New Challenge

As the new semester begins here in good ol' Rexburg I find myself in my advanced family research class.  This is a class that I have decided to take to further my search for my ancestors.  With this opportunity to further my knowledge of select ancestors I am finding myself drawn to my Great-Great Grandfather Walter Sylvanus Parsons.  Walter is from England and traveled from there across the ocean on the ship Nevada to New York.  From New York he proceeded to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Here is where it gets interesting.  On the travel to Utah he had a wife, Lucy Ling, and three children, while in Utah he had four other children.  Sometime around 1890 the children found themselves in an orphanage and the parents gone, this is the mystery, Where did the parents go?  Why the orphanage?  And what role does Walters mom have in all of this?  Hopefully I can find answers to these questions as my research and skills progress, wish me luck.