Where's That Bolt of Lightning When You Need It?

I'll be honest. Sometimes, doing family history work is not all joy and sunshine.  In fact, many times thunderheads of frustration rain down when people are not where they should be or connections and records that should be there don't just pop up.

My two current cloudbursts are:
1. Where and when did my great great grandparents get married?  George Smith and Elizabeth Altrop were born in England, immigrated to the United States and had children.  We hope that at some point they got married, but there does not seem to be an official record of the event (just their temple sealing in 1891).
  This is a picture of their headstone in Willard, Utah. Note that it says they were married in England in 1867. I can't find a record of this and Elizabeth is still using her maiden name on the ship's manifest in 1869.  Another source says that they were married in April 1867 in Willard; however, they didn't reach the US until 1869.  A note on one of the family group sheets passed along to me says that they were married on the ship coming to America. No one who kept a journal on that voyage made note of any marriage.  The 1900 census reports that they have been married for 30 years.

Can I get an umbrella here?

2.  Who are John Marsden and Hannah Maria Sunderland?

This is a note among other notes that I believe were prepared by my great grandfather Charles Smith.  All of the other notes pertain to family members.  But who are these two people?  I can't find any connection with the family, although these were certainly real people (I found them in the census).  On the new Familysearch Family Tree, these two are a little island without any children and no connection to anyone through their parents.  I feel sorry for them, all alone out there, but are they related to my family? 

I'm wishing for a raincoat!

Family Factoids

Ahh, the mind as it resists all efforts at sleep.  Who can explain the wanderings and permutations of thought, or the "pairs" and patterns in our family?

• Milton and Mildred.  
• The family groups include girl-boy-girl boy (Kent and Ann, Kerry and Melissa) and boy-boy-girl (Richard and Debra, Eric and Shannon).   Jeff and I had no children.  Alan made his own pair by having twins. 
• The two girls among the siblings married into the names Crandall and Wrathall.

• Typing a list of the family names might wear out the letter A key.  Alan, Ann, Aaron, Allison, Audrey, Ashlynn, Afton.
• The surname most revised by a two letter transition: Wrathall to Warthall.

Are there more?  Only another bout of insomnia will provide the answer. . . .

Sarah Maria Perry Stokes Darrington

I talked a little about Lillie Veletty Stokes Smith, my great grandmother, in an earlier post.  Lillie's mother was Sarah Maria Perry.

Maria, as they called her, was born during the Civil War, although it may not have affected her much.  Her place of birth, now called Perry, Utah, was far removed from any battles.  One source says that she was baptized on January 1, 1869, but since this was before she turned 8, I have some question about that.

Endowment House

 She married William Stokes, Jr in the Salt Lake Endowment House in 1879, when she was almost 17 years  old.

Maria with husband William

William and Maria had two girls born in Perry (one of which was Lillie, my great grandmother) and then the small family moved to Elba, Idaho sometime between 1880 and 1883.  Lillie wrote that they were some of the first settlers in the area.  They had two sons born near Elba, but Maria didn't stay long after that because William died in 1885.  Maria moved back to Utah to be near family.

The story goes that a former neighbor from Elba, John Darrington, came to visit the Perrys in Utah to look for a housekeeper after his wife had died.  He asked Maria to come back to Elba to care for him and his children.  The response was that she'd go as his wife, not as his housekeeper. By 1887, Maria was back in Elba as the wife of John Darrington.

After she married John Darrington, Maria became not only a housekeeper but eventually, a dairy farmer. She lived the rest of her life in the tiny community of Elba and is buried in the Elba Grandview Cemetery.

Maria's grave marker