Another day, another amazing discovery in the Langford family tree.
Yesterday evening, I decided to try to look for connections in a new place. The website Familysearch.com is run by the Mormon Church and is free. I have used it many times in the past. Recently, they launched improvements to the site which make it easier to navigate. One of the areas that I had not been able to search before were family trees submitted by others. With the new navigation, I decided to take a peek. Was I ever surprised!
I have used family trees submitted by others as a derivative source. These trees are not factual, necessarily, but they are indicators that there may be facts available to support their conclusions. I use these as a signpost for directions while I pursue the primary sources that would provide necessary genealogical proof.
I found thousands of Langfords in family trees on familysearch, several that included Northrop Holderbee Langford, Oscar's great grandfather. With a name like that unusual mouthful, I was looking at a pretty good indication of a connection.
So I looked deeper and found that, on this tree, Phebe Langford, a sister to Oscar's grandfather had married Abraham Morton, a fact which I already had corroborated. What caught my eye was that Phebe Langford Morton had been buried in historic Nauvoo, Illinois, not far from where I live.
Phebe and Abraham Morton were converts to Mormonism. Historic Nauvoo, Illinois, was a stopping point for the followers of Joseph Smith as they fled persecution, before finally settling on Salt Lake City.
It turns out that the following people are related to the Langfords as descendants of Phebe Langford Morton and Abraham Morton:
Their daughter Phebe Morton, married James Angell and had at least eight children.
Phebe Morton Angell and two of her daughters, Mary Ann and Jemima, all became plural wives of Brigham Young. Mary Ann was his second wife, after his first wife died. It was Mary Ann who first approved of Brigham Young's addition of other wives and who was the mother of Brigham Young, Jr.. He had a total of 55 marriages, many of which were not conjugal. He married Phebe and Jemima on the same day in 1846 when Phebe was 59 and Jemima was 42.
Truman Osborn Angell was a son of Phebe Morton Angell, brother to Mary Ann and Jemima and brother-in-law to Brigham Young. He learned architecture while building temples in Nauvoo Illinois, Kirtland, Ohio, Logan, Utah and Manti, Utah. He refined these skills when sent by Brigham Young to study in Europe. He was instrumental within the Mormon Church as the Chief Architect. He was the moving force behind the building of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. His son Truman Osborn Angell, Jr., continued in his father's footsteps. He is credited with resolving the problem of the acoustics of that building.
