HISTORIANS' NOTES

This brief sketch of the early Smith history in England and on the Isle of Guernsey developed from the degree of interest many family members expressed at the "Reunion" in Victoria in 1990. In particular, many of us (including Annie) were interested in getting more data on the Guernsey Smiths, particularily Rebecca Stanbury Smith after whom Annie was named.

We were fortunate to be able to return to England on vacation in 1991 and made arrangements to spend 5 days on Guernsey, not realizing that we needed much more! Our hotel proprietor was kind enough to refer us to the Priaulx Library, the Guernsey history center: after a brief meeting, the Assistant Librarian made an appointment for us to review microfilm records the following day, and promised to look into the records herself. When we returned, we discovered that she had found a generation of Smiths no one knw about and that Rebecca was not Annie's great grandmother, as Annie had thought, but was her great great grandmother. We also learned that her great great grandfather's name was William, and that he had been born in Cornwall, the son of Francis Smith. Pandora's box was open!

We did more research, contracted for the Library to do even more, and upon returning home began to explore the computerized records in the local LDS Fmaily History Center and microfilms of parish records available from Salt Lake City. We have now developed more information than we know what to do with, and are in the process of getting it organized. We have thus far concentrated on the direct line of descent from father to son, etc., and will now work on filling in the details of parents, siblings, cousins, etc., and the full details on the families of the women who have married into the SMith line as it has come down to the present. We are also working on proving some theories about why the family made their geographical moves, and where some of the relatives went from Guernsey.

The long term goal is to produce a definitive history, complete with geneological charts, photographs of ancestors, their residences, churches, cemetaries, etc., and make that available to those who are interested in more detail than is in this brief history. We hope to be able to make one more trip back before tackling that project so that we can walk the ground in Cornwall, Devon (and Scotland for descendents of John Charles and Elizabeth) and Guernsey again.

In the history which follows, the names of direct line ancestors are shown bold face the first time they appear in the listings for purposes of identification.