Family Origins: The Taylors

In my last post, I examined my family tree and identified the four 3rd great-grandparents who were born in England and came to America. Now I want to focus in on each family branch and their town of origin, starting with the Taylors. My cousin M, who invited me on this trip to England, has been sending me family trees and histories to help me brush up on my knowledge before we visit. I owe most of my genealogical knowledge of the Taylor family to her.

Taylor is very much a part of my identity, my maiden name. A name that survived many generations, sometimes very narrowly. Our Taylor family hails from Whitby, which is situated on the northeast coast of England in the North York Moors. I know from my cousin that my 3rd great grandfather John Taylor (1800-1879) was the son of John Taylor (1765-1809), a master mariner, and Elizabeth Taylor (1775-1862). John owned part of a ship name Prosperous, and he unfortunately died (possibly at sea) in 1809, leaving his widow Elizabeth with three young children: Christiana, John, and George.



Young John Taylor met and married Frances Lockwood (1799-1834) of Skelton in 1824. By some miracle I have a small diary that belonged to John, which covers the time period 1826 to the late 1830s. In it he made notes about earnings as a farm laborer, payments to others, his daughter's schooling, and family events over the course of several years. I have no photos of John and Ellis Taylor, but I do have this small diary that originated in Whitby.

In the early years of their marriage, John and Ellis had two sons that didn't survive infancy followed by a daughter Elizabeth (b.1827) and son George (b.1829) who both died in August 1830. I'm not sure of the cause of their death, but it must have been a childhood illness that was not easily curable at the time. After having suffered the loss of four children, perhaps John and Ellis were ready for a new start in the United States. Perhaps they heard of other Yorkshire families who settled in Southeastern Indiana to farm and freely practice their Methodist faith. Whatever their reason, they set sail for America in 1830 and made their way to Dearborn County, Indiana to settle with others along Tanners Creek. I will continue the story of the Taylors in America in a future post.