This website is a compilation of records and pictures for the first three generations of the families of Thomas Morgan and his wives Ann Watkins and Nancy Jane Radford

We hope this website conveys our love and respect for those who came before us. We do not want to forget their sacrifices which have benefited us so much.

On this website we have tried to present a comprehensive record of the first three generations of Thomas Morgan's families in America. The pictures are larger than found on most websites because we want family members to be able to take the pictures from the website for use in their own records. The life sketches are researched and edited for accuracy. We have archived lots of high quality pictures and life sketches for the first two generations of Thomas Morgan's family in America. We are continuing to build on the third, and in some cases the fourth, generations.

How to navigate this website: There is a navigation panel at the top of each page that lists the names of each first generation family and some second generation families. The name list begins, at the top, with Thomas Morgan, then lists each of his children with Ann Watkins, in order of age, oldest first. Then it lists the children of Thomas Morgan with his second wife, Nancy Jane Radford, in order of age, oldest first. And last are listed the children of William and Lovina Morgan. Some related families that were important to this history, such as Francis Daniel Ryset, John Whitlock Radford and Melvin Ross, are interspersed in the list. At the very end are listed some non-related families that were important to this history (Lovell and Woolsey) and also listed are some supporting categories like cemeteries and historical pioneer works.

Click on any of the names at the top of the page to enter that family's history. From there you will find links that lead to the next generations so you can follow that family's downline. There are literally hundreds of Morgan and Morgan related families on our morganclan.com website but to find them you must start with a family listed at the top of the page because there are links to each family's downline on each family's first page.

Our Morganclan.com website is actually two interlocking websites. If you bookmark them both it will help you to navigate.



The URL (address) of the first website is;



http://www.morganclan.com

which takes you to:

https://macsheep.tripod.com/Morgan/




The URL (address) of the second website is;



http://www.morganclan.org

which takes you to:

http://seldomseensheep.tripod.com/morganfamilypioneerheritage/index.html



If you bookmark both of these you will find you can get around faster. You should be able to copy these URL's, paste them into your internet browser's address window, go to the websites, and bookmark them.

To help you understand this somewhat complicated arrangement, here is how it works. We own the domain names morganclan.com and morganclan.org. When you enter http://www.morganclan.com or http://www.morganclan.org into your internet browser you will be automatically redirected to the tripod based websites. The Tripod based websites are crosslinked with each other. So, just follow the links.

In 2005 we published a Thomas Morgan family history book that is a comprehensive, well researched and documented history of the first three generations of Thomas Morgan's families in America. This book is sold out but family members who are doing research in this line would be well advised to locate a copy as this is the best and most complete record we have to date. Copies can be found in the family history libraries at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, BYU Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, Idaho Falls family history library in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Ririe family history library in Ririe, Idaho, the Mormon church family history library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the records office in Hereford, Herefordshire, England, and the Bromyard local history office in Bromyard, Herefordshire, England.

This first page (where you are now) is an introduction. You can scroll down to read more introduction or, if you want to get started on your family history, you can scroll to the top of the page and click on any of the families listed there to be taken directly to their histories and pictures.

The two pictures enclosed by the columns above were found in a Morgan/Radford family picture collection. There are probably family members in the pictures, which illustrate the grand old tradition of family members (and friends and neighbors) joining together to accomplish the large harvest jobs like hauling hay or the heavy tasks like hauling poles to the farm.

The abundance we enjoy in America today rests on the pillars of strong people and hard work. The first generations of our Morgan Family in America were pioneers, homesteaders and farmers. Horses, the primary source of power available to them, were enormously important in their lives. Money was extremely scarce and the primary currency for these farmers was their own labor. Their challenges were physical, to keep their balance in a brutally severe and insecure world. They struggled, and succeeded, against almost unsurmountable hardships. In our day our challenges are mental, our task to keep our balance in an increasingly complex world. May we draw upon the strength of God and our Morgan ancestors to overcome our trials. And may we keep their lives and principles in mind as a lighthouse to guide us as the world around us becomes increasingly relativistic, self centered and decadent.

