Christman Lineage and Property

The grandsons that my wife and I provide childcare for are named Ethan, Isaiah, Caleb, and Asher. Their surname is Christman and they are related to most of those with that last name here in the Lehigh Valley. Tracing the name back through the last 300 years is as follows:

Ethan/Isaiah/Caleb/Asher

Matthew (1979-)

James W (1949-)

James Paul (1925-2014)

Paul D (1902-1969)

Edward Solomon Tilden (1876-1955)

Daniel (1839-1907)

Daniel (1811-1856)

John Henry (1777-1854)

Philip (1755-1825)

Jacob (1711-1761) aka Johann Jacob

Jacob was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany. His parents had come to Philadelphia in 1733 and were living in Skippack. Jacob arrived in the Port of Philadelphia on the ship named the Princess Augusta on September 16, 1736 at the age of 25. The Master of this ship, Samuel Merchant has him listed as Jacob Christman. Only the male names are listed and the Master's report states that the number of "Palatines with their Families", "in all 330". Jacob appeared at the Court House in Philadelphia, where he took the Oaths required of Immigrants. Then on all documents he wrote his name Jacob Christman.

He settled in Upper Milford Township, (in what was then Northampton County but known today as Lehigh County), near what later became known as Sigmund's Furnace close to the Berks County line. (See *4 for the history of Sigmund’s Furnace. It was not actually called that until the early 1800s.) He married, probably after his arrival, Eva Margaret whose maiden name is unknown. He purchased a 150-acre piece of property which he farmed (see deed below) and his eldest son George took over the farming when he died out in the field. The account of his death reads, “The horse coming to a gutter refused to cross, when, standing on the loading wagon, he urged him with a Hay-Fork which he held in his hand. This caused the horse to take a sudden spring forward, and he was thrown from the wagon upon the fork, one of the prongs of which pierced his heart, resulting in is almost instant death.”

Jacob was a deacon of Zionsville Reformed congregation in 1757.

As an interesting historical side-note, Jacob’s widow Eva soon after Jacob’s untimely death married Francis Wesco (The Huguenot) in 1762 and moved a short distance north of the borough of Macungie. Francis and Eva’s first child, Philip Henry Wesco was born in 1763. As noted in (*1), Philip bought a hotel in 1828, deeded it to his son Israel in 1837 when he retired at the age of 64, and the village of Wescosville, PA was named after Israel when he was named the postmaster of that area in 1844. This hotel was on the NW corner of what is now Brookside Road and Route 222 and later became Widow Brown’s restaurant and now Hunan Springs restaurant.

The Christman family had many sons, grandsons, etc. and they spread throughout Lehigh County in the years following. An 1876 map of Lehigh County shows three Christman families living in Upper Milford Township and at least one living in Macungie (*2).

Following is the text of the deed of Jacob Christman’s homestead from (*3). Note that this property was originally deeded by the sons of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in 1735. Jacob purchased these 150 acres in 1754. The measurements for this large rectangle are given in perches as 120x212 perches, an old form of measurement which equates to roughly 2000x3500 feet. This rectangle spans what is now the Berks and Lehigh border in the area along the Perkiomen Creek near Victory Valley Camp. The large stone home just up Beryl Road from the camp was built by the Christman family in 1850  and this property occupies 25 of those 150 acres.

THE DEED OF JACOB CHRISTMAN'S HOMESTEAD

Thomas Penn and Richard Penn Esquires true and absolute proprietaries and Governors in Chief of the province of Pennsylvania and Counties of Newcastle Kent and Sussex on Delaware. To all unto whom the presents shall come Greetings.

Where as by virtue of a warrant under the Lesser Seal of the said province bearing date the fourth day of February One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Five there was surveyed unto John Dater (alias Tecter) A Certain Tract of Land situate in Hereford Township formerly in the County of Philadelphia now in the County of Berks and the residue there of situate in Upper Milford Township formerly in the County of Bucks now in the County of Northampton bounded and described as follows vit. Beginning at a marked Black Oak Sapling thence by Land of John Tecter Jun. and vacant Land North West two hundred and twelve perches to a stone, thence by vacant Land South West One hundred and twenty perches to a stone in a line of George Sailor's Land, thence by the same vacant land South East two hundred and twelve perches to a post in line of John Westkays Land thence by the same North East One Hundred and twenty perches to the place of beginning, Containing one hundred and fifty Acres of Land and the usual allowance of six Acres. $, Cents for roads and Highways. As in and by the Survey thereof remaining in our Surveyor General Office and from thence certified into the Secretary's Office may appear.

