Jean Michel Rochon

Jean Michel’s parents are Jean Michel Rochon and Susanne Robert from Italy.

They came to America from Italy when Jean Michel was three months old. Notes from the Church Datebase it states:

“Son of Jean Michel and Suzanne Rochon. His family crossed the Atlantic Ocean via the ship John J. Boyd, arriving in New York on 15 February 1856. His given name is listed as "Michell," age 3 months, on the ship manifest. It is uncertain how many of the children actually made the overland journey. Though two separate promissory notes in his mother's name seem to indicate that 3 of the children survived the journey, most likely Elizabeth, Jean Pierre and Margarite.”

The family then joined the Edmund Ellsworth Company. The company left Iowa on June 9, 1856.

Little Jean is on the Company's roster but no death date nor where he was buried was found in any journals. Little Jean's father died on the journey also.

In the Captain John Oakley's journal documents his father's death is listed as 17 August 1856 at Echo Canyon, Summit County, Utah Territory. It is believed young "Michel" died shortly before his father.

According to a relative of Jean Michel:

“They began their trek across the plains in Captain Ellsworth’s handcart company. The husband was ill, and this made it necessary for the wife to pull the handcart and bear the burdens and responsibilities of the strenuous journey. Then after her toil and unceasing devotion what must have been her sorrow when near the journey's end at Echo Canyon, she was called upon to see her husband buried by the roadside on a barren hill.”