Repeatedly people ask us why we spell Aliza’s name the way we do. Some ask why we don’t spell it the ‘Mormon’ way like Eliza Roxbury Snow or some of the others in church history. It is very popular in Utah and is mostly confined to the intermountain west. As we found out in Oklahoma, not many people even knew how to say the name who did not know LDS history.
Truth be told, we first stumbled upon the name at St. John the Baptist, a church in Halesowen, Worcestershire, England. Here is a picture of the tombstone that caught our attention.
Joseph Willetts (1842 – 1903) is the son of Samuel Willetts (1800 – ?), Samuel Willetts (1800 – ?) is the son of Samuel Willetts (1769 – ?) and Mary Crumpton (1773 – 1787). Samuel Willetts (1800 – ?) is the brother to my Letitia Willetts (1795 – 1875). Letitia is my 4th great-grandmother who married James Coley (1795 – 1875).
I have written of James and Letitia before.
At any rate, Aliza is the wife of Joseph Willetts. I don’t even know her maiden name. But once we saw the name, we both knew that we liked it and wanted to name our daughter after this Aliza Willetts (1844 – 1915) buried at St. John the Baptist in Halesowen, England.
Halesowen and nearby Hasbury and Lutley are strongholds of my Coley, Willetts, Parish, and Lea lines. Hopefully I will get to visit again some day when the heavens have not opened to unleash rains upon us. I also hope that maybe Aliza might be able to visit the grave of this namesake, maybe even with us.
