliza and her husband had only one child, a daughter named Emma. They had been very poor when they married, but they grew to be very wealthy.

Diana (12m 2s):
And the granddaughter says whatever they undertook in a financial way, prospered. They ran a store and owned rows of houses in London. Grandmother was to inherit this fortune equally with their daughter as she was considered the same as their own child, but was disinherited when she joined the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While in this home, grandmother had the very best of linens and silver, the most beautiful silks and satins, and in every way she was educated to be a lady. There were servants for all kinds of work and order prevailed everywhere. At the age of 16, she was to have been married to a wealthy young man. All wedding arrangements were made, but Harriet not feeling satisfied broke the engagement.

Diana (12m 44s):
This was a disappointment to her family as this marriage would’ve given her money and position. A number of the family had married poor people. So I think this is so interesting, especially thinking about the class system in England where it was difficult to break out of your class. And so this sister and her husband, it sounds like, had amassed wealth. And here they had an opportunity to have, have Harriet marry into a family that was wealthy and she didn’t wanna do it. So I’ve always remembered that story and thought that was just fascinating.

Nicole (13m 21s):
Wow. Yeah, I think we’re all imagining those books. We’ve read Pride and Prejudice, all the Jane Austen type novels, the engagements and and England at that time with You know the Wealthy Class being very snobbish toward the poor class and even new money was despised and that kind of thing. So it’s interesting to consider that Harriet was living in that time and made the choice to kind of abandon that opportunity to increase her standing in society for something. And let’s find out what that was.

Nicole (14m 2s):
So what, what was that something that she wanted to do that was different than marrying a wealthy person? I mean, obviously there’s the fact that most people don’t want an arranged marriage because they wanna choose their spouse. But even beyond that, what caused Harriet to break her engagement? Well, she had been investigating the doctrine of the relatively new religion being preached by the Latterday Saint Missionaries. And although she was ridiculed by her family for this, she decided to be baptized into this new religion In 1841, her mother, Jane Comar Kelsey, followed suit and was also baptized on June 21st, 1851 by Harriet’s husband to be one of the missionaries.

Nicole (14m 49s):
Elder, William, Henry, Kelsey, Harriet and William got married on September 27th, 1852 in the Church of All Saints, parish of Cro and County of Surrey in England. William was born and raised in Kent County, England, and he had become a missionary later after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And as a missionary, he traveled the countryside in England and taught the gospel around. So Harriet’s granddaughter wrote as grandfather was a poor traveling Elder with no income. Grandmother bought the wedding ring and paid for the wedding breakfast From the time of their marriage, they made their home with her mother.

Nicole (15m 31s):
Grandmother kept up the family expenses by renting a small store and managing it on her own. After grandfather had traveled for some time as a missionary and had presided over the Brighton and Co and branches, he became president of the Kent Conference. After this, he began to draw some salary. Grandmother said that she did not know how she met these family expenses the way she did. The Lord blessed her in every way. She was not only able to keep the family, but she paid for grandfather’s expenses as well. Her husband, William Henry Kelsey was six feet, two inches tall of light complexion and had a dignified bearing. Harriet was small and could stand under his outstretched arm.

Nicole (16m 15s):
She weighed 90 pounds, had a very dark complexion, and her hair was black, shiny, and slightly curly. Well, as you can imagine, it must’ve been challenging to give up wealth in order to marry somebody who was part of a religion that was ridiculed and Harriet then had to make some money for her family. She had to You know work on that and, and I love how this history from her granddaughter talks about how she was meeting the family expenses and renting a small store to manage on her own while her husband was working within the church and not earning the money there.

Diana (16m 56s):
I think she must have had a very strong backbone. She not only left all that, but then she had to keep up the family. And You know, even though she was very small a stature, she must have been just a giant in her personality and her strength. So fun to to read that from her granddaughter. Well, let’s talk about their immigration to Utah. They had decided to immigrate to Utah territory to join other church members, and Harriet told her family of their journey across the Atlantic in the plains to Utah and her granddaughter wrote, she tried to follow the same methods here as in England in bathing her children.

Diana (17m 38s):
She would lie something on the floor for them to stand on as she could not bear the thought of her children standing on the ground. She had to drink out of a tin cup and eat from a tin plate. It was very hard for her to come to this poverty when she’d been used to the best of everything. Yet she never complained. She had been in Springville 13 years before she bought her first pair of shoes. As she had brought so many pairs with her, she was never able to sell any of her shoes. As her feet were so small, she sh sold or exchanged her beautiful clothes, silk, satins, and lovely linen for food and less expensive clothes to wear. So I’ve always remembered that story and pictured her perhaps bringing a trunk or something with her, with all of these things that she would sell along the way to purchase supplies for the trip.

