Mitt Romney's Mormon roots in northern England (BBC)
By Cordelia Hebblethwaite
BBC News, Preston
It's well-known that Republican contender for the US presidency Mitt Romney is a Mormon - but not that his family was converted in England. He doesn't mention it on the campaign trail, but his great-great-grandfather, a Preston carpenter, became one of the first British Mormons, 175 years ago.
"This is the spot - this is where it all started," says historian Aidan Turner-Bishop pointing down to a small, unmarked and unprepossessing, shingle beach.
The sun is just starting to set over the banks of the River Ribble in Preston. The birds are singing gently. It is an idyllic scene.
"On a hot summer's day, this is where the kids come to play," says Turner-Bishop.
This is the site where the very first Mormon baptisms outside North America took place.
And it is almost certainly the spot where the Romney family were baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in the late 1830s, at the start of a wave of 19th Century Mormon conversions in England.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18422949
Wow, this is a long article -- more history than politics.
= new reply since forum marked as read
