The Thomas Bytheway & Sarah Haywood Family
Thomas Bytheway (1837-1902) was the son of Benjamin and Mary [Newall] Bytheway of Coreley and Burford Parishes, in Shropshire, England. Thomas married Sarah Haywood, daughter of Edward and Miriam [Fisher] Haywood in Staffordshire, 15 Dec 1856. In the 1860's, the family was converted to the Mormon faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), but they did not emigrate immediately to the United States. They remained among their people, living in Staffordshire and Shropshire, and even for a time in Swansea, Wales, where one daughter was born. In the mid-1880's, the momentous decision was made that would guarantee I would be born an American citizen. The family chose to leave England in three groups, their father going ahead first to make a place for them, as was the pattern among many immigrating families. Having arrived in New York, they traveled with other LDS converts by train to Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000 miles to the west. There, they settled and began to contribute to their new community, their new nation. Their last child, Sarah Jane, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah shortly two years after they arrived. The Utah Bytheway family descends exclusively from Thomas and Sarah Haywood Bytheway. They have a large and growing posterity who look up to them with gratitude for the sacrifice they made in leaving the land of their nativity.
Between 1870 and 1900, several of Thomas's cousins through a common ancestor (Benjamin Bytheway and his wife, Mary Brian) also emigrated to the United States, settling primarily in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Other descendants of the same couple emigrated into Australia. The research that provides links between all these families, and a distinct connection to the past, is ongoing, and the primary reason for the existence of this website. It is my greatest hope that the Bytheway families of the United States, and the world, will someday come to realize how closely related they really are, and will feel the common kinship with each other.
I am frequently asked what my connection is to the Bytheway family, so here it is: I am the great granddaughter of Alice Bytheway, who is standing just behind her father on the back row in the photo. Alice married Junius Crossland McDonald in Logan, Utah on 19 June 1889. My grandfather, Lawrence 'Wesley' McDonald (1891-1959) was the second of their thirteen children. He married my grandmother, Ellen Leona Fullmer (1897-1993) in Salt Lake City, Utah on 7 June 1917, and their only child, Lawrence 'Wesley' McDonald Jr. (1918-2004) was my father. He married my mother, Betty June Smith, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I was born to them in 1948, the third of their three children. I married Kenneth Lee Huffman in 1968. We have three married children and nine wonderful grandchildren (you know I couldn't resist saying that!).
I hope you benefit from visiting this website, and that you will come to appreciate the significance of your Bytheway ancestry through what you find here.
Laurie [McDonald] Huffman, Herndon, Virginia, USA (updated 7 Aug 2009)