And Whereas the said John Dater by a certain agreement in writing bearing date the eighth day of April one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four did for the consideration therein mentioned sell alien and confirm the said described Tract of Land and premises unto Jacob Christman of Upper Milford Township aforesaid, Yeoman in Fee.

Now at the one instance and request of the said Jacob Christman that we would be pleased to grant him a Confirmation of the same Know Ye that in consideration of the sum of twenty three pounds five shillings lawful money of Pennsylvania to our use paid by the said Jacob Christman the receipt whereof we hereby acknowledge and thereof grant and forever discharge the said Jacob Christman his Heirs and assigns by these and of the yearly Quit writ hereinafter mentioned and reserved. We have given, granted, released, and confirmed, and by these presents for us our Heirs and Successors, Do give grant release and confirm unto the said Jacob Christman his Heirs and Assigns the said one hundred and fifty Acres of Land at the same are now set-forth-bounded and limited as aforesaid with all Mines, Minerals, Quarries, Meadows, Marshes, Savannah's, Swamps, Cripples, Woods, Underwoods, Timber and Trees, Ways, Waters, Water Courses, Liberties, profits Commodities Advantages Hereditament and Appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining and lying with the Bounds and Limits aforesaid Three Till and clear fifth parts of all Royal Mines free from all Deductions and Reprisals for digging and refining the same. And also one fifth part of the Ore of all other mines delivered at the Pittsmouth only excepted and hereby reserved and also free Leave Right and Liberty to and for the said Jacob Christman his Heirs and Assigns to hawk, hunt, fish and foul in and upon the hereby granted Land and premises or upon any part thereof To have and to hold the said One Hundred fifty Acres of Land apremises hereby granted (except as before excepted) with their Appurtenances unto the said Jacob Christman his Heirs and Assigns to the only use and behoove of the said Jacob Christman his Heirs and Assigns forever to beHolden of us our Heirs and Successors, Proprietors of Pennsylvania as also of our Manor of Fermor or in the County of Northampton aforesaid in free and common So cage by Fealty only in lie of all other Service Yielding and Paying therefor Yearly unto us our Heirs and Successors at the town of Easton in the said county at or upon the first day of March in every year from the first day of March last. One halfpenny Sterling Farthing for every Acre of same Value thereof in coin and Current according as the exchange shall then be between oursprovince, and the City of London to such person or persons as shall from time to time be appointed to receive the same. And in cases of Nonpayment thereof within ninety days next after the same shall become due that then it shall and may be lawful for us our Heirs and Successors and their Receiver or Receivers into and upon the hereby granted Land and premises to Re-enter and the same to hold and possess until the said Quite Rent and all arrears thereof together with the charges accruing by means of Nonpayment's and Re-entry be fully paid and discharge Witness James Hamilton Esquire Lieutenant Governor of the Province who by Virtue of certain powers and authorities to him for the purpose ( ) granted by the said proprietaries hath hereunto set his hand and used the Great Seal of said province to be here unto Affixed at Philadelphia this ninth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred sixty the Thirty fourth Year of the reign of King George the second over Great Britain, V and the Forty third year of the said Proprietaries Government.
James Hamilton
Recorded in the Office for recording of
Deeds for the city and County of
Philadelphia in the Book A. A. Vol. & Page
125 - the 18th day of December 1760

Notes:

*1 - https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2002-06-26-3401583-story.html

*2 - http://www.historicmapworks.com/Atlas/US/7036/Lehigh+County+1876/

*3 - https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/l/i/n/Penny-Link/GENE3-0003.html

*4 - https://books.google.com/books?id=j7VL8u8BCkUC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=%22sigmund%27s+furnace%22&source=bl&ots=w7bM4K2fyS&sig=ACfU3U2Evpc9vNku94NqdH4vOBVAV3a9qQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYgf7H1cTlAhXCqFkKHeL7BeQQ6AEwBHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22sigmund's%20furnace%22&f=false

A Cousin Bonanza

Recently I became aware that there was a new person, Joy, attending our church. I encountered her for the first time when she had been speaking to one of our grandsons during children’s church and I was told that she was a recently retired woman who had been a missionary to China and Thailand. That was intriguing to me as I’ve been to both of those countries several times. That same Sunday someone mentioned to me that they had parked next to a vehicle in the parking lot where the rear gate was ajar and had closed it and that the vehicle had Vermont license plates. I wondered if the vehicle and the lady went together.

