Thomas Sandall Sr. was born July 9, 1818 in Diddlington, Oxfordshire, England. He married Ann Hill the 27th of September 1842, at the St. Andrew's Church in the Parish of Ham, in the county of Surey, He was a gardener by occupation and worked very hard to care for his wife and family. Two children were born to Thomas and Ann, they were named Thomas Jr. and Emily. When Thomas Jr. was four years old and Emily was two years old, Thomas Sr. was called by the English Government to go to South Africa. His mission was to teach the colonists how to care for their gardens and how to farm. Arriving in South Africa, they settled in the Town of Uitenhage. There he continued the work he loved best, gardening. The vegetables not needed by the family were sold to the natives. The climate was warm and the soil was rich so the two crops of vegetables would be raised in one year. They found wild grapes, the vines up and over trees fifty and a hundred feet high. There were wild figs, myrtle, apples and wild plums. They lived well by hard work. They had to be on the look out at all times for the Coffers, these were what the natives were called. Some were friendly and some were savage. Thomas Sr. had to set traps for the monkeys because they destroyed their vegetables, especially the pumpkins.

The Thomas Sandall family lived in South Africa about twelve years and while there five more children were born, they were Joseph, William, Annie (my great grandmother), Lucy and Hyrum.

In 1858 the Sandalls and their friends were visited by two Elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the names of John Stock and John Wesley. The families were converted and were baptized into the Church. They had a strong desire to come to Zion.

On March 22, 1860 in a company with about 70 of their friends, they left South Africa. The friends included: the Wiggills, Talbots, Greens, Bodilys, and Dawsons. The Sandalls got a chance to come to the United States with Robert Bodily and family. Thomas sold all of his belongings and boarded with his family, the ship "Alacrity" sailing from Port Elizabeth around to Cape Town, then over to the Isle of Helena. They were months on the water before they landed in Boston Harbor. While in Boston Harbor, their children took sick with the measles and their baby Hyrum died on the 9th of July 1860 at the tender age of eleven months.

They left Boston and came west to Florence, Nebraska and remained there a short time. They started for Utah, with four hundred other saints, in the company of Captain William Budge. Their trip across the plains with ox team and covered wagon was the same as other pioneers. They had many hardships to endure with sickness, experiences with Indians, and had very little food. Their daughter Lucy took sick and died at the age of 3 years old. They couldn't stop long enough to dig a grave deep enough to hardly cover with dirt, and they knew the wolves would have her out in a few hours. She was buried in Mr. Bodily's bass violin case for a coffin. Her parents were heart broken at the loss of their daughter and under such horrible circumstanes. This made two children buried since leaving South Africa. They were grateful to Brother Bodily for the violin case, other wise she would have been wrapped in a blanket, or something of that nature.

They arrived in Salt Lake in 1861 and settled in what was then called Kays Creek in Davis County, Utah. It was while living there that their oldest daughter, Emily, met Edwin Ford. She married him on July 12,1862 in plural marriage and went immediately to the town of Washington in Washington County, Utah.

Thomas Sr. brought a large amount of ground in the Central part of the town and continued his occupation as a farmer once again. Two more children were born while they lived there, Jim was born and died while a baby. About this time the site of Kays Creek was divided. The north side of Kays Creek was called Layton and the south side, Kaysville. It was on the north side where Thomas Sandall had made his home. Baby Jim was buried in the Kaysville, Layton Cemetary, but all traces of his grave have been lost.

John Sandall was the next child and was the baby of the family as Ann was getting into middle age at this time. The children grew up helping their parents where they could and getting married when they were old enough. They had childhood and games and dances such as all other pioneer children had along with schooling.

Their daughter, Ann, had met a young man named John William Lavender from Kaysville, and fell in love with him. They were married 1 May 1874 in Uintah, Weber Country, Utah, John Lavender was a member of the Latter-Day Saints Church at that time. To them four children were born. William, Lucy (my grandmother), George Thomas and James Alfred. George Thomas died at the age of two weeks. He was born while the family was living in Marritt (Mariott) a settlement north of Ogden, Utah.

Ann Sandall was alone on the cold floor with no fire, when the child was born, and it almost cost her life. The baby was not a normal baby as he was deformed. Later they moved back to Kaysville, and Fred was born 4 November 1885. At this time, they lived in a one room log cabin that John built for the family. Then they moved down in the west part of Layton for a while. John helped cut and haul hay. At this time there was a lot of talk about how good the farming and living conditions were in Canada, so John sold the home and got ready to leave for Canada. In 1889 John and his wife and family, along with other people from Layton, moved to Cardston, Alberta, Canada.

They had a covered wagon to ride in and to haul their belongings in and a tent to pitch at ight to eat in. It didn't have a hole for a chimney so Ann had to cook outside on a stove they had. John had rigged up a sort of trailer, they took some chickens, a cow, and some livestock as they were going up there to make their home. John intended to take up a homestead, but changed his mind due to the bad hail storms and etc. He bought some ground and built a cabin for his family to live in. Ann didn't like the idea of going way up there in the first place and John promised her if she didn't like it after she had tried living there, he would let her return to Utah.

John worked hard clearing away the brush in order to get it under cultivation. After he planted the crops, they started to grow and it seemed that a very good crop would be taken at the time of the harvest. Everything seemed to be going their way when a very bad hail storm came and destroyed everything. The stones were as large as hen's eggs. It tore down their tents and some had to run to get under tables and climb into wagons to keep from being killed. The crops were ruined and some of the livestock were killed. This seemed to be too much for Ann. She took sick soon after the storm and kept John to his promise. John rigged up a wagon for her and the children to come back to Utah and he stayed in Canada. It took a long time to make the trip back. They had no place to go as they had sold their home to get enough money and stock to go up to Canada on, so they had to live with Ann's parents, Ann had to work to help support her family.

John stayed on in Cardston to sell the land and what livestock he had left and was going to join Ann and the children. He became very ill shortly after his family left and continued to grow worse. Some neighbors corresponded with Ann, but she had no money or anyway to return to his bed side. He died without seeing his family again. That was heart breaking, the farm up in Canada was sold to pay for the funeral, and there was nothing left over. John was buried at Cardston, Alberta, on 24 November 1890.

Ann lived with her parents for a while, then her father gave her a small house to live in. She worked hard to support her children. She had been left without a husband and without any financial help. She was heart broken and despondent. She had to go out and do other people's house work, washing on the board, sewing and tending the sick.

In 1892 she married William Fisher in Kaysville, Utah. William Fisher at the time of their marriage was an engineer at the Layton Mill and Mr. Harwood was the Miller. William was born in Scotland and was an engineer on ships that sailed around the world. He sailed for twenty one years before settling down in Layton, He and Ann lived in Layton, and there were two children born to them. Annie and Homer. William Fisher's occupation was buying and selling veal after he left the mill, In 1909 he died very suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 73. Ann was left alone again. This time her children were older and she was in better financial condition. Soon after this her health failed, and she was poorly for years. She was a dress maker and a beautiful sewer, so she used to do lots of sewing for other people. She was a good housekeeper.

She was always willing to help those in need. She was a sweet and loving wife, mother and grandmother. She died in October 1933 at the age of 73 years and was buried in the Kaysville, Layton Cemetery.