Are My Family Linked to Salt Lake City, USA?

A Salt Lake City link??

I am sure I am not the only one when researching the family history, that in talking to relations they give you information you did not to expect to hear.
In my case I have been tracing my mother's line of the family whose maiden name was SNELGROVE and they lived most of their lives in Frome, Somerset. My grandmother's parents were born just over the Wiltshire border in a small village called Corsley which is close to Lord Weymouth's Longleat Estate.
Having carried out the usual suggestions of talking to any living relations to obtain any information they can give me, one of my distant cousins said he understood that one of the SNELGROVE family had emigrated to the USA and had settled in Salt Lake city, Utah. This is a major centre for the Mormon faith, however all of my immediate family are associated with the Church of England, but he recalled that a relation living in Wiltshire had a link to the church of the Latter-Day Saints.

It was during this conversation that he said he had been told there was a rumour the SNELGROVE family had supplied the ice cream for the inauguration ceremony of J F KENNEDY when he was elected president of the USA.

Just for interest I entered the name of SNELGROVE into Wikipedia and was most surprised to find the following article and a photograph of their famous ice cream parlor in Salt Lake City.

"Snelgrove Ice Cream began as a family-owned company in Salt Lake City founded in 1929 by Charles Rich Snelgrove (1887-1976), and later managed by his eldest son C. Laird Snelgrove. The operation remained family owned until about 1990. The name brand is now owned by the Dreyer's company, which owns the former Snelgrove ice cream factory.

Snelgrove ice cream parlors were located in various locations in the Salt Lake area and in other Utah communities. The largest of these was the flagship store located at 850 East 2100 South, in the Sugarhouse neighborhood of Salt Lake City. The decor and architecture of the store was art deco. The store's look was enhanced with a 40-foot-wide sign (12 m) from the early 1960s, with the name Snelgrove in large looping cursive neon letters, and a spinning giant double cone. The factory producing Snelgrove Ice Cream is located directly behind this store. The next oldest location was the Snelgrove store on East South Temple street in downtown Salt Lake City.

Because Snelgrove ice cream was a sentimental favorite in Utah, Dreyer's continued to make and distribute Snelgrove brand ice cream, using some of the original Snelgrove flavors like Canadian Vanilla and Burnt Almond Fudge. Snelgrove Ice Cream was sold in Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. On February 19, 2008, Dreyer ice cream announced it would no longer make the Snelgrove brand."

This gave me the belief that there was some merit in the information I had been given by my relation, so I started to trace the family back through the USA side and through the web site of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints www.familysearch.org I was quickly able to trace the family from the founder of the factory a Charles Richard SNELGROVE (1887-1976) back to the UK where a Richard Snelgrove was born on 24 February 1795.

His place of birth was stated as Westend, Hampshire and he was christened at South Stoneham, Hampshire, which are both in the greater Southampton area. He married a Mary EYLES and it was one of their eight children, Edward SNELGROVE who emigrated to the USA and it was one of his grandchildren Charles Rich SNELGROVE who started the ice cream business.

This research has been the most straightforward part of my quest to ascertain if the SNELGROVES living in the USA are related to me. Where I am having great difficulty is making the link between my line of SNELGROVES who all seem to have been born in Wiltshire where I have traced them back to a Josiah SNELGROVE born in 1796. As the USA SNELGROVES originated from the Southampton area in the county of Hampshire, which is the next county to Wiltshire, so it does give me the hope that with more research I will be able to find that elusive link between the families.

Any views from members who have experienced the same or similar problems and have managed to solve them, your help would be most welcome. My email address is rod crocker@talktalk.net

Journal Article: 

are-my-family-linked-to-salt-lake-city.pdf