The Grand Old Duke of York ...

Linda and I are here in York (miraculously by some accounts). There has been flooding (big news in England – little news in the US) which has made driving a little more difficult. Someone said “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…” Our marriage is definitely getting stronger. We rented a GPS along with the car and now I have two women giving me directions. If I make a mistake, one says “at the earliest convenience, please turn the car around”. The other says, “NOOOOO!” Both are very helpful. Mom and I have forgiven each other. I am still not speaking to Ms. Tom Tom.

We met some of the folks who have been helping with Turpin family research. It is curious how they all professional genealogists are smiling. Below are David and Angela Taylor.

We found the old church in Ferrybridge where John Turpin’s grandfather lived. The old church still stands, but not in the same location. Due to chronic flooding and a new coal generating plant the old church was moved and rebuilt stone by stone. We met the vicar and he put us in touch with the lady who cleans the church, who drove us to the old church site where there is the original graveyard. We looked through the old headstones, but saw no familiar names. The graves date from the early to mid 1800’s. John Turpin Turpin died in Hunsworth in 1840. His grandfather would have been considerably earlier. We feel fortunate to have seen the church where he attended.

Today we are off gravelooking and plan to see a distant cousin, Simon Charles Turpin, who is the only surviving ancestor of the Turpin family that has been located. Amazing how the Turpins who left for America have flourished and those who stayed behind have dwindled.

As a reminder, the genealogy is as follows:
Mary Turpin married John Bennion (his 3rd wife). They had Edwin - my grandfather. Mary and her father William Turpin (along with his wife and other children) came west with Brigham Young from Nauvoo. William was a wheelwright and stayed behind to make wagon wheels for the others coming west. (Thus the talk “To Them of the Last Wagon” by J. Reuben Clark was literally referring to them.) William had come to America – his brother Abraham, also a wheelwright, stayed behind. Simon Charles Turpin (whom we hope to meet today) is the last of Abraham’s family (that we know of). He may be surprised to learn how many thousands of distant cousins he has in the US. I have been asked by the Turpin Family organization to give him a book about Utah along with an invitation to learn more about his American cousins. I plan to stop just short of announcing that all are coming to visit in the near future….