This video shows the lighthouse at the Point of Ayr in Talacre, North
Wales, where Samuel Brooks (1789-1856) worked as its lighthouse keeper
from 1825 to 1856, prior to migrating to Utah as a Mormon pioneer.
When Samuel Brooks and his wife, Emma Blinstone Brooks (1807-1856)
joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1848, their
life would never be the same. Determined to be with their fellow saints
in Zion, including their friends Edward Lloyd and Elizabeth Evans Parry,
Samuel and Emma and their three children (Mary Elizabeth (1839-1919),
George (1845-1930), and Francis “Frank” (1849-1913)) left their life in
Wales behind and migrated to Utah in 1856. When the family arrived in
Winter Quarters, Nebraska, Emma died of illness. Now a widower, Samuel
continued on with his children, who joined the Edward Bunker Handcart
Company. On the day he and his children entered the Salt Lake Valley on
October 5, 1856, Samuel also died, orphaning his three children in a
strange new land.
Samuel’s three children were farmed out to other families in Utah, with
then 11-year-old George being adopted by fellow Welshmen Edward Lloyd
and Elizabeth Parry.
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