Letter from Joseph Waite Presby, 17 August 1896
Mooers, N. Y. .
Mr. Wilford Woodruff.
President Of The Morman Church.
Dear Sir:
I am assisting a relative in looking up the genealogy of the Presby or
Presbrey family. Years before I was born, during the Mormon excitement in
the East, two of my fathers sisters in New Hampshire married Mormons and
went West, while the Mormans were at Nauvoo ILL. Mary Ann Presby married
William M. Parker in New Hampshire. I think they had been married a num-
ber of years before they joined the Mormon church. Mary Ann Presby was
born in Lyman N. H. in 1810. She died in Chicago or Nauvoo Ill in 1845, not
long, I think, after she and her husband went West with the Mormons.
Mr. and Mrs. Parker had children before they joined the Mormon church.
There is now lying before me a letter which William M. Parker wrote to
my father, dated at Chicago Feb. 7, 1845, and he signs his name as an Elder
in the Mormon chucrch. Will you please be so kind as to have some one
look up your records and inform me about the family of William M. Parker.
Can you inform me about his children by my aunt, giving their names,
who they married, &c. Will you please give me the names and addresses of
one or two of their decendants from whom I might be most likely to get
the genealogical information which I need. Please also inform me about
the subsequent history of William M. Parker, date of his death &c.
My father also had a younger sister, Colista Presby, who joined the Mormon
church and went West soon after her sister above named did. We know nothi[ng]
of her subsequent history. Can you tell me who she may have married, and
anything about her decendants, if she has any. Any information from your
records, or which you may help me to obtain from decendants of the aunts
I have referred to will be very thankfully received. Please let me hear
from you as soon as convenient. I inclose a stamp fop [for] reply.
Very Truly Yours.
J. W. Presby.
REV. J. W. PRESBY, PH. D.
PASTOR OF THE
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
MOOERS, N. Y.
