Yes sir, I am a descendant of Alvah Benson (1799) son of Benjamin (1773) and Keziah Messenger (1778). My late husband’s g-g-grandmother Lovinia Benson Robinson, is Alvah and Polly’s youngest sister. Benjamin and Keziah were the parents of 12 children. A very colorful family indeed. From the top of my head:

Benjamin and Keziah and their children were living in southern Indiana in 1832. The LDS missionaries first taught and converted Alvah and Cynthia Vail Benson and their young children in Feb 1832. Alvah then sent the missionaries to call on his family living in a neighboring county. Your Polly was a young teenager, and had a dream that two men were coming to share the fullness of the gospel with her family. She recognized the two missionaries from a distance as they approached their home. Benjamin and Keziah, along with their younger children Alford/Alfred Benjamin, Polly, Electa ( who was blind), and Lovinia joined the church; along with Elizabeth, who did not immigrate to Utah, and Jerome with his family.

The family settled in Jackson County and Far West Missouri. While in MIssouri, Alford/Alfred Benjamin is listed as a Danite; Jerome was probably at the Battle of Crooked River; Alvah was the builder of Fort Leavenworth Kansas, and was nearly at the Massacre at Haun’s Mill. The spirit warned him away from the settlement the day before. Last but not least, Father Benjamin sued the mob leader Rev Samuel Bogart. Unfortunately the record of the court case was lost when the courthouse was burned during the Civil War.

After the expulsion from Missouri, the family settled in Illinois. Father Benjamin and Keziah and their younger children, Jerome, Alford/Alfred lived in Nauvoo. Alvah lived in nearby Carthage. They lived near older brother John Price, who did not join the church, and Alvah’s wife Cynthia’ Vail’s family. Cynthia’s relatives were part of the mob in Carthage. Your Polly married Joseph Bartholomew, a teenage runaway, who was befriended by the Bensons. While in Nauvoo, Joseph Bartholomew married the 4 years older Polly and later her sister Electa, as a plural wife in Utah. Jerome and Alfred were prominent members of the church in Nauvoo. Alford was a seventy and both received their ordinances in the Nauvoo Temple.

The Bensons left with the other Saints from Nauvoo. Father Benjamin died on the plains in the camp in 1846 at the age of 73. Alford and Jerome settled in Winter Quarters and the rest of the family in Potawawamie Camp. Alford and Jerome were in the first companies who arrived in Utah, shortly after the Brigham Young Vanguard company in 1847. Alvah and family, Polly and family, Electa, Lovina, now Robinson, came later with Mother Keziah. Alvah worked to outfit the rest of the pioneers in their journey. Keziah, was in her 70′s, traveled as a pioneer to Utah. She died in 1857 at the age of 80. I would like to find her grave someday. I suppose she is in a pioneer cemetery in Utah County. Lovinia died in childbirth and your Polly raised her children. My late husband’s great grandfather Alfred Robinson was one of those children.

Shortly after reaching Utah, Alford and Jerome left the church. They traveled to San Bernardino in 1851 with the other Saints going to settle there. A couple of Jerome’s older daughters stayed with the Saints in Utah. To read about an amusing historical incident in California, involving the two brothers, google Jerome Benson and Fort Benson. I have found Alford’s daughter listed with the RLDS in California.

Your Joseph Bartholomew was the hero in the Parrish/Springville murders in 1857. My Alvah moved to Cedar City. Unfortunately his son in law, my g-g-grandfther Ira Allen, was involved with the Mountain Meadow Massacre. The family skeddled to Hyrum, Utah, sent there by Erza T Benson. They are listed as prominent pioneers there. Later in life, Alvah takes issue with The United Order, as does his nephew Alford Robinson. He is chastised by local leaders for his opinions. A granddaughter remembers Alvah as praying fervently prostrate in his orchard as an elderly man. Polly and Alvah, as the last surviving LDS children of Benjamin and Keziah, do temple work for their ancestors in the Logan and Manti Temples.

I am proud of this family, faith, warts, sins, and all. As a Benson descendant, it is important you read and pass the following information on to members of your family: http://www.millennialstar.org/family-history-can-save-your-life/

If you would like to contact me: JoannaBenson at comcast dot net ( no spaces), please feel free. I would love to hear from you.

Do you have good identifying information for the picture and person? Also for the “John Bartholomew” picture and person?

Dan(iel) R. Bartholomew
Orem, UT

I read somewhere that if your ancestors were in the American colonies in the 1600′s you were highly likely to be of mixed AFrican and/or Native American ethnicity. If your ancestors were in the Colonies by the 1700′s the percentage went down. but was still very high. I think most Americans are not one ethnicity or another, but are a diverse DNA soup of humanity.

As I have grown up in foster care its’ hard for me to do family research. I know my grand mother and grandfather on my maternal side But very little on my fathers side. Being Italian,(MY mothers’ family is from Bari) I wouldn’t be surprised if all the way down there were some mixing of African blood.