Following the Line: Charles - Isaac - John - Isaac - ?

Here's the Brick Wall: Isaac Law and Martha Parkinson were married in Felkirk Parish, Yorkshire, England on May 8, 1764. Prior to his marriage we really don't know where Isaac came from: where he was born, where he lived, etc.

The marriage record is very brief: "May 8th. Isaac Law & Martha Parkinson of this Parish & Banns."

Marriage by banns indicates that the impending marriage was announced for three consecutive weeks prior to the ceremony so that any objections from the Parish could come forth.

Isaac died September 15, 1819 and was buried 2 days later on the 17th. He died in South Hiendley, a village in the Felkirk Parish. The burial record indicates that he was 89 years of age, placing his birth sometime about 1730.

So in 1764 Isaac was of the Parish of Felkirk, but this only means that he had resided in the parish for the minimum of a few weeks. He could have been there for a few weeks, a few years, or decades. However, careful inspection of the parish registers reveals no birth record for Isaac in the Felkirk Parish.

So where was he born? In an attempt to come up with some good possibilities I culled from FamilySearch 5,000 Laws born in Yorkshire. I would have limited to a specific range of years, except the search engine won't allow that without a given name. After deleting some some that were women whose married name was actually something other than Law (or Lawe, Lawes, or Laws) I have a list of just over 4,600 Laws. Here are the top 22 towns and cities for Laws being born and/or christened in Yorkshire.

Todmorden, Yorkshire, England	701
Sheffield, Yorkshire, England	632
Halifax, Yorkshire, England	275
Rotherham, Yorkshire, England	136
Yorkshire, England	112
Birstall, Yorkshire, England	104
York, Yorkshire, England	93
Wath-upon-Dearne, Yorkshire, England	89
Wakefield, Yorkshire, England	88
Leeds, Yorkshire, England	80
Cantley, Yorkshire, England	77
South Hiendley, Yorkshire, England	77
Bradford, Yorkshire, England	72
Hartshead, Yorkshire, England	71
Horbury, Yorkshire, England	63
Egton, Yorkshire, England	50
Elland, Yorkshire, England	50
Swinton, Yorkshire, England	47
Brampton, Yorkshire, England	40
Sedbergh, Yorkshire, England	39
South Kirkby, Yorkshire, England	39
Walsden, Yorkshire, England	38
Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England	37
Heck, Yorkshire, England	36

Obviously Todmorden and Sheffield have the "Lion's Share" of Laws. I've contacted a researcher who has connected up most of the Laws in Todmorden and our Isaac doesn't fit in anywhere.  Some of the other localities here remain good possibilities. Isaac married Martha Parkinson who was born in Hunslet, which was a Chapelry of Leeds until 1719 when it was made a parish itself. Hunslet is 130th in the ranking of places with Laws in Yorkshire, having only 4 in the IGI. The four entries are all for Hannah Law with two records indicating her birth on 12 Aug 1759 and two other records indicating her christening on 12 Aug 1759.

It's also worth noting that the last entry in the list shows that some of the Laws came from Heck (is that a good place to be from?).

The following map shows the proximity of Hunslet and Leeds to South Hiendley and Felkirk.

To see this map on FamilySearch's English Jurisdictions project click Here.

Marriage of Isaac Law (1730-1819) and Martha Parkinson (1733-1798)

Isaac Law and Martha Parkinson were married by banns in the Parish of Felkirk, Yorkshire, England, on 8 May 1764. The entry indicates that they were both "of this parish" at the time they were married.

click on image to enlarge

This marriage entry comes from FHL film 919298, item 3.

Marriage Record of John Law and Sarah White

Here is the marriage record of John Law and Sarah White. This comes from the parish registers of the Church of Clayton-with-Frickley in Yorkshire, England on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL 1595241).

Click on image to enlarge

No 67 John Law of the Parish of Felkirk Batchelor
and Sarah White of this
Parish spinster were
Married in this Church by License
this tenth Day of May in the Year One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Ninety five by me Jo: [John] Armitage Minister
This Marriage was solemnized between us John Law [and] Sarah White
In the Presence of Jonathan White [and] Abraham White

Jonathan was Sarah's brother and Abraham was Sarah's father.

Charles Law in the Deseret News, October 26, 1859

Charles Law appears in the following newspaper article which appeared in the Deseret News on October 26, 1859 (page 8). The article indicates that he spent some portion of 1858 in the Salt Lake City 13th ward and owed $2.00 in taxes.

click image to enlarge
image from Utah Digital Newspaper Project

This image comes from the Utah Digital Newspapers project at http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/ a terrific resource for family and local historians created by the Marriott Library at the University of Utah (see the entire page on their website by clicking here).

Charles had arrived in Salt Lake on September 26, 1857. The Bocock sisters had preceded him arriving on September 12, 1857. According to information passed down through the family Charles married Hannah Bocock on September 29 or 30, Elizabeth on October 1 or 2, and Emma somewhere between October 22nd and 29th. According to the Endowment House Sealing records Charles and Hannah were sealed on January 17, 1858 in President Young's office. Charles and Elizabeth were sealed on January 31, 1858 also in President Young's office. Charles and Emma were not sealed until March 12, 1859 in the home of B. L. Aaron Johnson. Following the completion of the Endowment House they were all re-sealed on August 31, 1861. These sealings can be viewed on Family History Library film 183395, Endowment House Sealings, Book C, pp. 264-265, 266-267, 334-335, and 550.

If the family was in the Salt Lake City 13th ward in 1858, then it was only until April, for in April they headed south with most of the other saints as Johnston's Army approached Salt Lake. Many went to Provo and Springville at this time. Most returned in July, but Charles' family hadn't ever really established themselves in Salt Lake, so they simply stayed on in Springville.

I did check through the Salt Lake 13th ward records for any evidence of the marriages that took place and for any move-in/move-out type records mentioning Charles or his wives, but to no avail. The record-keeping at the ward level wasn't very well done during this period of Church history.