TAYLOR Family Preview

Did you know that Grandpa Taylor's ancestor, Henry Samson, was a 16 year old passenger on the Mayflower in 1620?  

Did you know that we have ancestors, also through Grandpa Taylor, who lived in Salem, MA in the 1600's, right during the time of the Salem witch trials?

Did you know that Grandpa Taylor's great-grandfather, John Van Cott, was the descendant of the first settlers in Long Island from Holland in 1640, and that ten generations back they belonged to the Holland nobility?  And that he was such a beloved pioneer, missionary, statesman, and friend to the Scandinavian saints that he was mourned by the entire church at his death?
              
Did you know that Grandpa Taylor's grandmother, Hannah Marie Skousen, was born in a covered wagon near the Platte River while crossing the plains- and that she also had her first child in a wagon near the Casas Grandes river?  She also liked to bring in the little Mexican children passing by her home on their way home from school and wash their faces and give them bread. 

Did you know that Grandpa Taylor's grandfather, Ernest Leander Taylor, was robbed and held for ransom mutliple times by the revolutionary renegades during the 1910 Mexican Revolution?

Did you know that Nana's great- grandfather, David Leonard Savage, was not only a pioneer, but a very successful early missionary for the church, helped campaign for the Prophet Joseph Smith for president, witnessed the seagulls and the crickets miracle, helped rescue the handcart victims, and was known as a peacemaker among the Indians?

Did you know that Nana's grandfather, John Thomas Whetten, played the violin for the pioneer colonists to gather and enjoy in the evenings, was bishop in the colonies for 17 years, including during the time of the revolution, and with his wife entertained the prophet Joseph F. Smith in their log home once?

More to come on these ancestors and others!