This Morgan Family website is dedicated to Thomas Morgan, his wives Ann Watkins and Nancy Jane Radford, and the early Morgan families in America resulting from these two marriages.

This Morgan Family Crest honors our Morgan and Radford family in America. It is not an Olde English Crest. It is a New American Crest, drawing on it's English origins and commemorating the establishment of our Morgan family in America. Thomas Morgan is the Patriarch of our Morgan/Radford family in America, and his wives Ann Watkins and Nancy Jane Radford are the Matriarchs of our Morgan/Radford family in America. Thomas and Ann endured great sacrifice and hardship to bring our family to a new start and a new life in America. Thomas, Ann and Nancy Jane pioneered in the American West under the most difficult and hazardous of conditions to establish our family on the land in America. Their children, listed at the bottom of the crest, were also pioneers who struggled in the most difficult conditions to establish a foothold on the land in America. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these first two generations of our family in America. And it is to them that this family crest is dedicated. With stong hand and strong mind they left the old country behind and suffered to conquor the wilderness to bring our family to a new life in a new land.

Thomas Morgan and Ann Ollen Watkins Morgan were married in England in 1843, joined the Mormon Church in England, and on February 27, 1855, they boarded the ship Siddons and set sail for America. They crossed the plains with the Milo Andrus wagon train and settled in Utah where Thomas met and became friends with John Whitlock Radford. In 1871 Thomas married John Whitlock Radford's daughter Nancy Jane Radford Ryset. He raised families with both wives.

Two of Thomas Morgan's daughters married two of John Whitlock Radford's sons and an enduring Morgan/Radford clan formed. In 1881 some of the families moved from Utah to Neeleyville, Idaho, near what is now American Falls. All but one of those families moved back to Utah and some on to other places. Then, in 1888 the Morgan and Radford families left for a new frontier in Wyoming, settling in the Star Valley. In 1891 the Morgan/Radford families began moving to the Shelton, Idaho area near Ririe, Idaho, where they settled near the Snake River where it emerges from the mountains.

This website is about family. Family is about raising children in caring, nourishing, nuturing environments surrounded by people steeped in wisdom and history. Family is about people living and working together in units that are equipped to prepare each succeeding generation for the difficulties and complexities of the world they are entering.



One purpose of this Morgan Family website is to help us all to understand how much our early Morgan, Radford and Ross families in America have made possible for us through their own struggles, sacrifices and hardships.



Each generation of our families has built on the previous generation. The first Morgan, Radford and Ross families in America were poor in monetary terms but rich in strength, perseverence and hard work. Few of them received more than a cursory elementary education. They strove to make a better life for their children, and each generation was able to obtain more education and find more opportunity in America. By the fourth generation in America our families were sending children to college and most of our families are now able to take advantage of most of the opportunities America has to offer. This is the American way. The way of strong, dedicated people with high ideals and principles. We are proud of our Morgan, Radford, Ross and associated families in America. It is a family we can rejoice in being a part of!

The summaries above do not do justice to the great pioneer saga of the Thomas Morgan and John Whitlock Radford families. There were momentous, life changing, decisions; long, dangerous journeys on wooden sailing ships and wagon trains; great physical hardship and sacrifice in the settling and cultivating of raw lands; and numbing personal losses as children succumbed to diseases and adults sometimes lived short, hard, lives. We want to tell this story more completely so that the descendents of these people will understand and appreciate the sacrifices they made, the new world they brought us to, and the opportunities they built for us.

This Morgan Family Pioneer Heritage website is a cooperative effort involving many extended family members, some of whom are actively engaged in family history research, some who contribute pictures and life histories, and others who do writing and graphics work.

About This Website

Click on the link above for more information on some of the people who are building this website.

Active Family History Members Page

Click on the link above to see information on Thomas Morgan descendents who are active in family history research and are contributing to the building of this website.