REMEMBERING GRANDMA SARAH AND HER WRIGLEY RESEARCH

REMEMBERING GRANDMA SARAH AND HER WRIGLEY RESEARCH or


HOW ARE WE RELATED TO WRIGLEY GUM?

Of course, one of the pieces of “Wrigley” information I received from Grandma Sarah that stood out in my mind is that we were in some way related to the “Gum” Wrigleys. (See last paragraph). Loving to chew gum, and being young, I was very impressed that we were part of that Wrigley Line. However, I was never interested enough to find out just how we were “cousins” to the Wrigley Gum people.

The other part of my “Wrigley” upbringing, was that Grandma Kirkham had traced the Wrigley’s to Barnby Don in Yorkshire, England. After extending the pedigree as far as she could, she applied to the Genealogical Society to do temple work for all the Wrigley in Barnby Don and surrounding villages and towns on the assumption that we were probably related to most of the Wrigleys. This permission was granted, and she spent hours copying Wrigley names from books in local Genealogical Libraries.

At one time in England, it became popular to copy lists of births, marriages, and deaths names from local cemeteries and church records and publish them in newspapers. They were then compiled into books, published, and found their way to the Genealogical Society and it’s offshoots, of which there were two in Shelley, and Idaho Falls.

Grandma would take me to help her copy these names onto group sheets. I soon learned, at a very early age, how to sort these names into families and group them on Family Group Sheets. These sheets would then be sent to the Genealogical Society, cleared for temple work, and sent to the temple. Eventually they would be returned to Grandma Sarah, with an extension glue to the right side indicated the date of the temple work, and who completed it. I inherited a large cardboard box packed tight with Wrigley Group Sheets; the temple work having been done for the names on those sheets. I eventually spent hours organizing them, and trying to form pedigree charts. I soon realized that proving relationship to all these names would be quite difficult, but many were related to our pedigree charts as collateral ancestors.

This experience left me with the impression that although Edward Wrigley had little to do with his “Wrigley” relatives and blood line, it was important to the family, at least to Grandma, to complete the research for the Wrigley line.

Note: In another article on this Blog, I described my experience of traveling to Barnby Don, and impression it left with me. See Parish Chest.

Wrigley Gum Information.

(I don’t even remember where I obtained this little bit of information)

William Wrigley, Jr. was born in 1861. He went into business with his father in 1882 and moved to Chicago. In 1891 William Jr., entered business for himself under the name of William Wrigley Jr. and Co., Manufactures of Chewing Gum. On January 1, 1911 the plant of the Zero Manufacturing Co was absorbed and the name of the corporation was changed to the William Wrigley Jr. of which he was president. William Jr. was president of the First National Bank of Chicago, First trust and Savings Bank, Boulevard Bridges Bank, and Consumers Company of Chicago. William Jr. married Adam L. Foote and to this union was born three children named:

Philip K. Dorothy W. Mrs. James R. Oldfield

William Wrigley Jr. died in 1932 leaving his son Philip K. head of many enterprises.

On Family Search, William is on a pedigree that includes his son Philip and his father and mother.  They have not been tied into any other pedigree.   There lies a challenge.

THE PARISH CHESTS OF BARNBY DON

THE PARISH CHEST

OF

BARNBY-DON

Posted by Carolyn J. Christensen, great-granddaughter of Edward Charles Wrigley

I wrote the following many years ago, some time after I returned from a six week genealogy trip to England when I was in my early twenties. One of the highlights there was to visit the village where our Wrigley line originated.

“There I was, doing the thing I had dreamed of so long. I was sitting behind the wheel of a Hillman Imp, a tiny English car, speeding along the road that cut through the beautiful countryside. The road sign said Barnby-Don was one mile away and my excitement grew in leaps and bounds. Barnby-Don. I had heard so much about it. My mind quickly flew through the thousands of mental images I had gleaned through the years as I searched for names of my Wrigley ancestors, knowing all the while, the town would be nothing like I imagined. Around the next corner and there it was. The moment overwhelmed me. I stopped the car a moment to compose myself before entering the quiet little village. It was one of England’s many mill towns. There was little left of the old buildings; new uniform apartment type building marked the growth of the village in the last one hundred years.

Later the village minister pointed out the lovely old church, and just down the road, the schoolhouse where my own ancestor had lived and taught school. Soon the minister left me alone in the church, the Parish Chest open before me, and I was free to slip back into the past. There on the pages, in faded, shaking writing was the record, the only record, of long dead ancestors. My happiness knew no bounds as I lovingly copied the information shown on the pages. As the sun slanted through the window, giving a glow to the books I was copying from, I knew I was experiencing a moment I would lock in my heart forever.”

Carolyn Johnson Christensen 1945
> Doris Kirkham Johnson 1923
> Sarah A. Wrigley Kirkham1888
> Edward Charles Wrigley 1864
> Joseph Wrigley 1840
> Thomas Wrigley 1816
> John Wrigley 1774
> John Wrigley 1737
> Jeremiah Wrigley 1709
> Jeremiah Wrigley 1683

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                     The beautiful Barnby-Don Church

The Barnby-Don School