A Matrilineal Chart for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! For the occasion, here is a chart of matrilineal descent, with pictures where possible. I have joked before that my matrilineal line goes straight back to Scotland, and that's where I got all my qualities of frugality and thrift. (This post is originally from May 2011, here updated and republished.)

My mother with her mother, Beverly Lucille Glade Wessman (1924–2008). Grandmother Beverly was a friendly and hospitable woman and enjoyed spending time with her large extended family.

Beverly's mother was Lucy Lucile Green Glade (1898–1980). She lived in Salt Lake City her entire life and liked to travel during her long widowhood.

Lucile's mother was Mary Isabell Pettit Green (1866–1905). We have a copy of her charming diary from when she was dating her husband. She died from complications of childbirth, and left several young children.

Mary's mother was Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit (1845–1922). She liked to tell the story that when she was a teenager she was so sick that the doctor told her she would never have children. She had fourteen, plus her three step-children.

Rebecca's mother was Isabella Hood Hill (1821–1847). She was born and married in Canada, and died as a young mother and Mormon refugee at Winter Quarters, near today's Omaha, Nebraska.

Isabella's mother was Margaret Bisland Hood (1791–1856). Born in Glasgow, Scotland, she and her husband emigrated to Canada in 1820 with the Lanark Society Settlers.

Margaret's mother was Agnes Pollack Bisland or Bilsland (1762–1842) of Glasgow, Scotland. Agnes's mother may have been Jean Glass Pollack, and her mother may have been Marjorie Geddes Glass, but there does not appear to be any comprehensive and reliable research on these families.

The picture of Rebecca Hill Pettit is from FamilySearch, courtesy of Sharon Wilbur. The next picture is from a family collection and is said to be Isabella Hood Hill and is historically possible, but the exact source of the attribution and any knowledge of the existence of the original has been lost to time. The picture from the gate of the Winter Quarters Pioneer Cemetery where Isabella Hood Hill is buried is from Flickr, courtesy of Dan McLean. The picture of Margaret Hood's gravestone in Creemore Union Cemetery, Simcoe, Norfolk, Ontario, is from FindAGrave, courtesy of Jan Darby. The photo of the Glasgow Cathedral is from Pixabay. 

Notable Relatives: Mitt Romney

This is a very occasional series about notable descendants of some of the people featured on this blog.

Willard Mitt Romney, currently slated to become the presidential nominee for the Republican Party in the 2012 general election, is a descendant of Archibald Newell Hill and his first wife, Isabella Hood Hill. Archibald and Isabella were Scots living in Canada when they met two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Samuel Lake and James Standing. The Hill family joined the Church and set out for Nauvoo and then started west with the Saints. Isabella died at Winter Quarters. Archibald set off across the plains and his sisters took his three small children, Samuel, Hannah, and Rebecca, to the Salt Lake Valley. Archibald later remarried (several times) and had a large family.

Standing, left to right: Archibald Newell Hill, Samuel Hood Hill. Seated, left to right: Hannah Hood Hill Romney, Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

I have wondered a time or two if it could have ever crossed the mind of Archibald and Isabella as they left Scotland, and then as they left Canada for the United States that theirs would be an integral part of the American dream: immigrants leaving old Europe and establishing a home in America and having their descendants become doctors and lawyers and professors and governors and even a possible president of the United States.

Romney's descendancy is:

Archibald and Isabella Hill

Hannah Hood Hill Romney

Gaskell Romney

George Wilcken Romney

Willard Mitt Romney

Our line is:

Archibald and Isabella Hill

Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit

Mary Isabell Pettit Green

Lucile Green Glade

Beverly Glade Wessman

This means that Grandma Beverly was a third cousin to the current candidate.

I personally find this relation only mildly interesting since Romney, being descended as he is from Archibald Hill, Miles Romney, Parley P. Pratt, Charles Wilcken, and others (see my Brief Guide to Mitt Romney's Polygamous Heritage) probably has many tens of thousands of cousins in the Church today, and it's neither rare nor novel to be related to him.

Note: I have extensive materials about Archibald and Isabella Hill and their families. They lived fascinating and complicated lives, but for a variety of reasons I will probably not get around to blogging about them until next year.

