Emma Westerman Ashworth

This is the first in a series of posts about my great-great Grandmother, Emma Ashworth.

This semester, for my Utah History class, I was required to do a research paper (as per usual in history classes). Because I am lucky enough to have ancestors from Utah, I was actually able to turn this into a family history project, and what is even better is that I was able to do it on the woman I am named after.

I am her namesake.

I don't know how often I have considered that fact; I have the same name as someone else. Not just anyone else, but a woman to whom I owe my life. Dramatic? Or just realistic. After all, if Emma Ashworth had not joined the church and immigrated to Utah, then I would have never been born into the covenant. I wouldn't have the blessing of an eternal family. That's a lot.

Anyway, so I am going to write a series of blog posts telling about Emma's life, and possibly reflect on the significant her life holds for mine, and maybe draw some implications about the significant role we all play in life.

Woah, some lofty goals. So, here it goes:

Emma Westerman was born on February 28, 1859 in Bulcott, Nottinghamshire, England. She was one of seventeen children (SEVENTEEN -- I sometimes get overwhelmed by the four siblings I grew up with, I cannot understand what it would be like to have seventeen children!). 1859 falls into the Victorian time period -- apparently on April 14, 1859, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities was published. That's right, Grandma Emma was born at the same time as Sydney Carton (for you Dickens-fans).

Emma was well known in the community she grew up in for being a sweet and contentious girl. She was a particularly devoted member of the Church of England, well known from her youth for being a religiously minded girl. She was so well liked, that some people even named her as Godmother to their children. While I am not Anglican, nor Catholic (the church from which Anglicanism stemmed - thank you Henry VIII), I understand that to be named as someone's Godmother is a great honor. Most parents search for Godparents who are well-respected and powerful, or at the very least someone who could really contribute to the happiness of the children. For Emma to be named, when she was such a young girl, the Godmother of anyone shows how well-liked she was in her community.

Emma shared a very special relationship with her father. Out of seventeen children, Emma and her father were by far the closest. The biographies written by her daughters and granddaughters all indicate that Emma had a deep love for her father. When William Ashworth arrived in England during the late 1870's as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), it was only Emma and her father who listened...


Well, that's all for this post! Hope you enjoyed it! I'm going to try and keep these posts brief and stretch them out so I don't exhaust you, my wonderful audience. Writing a historical account, especially a biography, is a lot harder than I thought; it's especially hard not to just start listing facts. Any recommendations on how I can make it better?