Francis Cooke

Going back a bit for this one. My tenth great grandfather Sir Francis Cooke, left England for religious freedom. He was among those that arrived in the "New World" on the Mayflower.
Born in England in August 1582. He died sometime after he was eighty years old in Plymouth, Massachusetts on 7 April 1663. He learned his trade of wool comber before leaving England.
He was married to Hester Le Mahieu, they had at least one child, Jane Cooke.
Not much else is known about him.
Wool Comber: In the manufacture of woolen textiles the wool was carded to lay the fibers into roughly parallel strands so they could be more easily drawn out for spinning.

DNA test, No Big Surprises

When we were serving as hosts at the RootsTech event they had a 50% off DNA deal with Ancestry.com. I could not resist the urge so I did it. Sent my test tube of spit off and awaited my personal DNA results. almost eight weeks later they finally arrived. Of course since my family has been very active in the family history world I pretty much knew what the outcome would be but still it is interesting to see the numbers.
I am officially
87% Great Britain (no surprise here)
4% Scandinavia
2% Ireland
2% Europe West
2% Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)
<1% Finland/Northwest Russian
<1% Europe East

Chancey Charles Lee

My paternal great grandfather Chancey Charles Lee was born 10 October 1853 in Sheffield, England he was the seventh child of John and Sarah Lee. At the age of two he started the long journey, with his family to Utah first boarding the ship Enoch Train in Liverpool and then traveling with the first handcart company to make the long trek to Utah, at the age of three. Not long after arriving in the Salt Lake valley the family made another journey to settle in the Wasatch valley in what would become Heber.
Chancey married Louisa Marie Baum on 26 June 1876 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. At the time of their marriage Chancey was twenty-two years old and Louisa was Nineteen. Together they had Ten children. Shortly after giving birth to their youngest his wife became ill with pneumonia and died on 20 October 1896, leaving Chancey with nine children to raise on his own, ranging in age from four weeks to fourteen years old. Just a month later the baby also succumbed and died 19 November, (eight of his children lived to adulthood).
Chancey never remarried but managed to raise his children on his own. He spent most of his life farming on a small scale and labored diligently to provide for his family.
He lived as a widower for forty-five years. At the time of his death he was living in the home of a grandson in Tabiona, Utah. At the time of his death he had seventeen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren
He was laid to rest along side his eternal companion in the Heber City cemetery.

Voyage of the Enoch Train
(a large model of this ship was in the church museum of history for many years)