With seven weeks to go before we enter the Missionary Training Center, there is still time to tell a bit more about our origins.  The next several posts should be about our ancestors who first joined the church. Then, if time permits, maybe just a few pictures about our present family.


I think I'll try to start each post with a pedigree chart showing just how this person is related to us.  Then, when possible, a few photos of the grandparent and an unmercifully brief history of their lives.  They are fascinating people.  If anyone wants to learn more about them, they are welcome to contact me through a comment.  For some of these people there is a wealth of published information.  For others there is not so much.

So here goes.

Job and Francis Elizabeth Yeoman Welling

Job was born: 1833  in   Audlem, England

Job is my 2nd Great-grandfather on  my father's line

Audlem, England. is in  the west central part of England.

He married his first wife in 1852 when he was 19 years old and she was 21.

Job's profession was a tailor, a skill that stood him in good stead throughout his life.  He used it to not only earn a living, but as a most valuable asset as he walked across the American Great Plains, being able to mend wagon covers and tents.

Job Welling: English tailor

Job Welling: Handcart pioneer, father

Job joined the "Mormon" church in England.  He met his wife, Francis Elizabeth Yeoman while serving as a traveling elder for the church.

He was given the choice by his parents - he could keep his faith or his family.  He chose his faith.



He was actually born Job Wellings, but when the family somewhat disowned him, he said, "I stand alone.. .   My name is now Welling".

A street today in Audlem, England

 

 

 

 

 

Audlem Church: built in 1278

Grammar school: 1655 ?

Home of John Wellings  1840

Job,  Francis and their year-old son, Job Jr., left England in April 1856 on the ship S. Curling.  They arrived in Iowa in time to join with the first of the fabled handcart companies.  273 people started on the pioneer trek, 228 lived to reach the Salt Lake Valley.  Included among the fatalities was 19-month-old Job Jr.

Francis died nine years after reaching the valley, at about the age of 35.  Job remarried a while later.  Then remarried again (to his wife's sister).  Then remarried again (to another of his wive's sisters).  Shortly after the wedding to his 4th wife Job was called on a mission to Australia where he served for 2 years.  I guess someone figured enough was enough!

On the way out, he went by way of England (don't ask why.  That seems like the long way to me, too.)  While there he spent considerable time around the old homestead.  Well aware of how much he had changed in the 19 years since he had left, Job took great delight in hanging around the local gathering places and dropping reminiscences and names, all the while watching with good humor as people gradually realized who he was.  His reunion with his father went well, and they seem to have been reconciled.  Sadly, his mother died not too much before Job's return.

Job died in Utah 7 March 1886, at age 53.  He left behind 3 wives and 20 children.  If you look at the painting of the organization of the first primary, you might notice one of the adults there looks remarkably like the photo of Job shown above.  He was in the bishopric of the ward at that time, and we believe that he is the one who was painted in that scene.  The stories the struggles and triumphs of his surviving wives and children are wonderful to read.  The 3 wives were the daughters of Jonathan Holmes - another early pioneer and a member of the Mormon Battalion.  He was preceded in death by a lot of people throughout history, but of especial significance were his first wife, Francis, Job Jr., and seven other children.  Willard and Annie were the two children of Francis who lived to maturity.

Job's faith was strong to the end of his life.  He knew and loved his Savior and the restored gospel which he had dedicated his life to.

Most of this history is taken from the Welling Blue Book.  The snarky comments are strictly my own.  I'm sure someone will call me to account for them.