Puzzles and Mysteries in the DEWSNUP Genealogy
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Mysteries 1, 2 & 3 have been solved.
4. Joseph Dewsnup (son of John and Jemima) joined the RLDS church after his return to
England. Supposedly he was estranged from his American kinfolk but we have found a copy of
his life story in the possession of Elaine Rand. Does anyone know who has the original and how
did it get to the USA?
5. How did the life story of Joseph Dewsnup (1839 - 1908) get to America? Joseph returned to
England and presumably cut off contact with the rest of the Dewsnups in America ( according to
what my father (Nephi) told his family. The story titled "Links from the Chain of Memory"
appears to have been written in the latter half of his life i.e. after 1876. I know it was not written
for or by his grandson Nephi because of the contents of a letter written by Nephi in 1938 to
Phoebe Smoot. (See next puzzle). The only known contact with Joseph was with his younger
brother Hyrum while on a mission to England in 1882. Do any members of the Hyrum line know
any facts about the origin of this story?
6. Some life stories give inaccurate information about the emigration of John and Jemima and
their children from England to America such as all the family including Joseph sailed in 1855 to
Philadelphia, that Joseph and his family and his father John returned to England etc. See Ann's
life story among others. Where did this inaccuracy come from?
I have a possible explanation. I have found a letter written by Nephi Dewsnup to Phoebe Smoot
dated 1st Oct. 1938 in which he states:
"...As far as I understand I am in the line of direct descent from the head of the great Dewsnup
clan. I am Nephi, I was born 12th Feb. 1891 at Manchester, England, eldest son of John Ritson
Dewsnup who was the eldest son of Joseph Dewsnup.
From the information in my possession I understand my grandfather Joseph was born at
Manchester, England on the 6th Mar.1839. He was baptised into the church in 1849 and on the
27th Feb. 1855 sailed from Liverpool on the S.S. Siddons on route to Zion. He was accompanied
by his father (Jonathan) and his mother and his brothers Hyrum and John and his sisters Phoebe
and Ann (that would be your mother). They landed at Philadelphia on 20th April 1855 and in
1857 Joseph married Annie Ritson whom he met on the sailing ship. Grandma (Ann Ritson
Dewsnup) was born in Castleton, Isle of Man.
They stayed three years in Philadelphia, during which time a disagreement arose among the
family regarding polygamy. Joseph and his wife and father (Jonathan) left the family but great
grandma with Hyrum and John , Phoebe and Ann went to Utah and settled in Fillmore in 1864.
In 1868 great grandfather rejoined the family at Fillmore, but Joseph returned to England in
August 1860 and his eldest son John Ritson Dewsnup (my father) was born in Manchester
shortly afterwards...."
This information is woefully incorrect - here are the true facts:
Joseph DEWSNUP (1839-1908), son of John and Jemima, emigrated on his own to the USA in
1855 on the "SS Siddons" which landed at Philadelphia. There he worked as an Umbrella
manufacturer (1860 census) He, his wife Ann RITSON (whom he met on the "SS Siddons") and
daughter returned to England in 1860. His daughters, Sarah Ann and Margaret were christened in
Manchester Cathedral on 25 Dec 1860.
Jemima and her children Ann, Phoebe, John and Hiram left England on the 28th April 1864 on
the "Monarch of the Sea" and landed in New York on 3rd June 1864. The next report we have is
Jemima, Ann, Phoebe and Hyrum (no John) arrive on 26th August 1864 in the Greater Salt Lake
area on Capt. John R. Murdock's mule train from Wyoming Nebraska. Jemima's and the 4
children's expenses were paid by the Perpetual Emigration fund. George Finlinson was a fellow
passenger on the "Monarch of the Sea" and he kept a daily diary of the trip to New York and then
up the Hudson river to the Great Lakes, to Chicago and then to Wyoming, Nebraska. Since the
passengers on this ship were LDS emigrants and the son of Hyrum Smith was the President of
the ship's party, it can be surmised that they all traveled the route described by George Finlinson.
In this case the family was nowhere near Philadelphia where Joseph had lived years before. John
Dewsnup the father left England on the "Belle Wood" in 1865 and joined his wife Jemima in
Fillmore/Deseret.
I have seen the ship's passenger lists, the entry for the arrival in SL and read George Finlinson
diary to confirm the above events - Margaret Wagstaff
Did the American Dewsnups presume that this information was accurate and so this was how this
misinformation spread? The above letter gives the father's name as 'Jonathan'. Is this where the
spelling came from? Or did this information come from another source?