[WED]WALL from Wedmore to Dubuque County, IA

[Mary Jackes]

Hi Karla,

I'm tracking people who moved from Somerset to Dodge township, Dubuque
county, Iowa, in 1848.  However, the particular people I'm following mostly
sold their land there very soon and generally had settled in St. Charles,
Winona, Minnesota by 1854.  One family consists of a son and various
grandchildren and daughters-in-law of William Persons (1772-1845: the
spelling of this name is really unstable) and Ann Wall (1770-1855).  The
Persons came from Wedmore, and mostly lived in the hamlet of Blackford.
Another family - named Petheram - came from Chapel Allerton.  Another
family, of several different Day and Wall relatives, came from Weare. 

I've been able to contact Petheram and Persons descendants, and would like
to track down other Somerset people  - perhaps Chamberlin, Vowles, Talbot
(Tobbert, Talbert) - who formed this second little Somerset colony in the
US.  If you look at the list archives, you'll see mention of a third colony
in NY.  It would be interesting to know whether all these people kept in
contact with each other, and with home - must have.

I will send you separately an 1822 map showing the whereabouts of various
Wedmore area villages of interest to people on the list.  I've sent it to
several people on the list who say they have found it really helpful.  I
should add that the scale is large, e.g. Mark and Blackford are actually
only about 2 miles apart.

Re Elizabeth Ann Cox who eventually marries William Wall - it must have
been a common family name: - in the list archives you will find info
extracted from the Dubuque 1850 census - this includes the family: - 

Arthur Cox  33  who was a farmer
Elizabeth  29
Elizabeth Ann  3
George N. 11 months old, born in Iowa
Wm. L. Blackmore  40

This family is recorded as having left Somerset in August 1848.

I'm also curious about the Blackmore family - I have noticed from 

 http://www.rootsweb.com/~iadubuqu/platmaps/1874plat/county1874.html

that William Blackmore took up a lot of land in the end.  Oddly enough a
young Blackmore boy  was adopted by an unusual fellow from Somerset called
Thorne - I would love to know who these people were.
Mary Jackes
Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 0N8, Canada.