Hannah Hill Romney Album: Sisters

Archibald and Isabella Hood Hill had two daughters, Hannah and Rebecca. Here are pictures of the two of them. The first was sent by Pettit cousin Cheryl and shows Rebecca Hill Pettit with her husband Edwin Pettit.

This picture of Hannah with five children was sent by Sharon Wilbur and Christy Madsen to help with the identification of the pictures in this project.

Here is a picture from the Hannah Hill Romney Album. 

When I first saw this picture, I thought it was Hannah, but I looked at it again and think it is probably Rebecca. Here are some close-ups.

Rebecca Hill Pettit.

Picture from album.

Hannah Hill Romney.

Hannah Hill Romney. From Orson Pratt Brown website.

What do you think? I just looked at a web page on facial recognition technology. Facial recognition software evidently creates a "faceprint" using several criteria:

• Distance between the eyes
• Width of the nose
• Depth of the eye sockets
• The shape of the cheekbones
• The length of the jaw line ("How Facial Recognition Systems Work," howstuffworks.com)

Based on those guidelines, the first two pictures look like the best match, and I conclude this is Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit.

And to add to the data, the following picture was identified as Rebecca Hill Pettit. Could it be Hannah? It looks like her, but the girl does not look like the picture of Hannah's daughter Isabell at that age. It does look like Rebecca's daughter, Mary, so I conclude that this is also Rebecca Hill Pettit, as previously identified.

As always, please contact me if you have questions or comments or positive identifications or other pictures of these people. Leave a comment or send an email to the address listed in the sidebar.

Amazing New Find: The Hannah Hill Romney Photo Album

Several days ago, a distant cousin emailed with the news of an amazing find. Hannah Hood Hill Romney's photo album had been kept by her daughter-in-law, Ethel Call Romney, and she left this note with the album, which was found recently by one of her descendants.

In 1969 when Ethel Romney wrote this note, it would have been difficult to identify the photographs, but due to technological advances, we may be able to tell the identities of some or all of the people in the pictures.

A Few Notes About Hannah Hood Hill Romney and Her Family

Hannah Hood Hill (1842-1929) was the daughter of Archibald Newell Hill (1816-1900) and Isabella Hood Hill (1821-1847). Archibald and Isabella were Scottish immigrants to Canada. Two children were born, Hannah and her brother Samuel Hood Hill (1840-1903), before the family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Nauvoo where Rebecca Hood Hill [Pettit] (1845-1922) was born. Hannah's mother Isabell died at Winter Quarters as the Saints were headed west.

In 1862, Hannah married Miles Park Romney (1843-1904) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Miles left almost immediately after their marriage for a three-year mission to England. After he returned, the Romney family moved several times, first to help build the town of St. George in southern Utah, then to help establish St. Johns in eastern Arizona, then to help found the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

Hannah had eleven children. She told about her life in a touching and detailed autobiography which unfortunately is not available online.

After Miles Park Romney died in 1904, Hannah and his other wives, Catharine Cottam Romney (1855-1918) and Annie Woodbury Romney (1858-1930), sold the family ranch in Mexico. Hannah spent much of the rest of her life living with her children and her sister, Rebecca Hill Pettit.

Hannah was visiting family in the Colonies in Mexico when she died in 1929.

Some Pictures from the Photo Album

Please leave comments or send an email (see my email address on the sidebar) if you know the subject of any of the pictures posted today or subsequently or if you can tell us anything about  the details of the pictures or photographers.

Here is the first picture.

This picture was taken by Charles Outon in Landport, which is in England. The identification on the back of the picture says, "A. N. Hill & Son." It is written in Spencerian script, which means that the person who identified the picture was probably educated in the Nineteenth Century, so it may be an accurate identification. Here are known pictures of Archibald and Samuel to compare, and the identification looks correct.

Archibald Hill as a missionary. This picture is courtesy of Sharon Wilbur, and is not from the Hannah Hill Romney Album.

Back (left to right): Archibald Hill, Samuel Hill. Front: Hannah Hill Romney, Rebecca Hill Pettit. This picture is courtesy of Sharon Wilbur, and is not from the Hannah Hill Romney Album.

