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William FIELD was born, as far as I can find out, in Pocklington, East Riding, Yorkshire. His date of birth is unknown, but judging by his obituary would have been in 1810. As a child he came to Montreal, Canada, with his parents, probably in 1815. His parents hated Canada, and returned to England, leaving William behind. Who was he left with? Were there other children? An 1825 census of Montreal listed a Stephen FIELD along with children who could have been of the right age. Was this the right family? Was Stephen an older brother? An uncle or other relative?
Around 1833 William married Ann POTTER, daughter of Edward POTTER and Grace WAITE. The POTTER family had come to Montreal from Leeds, West Riding, Yorkshire. Edward had gotten sick on the voyage and died shortly after their arrival. Grace came to live with her daughter and new son-in-law. Between 1833 and 1837 William and Ann had three children: Elizabeth in 1834, Mary in 1835, and Sarah in 1836. They also became Mormons!
How or when they were first exposed to the Mormons I don't know, but they were baptized in the LDS in October of 1837, in Toronto, Canada by Theodore Turley. Afterward they moved on to Ohio, where they became part of the long Mormon 'hegira'. By 1846 they had a son, John C. FIELD, I think in Council Bluffs. In 1847 they were part of the "Second Hundred" wagon train to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately for the family's faith, the Mormon elders expanded the practise of polygamy when they got to Salt Lake. With three young daughters, the FIELD parents became disgusted with the "sight of the old men who haunt the arrival of each new group of wagons, greedily seeking out likely looking young females". They determined to take their family away, but they knew that would be a dangerous and difficult proposition. It wasn't until June of 1848, when Brigham Young had gone east, that the FIELD's and two other like-thinking families snuck out of Salt Lake City and headed their wagons to Missouri. They stayed in St Joseph's Missouri, where Joseph Thomas FIELD (my G-Grandfather) was born, late in 1848. By 1850 they had collected another wagon train and travelled to Porterville, California, where William opened a General Store.
Here's the problem: As a result of their leaving the Church "without counsel" the FIELD's became 'apostates' and all mention of them was removed from almost all Church records, at least the ones that are publicly available. I suspect there are still records, or at least some notation about this family at the main FH Library in Salt Lake. I say that because every volunteer and professional who has agreed to do a lookup for me has never come back with anything, but the Mormons among them have refused to even communicate further with me, while those who weren't Mormons just say they were unable to find anything. Back in the 1970's my Aunt Ruth and Great-Aunt Bess entered into voluminous correspondence with the Church Archivists, giving the various proofs we have from public and Church documents, diaries of fellow travellers, and even photographs. Finally the Archivists wrote a letter to my Aunt Ruth acknowledging that yes, this family had been LDS members, they had been in Salt Lake City from 1847 to 1848, and had left the Church without counsel in June of 1848. They still refused, though, to change any Church rosters or papers to reflect that. Pfui!!
I would dearly love to connect William to his ancestors, submit it to the IGI, and see what happens. I don't suppose anybody out there has a stray FIELD or two they could hook in??
