My wife has a great grandmother named Frances Look.  She was born in about 1849 in Wisconsin or possibly in England.  I believe her parents were Robert Look and Mary (possibly Martyn).  Frances (age 2) and her parents (Robert-age 36 and M A-age 25) and a silbing, E. A. (age 4) are in the 1850 census for Eagle, Waukesha, Wisconsin.  They are all listed with a birthplace of England.  I have been able to find only one tidbit on what happened to the rest of her family.   There is a Jacob Look listed in the Mortality Schedules for 1850 as having died in Waukesha county Wisconsin in May 1850 at 1 month of age.  I have an assumption that he may have been Frances’ younger brother.

Frances then shows up with the Martin (Martyn) family in 1860 in Lindon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  The Martin family consists of Emanuel (age 59), Elisabeth (age 40) and James (age 18).  There is no indication of how they are related to Frances.  They are all listed as having been born in England, but now Frances is listed as having been born in Wisconsin.  The Martyns may be related to the Looks, they may be friends who immigrated from England with the Looks, or they may be unrelated people who took in Frances when something happened to the rest of her family.

By 1870 Frances had married David Underhill, a civil war veteran, and they were living in Lyndon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin with one son, Edward.  I know of no further connection with the Martyn’s except that her son Harry listed Frances’ maiden name as Martin when he got married.  (The other son, Edward,  listed her maiden name as Look).  The Martyn family later moved to Pittsfield, Brown, Wisconsin, where Immanuel (1800-1880), Elizabeth (1810-1885), and James Lodge Martyn (1842-1924) are all buried.

I am looking for information on two things:

First, what happened to Frances’ family?  1850 in Southeast Wisconsin was wilderness.  There could have been deaths from illness, from accidents, from conflicts with Native Americans.  I have no clue at this time.

Second, who where the Looks? Look is a very difficult name to do research on.  It is both a common English name and a common English word.  I can find some Robert Looks in England but not with enough information to connect them with our family.

If any of this connects with anyone else’s research or historical or family information I would be grateful if you would contact me.