Nov 14 2012
Enoch Kenyon – did he really travel the world?
Enoch Kenyon was born in 1840, son of James and Margaret Kenyon, greengrocers of Farnworth, England.
He had several siblings one of whom became a potato merchant. In 1862 Enoch married Mary Bailey, began working in the coal mines, and had two children, William and John Robert.
The 1871 census finds Mary (shown as married, not widowed) with her two sons living with her mother. Enoch is nowhere to be found.
The 1881 census shows only William (my ancestor) still living with his Grandmother. His mother, father and brother are not to be found.
I have reviewed all the Enoch Kenyon’s in the BMD records of England and have concluded that my Enoch born in 1840 is the only one who cannot be accounted for. Looking for death records of his wife Mary (born in 1843) and son John Robert (born in 1865) have resulted in many possibilities. I have not found one for Enoch.
A search of world-wide records shows an Enoch Kenyon of the right age, single, in the 1880 USA census of Arizona working as an engineer.
An Enoch Kenyon, a mining engineer, was injured in a train wreck in Hamilton Ontario while traveling on an express train from Chicago to New York on his way from San Francisco to his home in London England.
An Enoch Kenyon is also found on a boat bound for South Africa in 1898.
I believe the last three Enoch’s are one and the same person, but I cannot link them in any way to MY Enoch from Farnworth.
This is not a brick wall, my ancestor is William, and we know who Enoch’s parents were. It’s just a mystery.
- Why did Enoch disappear sometime between 1865 and 1871? Did he go to USA to work in the mines?
- Can a coal miner become a mining engineer?
- What caused him to abandon his son William?
- The death of his wife and son John Robert?
