Puzey Family

Fred Emily and young Fred Puzey.jpg, a photo by whistlepunch on Flickr.

(To read the full post - please click on the post to get it to open up in full view)

I love getting a request to share or to find out some information. But I am not always as prepared to do this easily as I could be. When my aunt Sandy called to help direct her to the Puzey family history, I knew that  while there was a lot of information available, I haven't made it very easy to find!

So in this and primarily my next post, I'll try to pull together the bits and pieces I have scattered across the world wide web.

Starting with finding photos. Even these aren't all in one convenient spot. I use Flickr for my personal photos and that includes some family photos (click here for the Puzey Family set - a mix of unidentified and known photos)  but I have family history photos also on Facebook, in wikis, in various blog posts (here and here), on Ancestry.com, and still in my hard drive!

Since some of my information isn't available to everyone, I'll republish some of what I posted in Ancestry or have on my hard drive in a part 2 to this post. 

My Third Great Grandfather

(This is a cross post from my Whistlepunch blog.  I should have blogged this here in the first place!)

While shuffling papers  to prepare  for the research I hoped to do on the Rhodes line, I came across a note that gave the address of the last home of Henry Puzey.

Henry is my third great grandfather - his son is Henry William who married Lydia Pollard and their son is Frederick Puzey, and his son is Frederick Elmer Puzey - my mother's father.  Last visit I drove to the original Toone home and also tried to locate the Hunter home but it is no longer standing. I hadn't bothered to look for any Puzeys since I had incorrectly assumed that Henry had been residing with his son in Spring City. I don't know why I thought that since I knew some other details that clearly had him located in Salt Lake City.

Isn't this a beautiful home? It has a large shaded porch that wraps around the south side of the building. It is facing west with the mountains behind it.  It was built in 1890 - 3 years after his son had passed and 6 years before he did. His son Edwin lived in the house after that - I imagine until he died in 1965. It was last renovated in 1985.  Sorry folks, no "For Sale" sign. I wonder if it is still a Puzey living there.  I didn't see any signs of someone being home.

Henry left his wife and family in Hampshire, England and traveled to join with the Saints in Utah. He was a carriage maker by trade and had worked on carriages that carried members of the royal family.  His skills were in high demand in the American west. He settled in Salt Lake City and was a member of the 20th ward high council.  I have pictures of this historic church building to post soon.  His son Henry William soon followed him to the valley and married Lydia Pollard, an educated girl (attended BYU) and they settled in Spring City, Utah. A trip I plan to make next time I come to Utah!! But Henry (sometimes referred to as Joseph Henry) spent his final years here in Salt Lake with his second wife and children.  He is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.


To see Henry's picture and learn a little about his crossing to Salt Lake City, visit the "Our Pioneer Heritage" wiki.