Finding Elizabeth Allyn Stevens
"When we arrived in England people began asking us if we had English ancestors followed by the question, “where?" In looking at some of the histories, to our surprise we discovered that one branch of our family tree came from Somerset, only an hours drive from our flat in Newton Abbot. We told ourselves that we needed to go there sometime, which we finally did, visiting the Enmore Parish Church and location of the blacksmith forge and home of the Stevens family.
At the Paignton Ward celebration of being in their church building 10 years, held in Feb. 2017, we met Colin Tucker, who was there to assist people with their family history. We learned that he specialized in Somerset so we took his card to take him up on his offer of assistance. Following an email to him providing a few details, Colin responded with more information than we would have imagined. We noticed in Family Tree that Simon Stevens, born 1678, married Elizabeth Bright in 1716 but all of the children had birth dates prior to their marriage. We thought it unusual. In discussing it with Colin, he provided us details of a previous marriage of Simon to Elizabeth Allyn 17 Oct. 1702 in Bridgwater which fit perfectly with what would be expected, but Elizabeth Allyn wasn't listed in any of the records that had been included in Family Tree. Family Tree mentioned a marriage to Elizabeth Poole but the records he found indicated she actually married another person in 1703. Someone had sealed all of the children to Elizabeth Bright, the second wife, and duplicated the sealings erroneously to Elizabeth Poole. The fact that all three women were named Elizabeth is what caused the confusion but we felt certain given the evidence Colin found that the mother of all the children was Elizabeth Allyn, who died 14 August 1715. Upon Elizabeth Allyn Steven’s death, Simon Stevens had several small children who needed a mother and he married Elizabeth Bright, but they had no children together. We then set about correcting and documenting the information Colin had found for us into Family Search. With the help of a good friend Dot Martin we were able to disconnect children from Elizabeth Bright and Elizabeth Poole in order to connect them with their real mother, Elizabeth Allyn.
This resulted in the opportunity for us to perform the temple ordinances for Elizabeth Allyn, her marriage to Simon and the sealing of her children to her and Simon. While we were in London for a senior missionary conference May 26 and 27, 2017, we made an appointment to perform these ordinances. Pres. Otterson, the temple president met us at the baptistery and I (Helen Miller Warnick) had the privilege of being baptized for Elizabeth Allyn by my husband Alan Warnick and then completed the other ordinances on the same day. It was a wonderful, spiritual experience for both of us and we rejoice in the opportunity to be a part in the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy of the hearts of the children turning to their fathers. We have certainly had our hearts turn to our ancestors who sacrificed so much that we might enjoy the blessings of the gospel and the privilege of completing this temple work for them. We have felt guided in this process and recognize that there have been many doors opened for us to walk through. We are keenly aware that there is still much more work to be done and we invite us all to take a few more steps and relook at work we thought was already complete, and extending it further with records now available that were not before. They use the word proper a lot in England. We want the work done “properly”.
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