WEEK 17 – AT WORSHIP

Leanne — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 02:23:46 +0000

This week in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, the prompt is At Worship.

I pondered this one for a while as I couldn’t easily come up with something to write about. I know of only a couple of religions that my research has revealed so far, but nothing worth really writing about. So I chose something closely related to a church.

While researching one of the Elliott families of Dorchester County, Maryland, I came across 2 listings for Baptisms at the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dorchester Circuit.

The family in question is William Elliott and Amanda Horseman. They had at least 8 children that I know of. Below is a copy of the 1880 Federal census where all the children are listed.

William and Amanda Elliott 1880 Federal Census

William E.
Prudie A.
Oliver
James
Octavia
Levin G.
Clarence (who is listed on 1880 but not as their child)
Adaline (who was on the 1870 but not the 1880)

When I found the family listed on the website http://www.collinsfactor.com, they were under Churches in East New Market.

Baptisms of 1866-1872

DATE	NAME OF PERSON BAPTIZED	LAST NAME	FATHER	MOTHER	DATE OF BIRTH	OFFICIATING MINISTER
Sept 1871	Adaline Alice	Elliott	Wm	Amond	9	S.M. Donoho
Sept 1871	Pridie Ann	Elliott	Wm	Amond	8	S.M. Donoho
Sept 1871	Charles Oliver	Elliott	Wm	Amond	4	S.M. Donoho
Sept 1871	James Cadmus Dashiell	Elliott	Wm	Amond	1	S.M. Donoho

One thing I noticed about this group of baptisms is that the oldest son, William, is missing. He did not die before the baptism date as he is on the 1880 census. Maybe he was missed in the transcription of the records or the records were destroyed.

Baptisms of 1873-1879

DATE	NAME OF PERSON BAPTIZED	LAST NAME	1ST PARENT	2ND PARENT	DATE OF BIRTH	OFFICIATING MINISTER
19 Jan 1878	Octavia J	Elliott	Wm	Amanda	31 Aug 1878	Samuel K Donoho
19 Jan 1878	Levin G. D.	Elliott	Wm	Amanda	7 Feb 1876	Samuel K Donoho
19 Jan 1878	Clara Betrice	Elliott	Wm	Amanda	7 Feb 1876	Samuel K Donoho

This group of baptisms raised a few red flags. Octavia is listed as being born in August of 1878, but the baptism date is 8 months earlier in January 1878. Maybe this is a typo by the website creator that I got the information from or maybe even the minister. A date of 1873 would make more sense, and a 3 could be easily mistaken for an 8!

The other thing I noticed is that Levin and Clara look to be twins. The interesting thing is that I can find no mention of a Clara anywhere. There is Clarence on the 1880 census, a male that is the same age as Levin, but he has no relationship designation to the head of household. Could Clara and Clarence be the same person? Is the name Clara Betrice also a typo?

I would need to look at the actual church records to answer all these questions. If you are related to any of these people, please feel free to contact me.

HORSEMAN – Genealogy Addict

WEEK 17 – AT WORSHIP