Margaret Bond

Research about Wm Bond family's and Sarah's Trip Across the Ocean -- New Findings!

This article is written to explain the research I did to prove that the William Bond family did NOT come on the Ark Wright and also the ship used by Sarah when she came at a later date to the USA. --Marla E. Morgan Bezold 24 Sept 2022 John Bond wrote the wrong ship and arrival date in his book. I am now working with the Church History Dept. to correct this. I suggest that you remove the mention of the "Ark Wright" and date from the ancestor's profiles! See my comments --Marla E. Morgan Bezold, GG Granddaughter of Sarah Bond, John's oldest sister. I realized that John was just 4 yrs. old when they made the trip and that Sarah (my ancestor) did not go with the family. I discovered that Sarah had a large red birthmark on her face and her Barker grandparents would not allow her to go to the United States with her parents. They were afraid of what other people might say to hurt her. I knew the years the Bond family came to the US and went thru the passenger lists. I knew that the grandparents would not let Sarah come alone because of her age (unmarried young girls could not travel alone) and have researched the story that Mary Ann's brother was trying to convince a lady who had come to the US to marry him. The story (not true) is that the uncle brought Sarah. He was a joiner (woodworker) who almost caused his family to become bankrupt while trying to get married, and I couldn't find Sarah in the church passenger lists with the rest of the family. I looked at the England censuses and found that Sarah's grandfather Barker died quite soon after his daughter Mary Ann and her husband William Bond and the rest of the children left England. Sarah lived with her grandmother who was a widow who did not join the church. Sarah's grandmother was working as a laundress for several men who must have been lodgers in her home, and I thought about it. The grandma was not a member of the church and families who were making the trip across the ocean would pay the way for "servants" to go to the US to help care for their children during the voyage, so I just tried New York because a lot of people came through that port. If her grandmother was a washer woman, she did not have very much income. She would probably try to save money because she did not have very much at this time in her life. I found Sarah with a family on the "Andrew Forster." I didn't have to look at very many years because I knew Sarah was not listed in the census in Rhode Island, where her parents first settled, but did appear in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1855 with her parents. (US censuses). It was just a bunch of good guesses because I have studied and thought about genealogy a long time. I then contacted the man in charge of the BYU Family Search Library, Joe Everett, and he helped me contact the church history office in SLC so that the records for Sarah's parents, siblings, and for her could be corrected. I sent my proof to them of my research. I have had to make big changes before on different lines, so I don't know why I have this talent, I just do. I guess the Holy Ghost helps me put clues together to find out about the dead! Also, I am now age 71 and have had a lot of experience reading the histories that I have collected since I was about 8 yrs. old. Oh, and knowing that John was only 4 helped a great deal. You don't remember too much from when you are 4, so I just looked at passenger lists for the yr. they traveled. The "Ark Wright" sounded a lot like the ship he actually traveled on. The William Bond family, including John, came on the "Anglo American." There it was! The William Bond family was on the passenger list of the "Anglo American." Incidentally, the church history department gave me a new clue. They asked me if I knew who the other John Bond was who traveled with William Bond and his family. She said he was a first cousin to William. I have not had time to research this information, but it gives all of us an opportunity to...