When was Archibald Hill in England? An anonymously-written family history notes:

Archibald served a mission in 1865 (2 years and 4 months) to Birmingham and Southampton and traveled 3,657 miles by foot; 7,631 miles by railroad; 8,786 miles by water; attended 318 public meetings; preached 253 sermons; and baptized 10 persons. He visited his place of birth and met with an uncle. On his way home was appointed charge over a steamship of Saints going to America. [Here is the record of the journey of the Manhattan, with Archibald Hill presiding over the Saints.]

Samuel Hood Hill was in England about the same time and he headed another company of Saints traveling to America on the ship Caroline a year before his father returned home. [Account of the journey.] The picture of Archibald and Samuel Hill may have been taken before Samuel left England on May 5, 1866.

Here is another picture from Hannah Romney's photo album.

The photographers, Charles R. Savage and George M. Ottinger, operated in Salt Lake City from December 1863 to 1872.

I think this is a picture of Miles Park and Hannah Romney's oldest daughter, Isabell Hill Romney Platt; first, because it looks like her, and second, because she is shown alone without any siblings.

Isabell's father left on a mission to England before she was born in 1863 and returned when she was three years old. Perhaps Hannah had this picture taken to send to Miles in England, since Isabell appears to be one or two years old.

Here is a later picture of Isabell to compare to the subject of this photograph, as well as a picture of Miles Park Romney since Isabell has a very strong resemblance to her father.

From Findagrave. This is a copy of a picture from Life Story of Miles Park Romney (Thomas C. Romney, Independence, Missouri, 1948), f310.

A close-up of the child in the picture in the Hannah Hill Romney photo album.

Miles Park Romney. From Findagrave. This may be a copy of a picture from Life Story of Miles Park Romney (Thomas C. Romney, Independence, Missouri, 1948), frontispiece.

The picture of Archibald and Samuel Hill and the picture of Isabell Romney Platt were the first photographs in the collection. We will be posting many more and hopefully with the help of online resources and descendants who see this blog, we will be able to identify many of the people in the photographs.

Another Guest Post: Eminent Women: Isabell Romney Platt and Charlotte von Schiller

The next post in the Eminent Women series is about Isabell Hill Romney Platt. Isabell was the daughter of Miles Park Romney and Hannah Hood Hill Romney.

Hannah Hood Hill Romney was the sister of Rebecca Hood Hill Pettit. The two sisters were close their entire lives and despite great distances, they were able to spend a good amount of time with each other. After Hannah left Mexico, she lived with Rebecca a couple of times. I wish we had their correspondence!

Isabell Hill Romney Platt was named after her grandmother, Isabell(a) Hood Hill. To connect her to our family line, Isabell was the first cousin of Mary Isabell Pettit Green. Isabell Romney Platt's children were second cousins to our great-grandmother, Lucile Green Glade.

And I'm sure by now everyone is dying to know, during this curious election season, how all these people are connected to the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Miles Park Romney was a polygamist. He had five wives and thirty children. His first wife was Hannah Hood Hill. Isabell Hill Romney was Miles and Hannah's first child, born while Miles was in England on a mission. One of Isabell's younger brothers, Gaskell, also a son of Hannah Hill Romney, is Mitt Romney's grandfather. This makes Mitt Romney a third cousin of grandma Beverly. (And now you know.)

So, head over to Keepapitchinin to read about Isabell Hill Romney Platt, and the woman whose temple work she did.

Seen at the DUP Museum

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers has a rather amazing museum, stuffed with pioneer artifacts and pictures and histories, next to the Utah State Capitol. During a visit yesterday, while in the basement display room, my eye fell on a green tin, about 6" wide by 6" high (plus a handle) by about 4" deep.

The typed display note said, "Tea canister bought in Farmington, Canada in 1840 by Isabella Hood. She died in Winter Quarters in 1847. Donor Edwin Pettit."

The tin is a green color, much used, and what is of the most interest was a paper pasted to the front of the tin. It said, in beautiful lettering,

This tin Canister [sic] was Bought by my wife Isabella Hood in Farmington 27 Miles North of the [unreadable] in Toronto Canada Just before we were married [unreadable] February 27th 1840. She died in Winter Quarters 20. March 1847 A. N. Hill

What an interesting and unusual primary source!

Picture of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum from www.flickr.com/photos/katieelaine/1785518052/.