Diana (18m 25s):
And those shoes, she just still had those beautiful shoes. So she probably was someone that everyone in the neighborhood looked up to or You know. They would look, look at her with her English accent and her refined manners. And You know, just makes me wonder what people thought of her

Nicole (18m 44s):
And her fancy shoes.

Diana (18m 48s):
Right.

Nicole (18m 49s):
Well, Harriet and William lived for many years after their immigration to Utah and encountered a lot of difficulties because they weren’t just living in the us. They were living in Utah territory and they were settling a new land. The Utah Desert would’ve seemed much different from the green countryside of their native England. And I can well remember the shock of changing landscapes when we moved, and I was a teenager, we moved from Seattle, which was green and rainy down to Utah, which felt like a desert with brown everywhere. It was just a dry year. But that is quite a different countryside there.

Nicole (19m 29s):
So adjusting to that would’ve been a challenge.

Diana (19m 32s):
Yes. And can you imagine You know, we’ve both been to England and you have the countryside with the green fields and and just slow low hills You know nothing like these enormous mountains. She must have gotten up every day and looked at those mountains and just wondered where in the world she was and why she was there, because it would’ve been so different.

Nicole (19m 51s):
Yeah, that is one thing that is pretty beautiful about Utah is those tall mountains. Well, Harriet died on December 22nd in 1899 and is buried in the historic Springville Cemetery. We have visited the graveside of Harriet and William many times, and we always think of the life she left behind in March of 1892. They wrote letters to their children and grandchildren, and these letters were placed in a box in the cornerstone of the old Springville Utah tithing office. When the letters were opened 50 years later in 1942, they were given to living members of the family.

Nicole (20m 33s):
So in Harriet’s own words, we can see that despite the challenges of her life, she had no regrets about leaving her prosperous life and marrying a poor missionary, settling down in Utah territory in the barren desert. So here’s the letter that she wrote in 1892. It says, to my dear grandchildren, I was born at level Heath Char Wood Parish England on the 6th of June, 1826. I was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints about 50 years ago by Elisha Davis from Utah. While in Croydon, I fed the elders and sent donations to the Navu Temple.

Nicole (21m 13s):
I was married to William Henry Kelsey in 1852, who was then a traveling Elder. He was president of the Kent Conference. I came to America in an immigrant ship called The Monarch of the Sea in 1861. I passed through the Cricket and Grasshopper Wars in Springville Utah. I was a member of The Relief Society in 1868. And in 1877, I was appointed second counselor to Ann d Bringhurst, who was then president. Since I have been a counselor to Sister Bringhurst, we have made hearts glad, made sad homes, happy, cared for the poor and aged and gave many of our blessings. I hope that all my grandchildren live to see the casket opened and read some of the history that was written 50 years ago.

Nicole (21m 58s):
I placed my photo in this casket, and although I will not be alive when it is opened, we will meet in heaven when time will be no more. It’s joys and sorrows, flood. When all its cares are or and numbered with the dead, then eternal life will shine in God’s own presence, all divine. That is such a sweet letter. And I don’t know that I’ve actually read that before and now. so that was kind of touching to think about her actually writing these lines and including those song lyrics at the end. And it really does show that although her life must have been challenging and difficult at times, she was happy to do the things she did and lived a life of service, of helping others and caring for the poor,

Diana (22m 45s):
Right? It’s neat to look at her ancestors and see what we can learn from them. And she certainly had the fortitude as a young woman to change the course of her life and gives us an example of courage and perseverance because I wonder how many times she thought maybe I should just go back when things got hard, did she want to quit? And of course she didn’t. She persevered to the end, and I love that letter she wrote as well. I had never seen that until I was looking at the memory section, writing this blog post that I wrote about her and found that. So if you’ve got something special that’s just in your house or in your files, it’s so great to get it uploaded to FamilySearch so that other descendants that ancestor can enjoy it and learn from it.

Diana (23m 35s):
So I’m very grateful for all those people who have been adding information about Harriet so that we can all benefit from learning. So thanks everyone for listening. We hope you’ve enjoyed this. Look into one of our Ancestors and maybe giving you some ideas about what you can do to write about your own ancestors. Every time I write these blog posts, I learn something new. Just like with that letter, it’s, it’s amazing how putting things together, it’s just a different way to learn, and it’s a wonderful way to share about our ancestors. So thanks everyone for listening, and we’ll talk to you next time. Bye-Bye

Nicole (24m 15s):
Bye. Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, Research Like, a Pro and Research Like a Pro with DA on amazon.com and other booksellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at family Locket dot com slash services. To share your progress and ask questions, join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses to get updates in your email inbox each Monday. Subscribe to our newsletter at FamilyLocket dot com slash newsletter. Please Subscribe rate and review our podcast. We read each review and are so thankful for them. We hope you’ll start now to Research Like a Pro.