A few days later I decided to do some investigation to see if I was correct. I first tried to see if she had a Facebook account and quickly found her. It confirmed that she was from Vermont, that she had been in China the past several years and that she had Facebook friends there as well as in Thailand. It also listed the town she was from in Vermont.

Because of the “Bethel Web” project that I have been working on (*1), I thought that I would do a quick genealogy check on her to see if she was connected. Since I have long roots in New England (especially Connecticut and Massachusetts), I wondered if she was a distant cousin of mine.

My first stop, which I rely on when investigating living individuals, was to see if I could find an online obituary with her name in it that would give the names of any of her ancestors. I fairly quickly found a recent obituary for her aunt (her father’s sister). It gave the names of Joy’s father’s parents and also indicated that Joy’s father was deceased. This is the break I look for, as a person’s grandparents were usually born before 1940 and so could be found in census records.

But I was also fortunate in that Vermont is one of the few states that has marriage and divorce records available online. With the full name of Joy’s father, I was then able to get the name of her mother as well. But I was really enthralled (is that too strong a word for what we genealogists feel?) when I found that her mother’s maiden name was Blakeslee. That is a surname that occurs in my own family line several times and has ties back to the original Blakeslee who came to New Haven, CT. I was very motivated to continue my search!

After a few hours with my fingers dancing across the keyboard, following genealogical hints, looking for consistencies in dates and places, I had a reasonable outline of Joy’s family tree. The first match to my own was of course up the Blakeslee path, but since that line went back to Connecticut by the early 1800’s, I had nearly 200 years of Joy’s ancestors living in the same place, New Haven, as mine and I was soon finding connections on many different branches of her rapidly developing family tree. After finding about a half-dozen common ancestors, I decided that I had to meet this new cousin and share our connections.

I sent her a friend request via Facebook and shared that I wanted to meet her. Her response was “Interesting that we might be related. I don’t encounter cousins very often.” When I asked about the Blakeslee line she then replied, “I’d love to learn more about the Blakeslee line. My Grandfather Blakeslee broke ties with most of his family, and I never heard about even his immediate family.” Then she further shared, “For Christmas this year, I’m planning to give my nieces and nephews gifts from my grandparents, including info and copies of photos. I have nothing to share about G. Blakeslee’s family. Perhaps your help is just what I need. You are a godsend!”

That was just the motivation I needed to continue my research into her family tree and to concentrate on completing as much of her Blakeslee line as possible. The following Sunday, I introduced myself to her in church and we set up a time for my wife and I to meet her for dinner later that week. In the meantime, I spent several more hours researching as many of her family lines as I could so that I could show her the rich family information about her ancestors and all her connections to me. I prepared a printout of her Blakeslee family line going back to the 1600s which we gave to her that evening and which I also emailed to her so she could share with other family members.

Thus far, I have documented the following common ancestors in Joy’s family tree and mine (I’m listing only the men here, but their wives are obviously also common ancestors):

·       Francis Russell (1558-1613) this one is actually on her father’s side

·       Joseph Loomis (1590-1658) also on her father’s side

·       John Blakeslee (1651-1712)

·       William Chatterton (1640-1700)

·       Thomas Curtis (1648-1736)

·       William Tuttle (1607-1673)

·       Matthew Gilbert (1619-1680)

·       Joseph Dorman (1669-1712)

·       William Wooding (1625-1684)

·       Daniel Sperry (1665-1750)

·       William Wilmoth (1624-1687)

·       Joseph Ives (1674-1755)

·       John Roote (1608-1684)

·       Richard Vore (1600-1683)

·       Thomas Sherwood (1586-1655) two ways

·       John Welton (1633-1726)

·       John Carrington (1640-1690)

·       Thomas Dibble (1613-1700) four ways

·       Dennis Crampton (1636-1689)

·       William Buell (1605-1681) three ways

·       John Hull (1640-1711)

·       Nathaniel Merrill (1601-1653)

That’s over two dozen ways in which we are connected, mostly at the 8^th/9^th/10^th cousin levels. And there are probably others that I’ve yet to discover as I complete some of the other branches of Joy’s family tree. I’ve never encountered a similar situation in which I share so many common ancestors with someone!

At our dinner meeting with Joy she shared that when she made the decision to retire to the Lehigh Valley she did not believe that she knew anyone in this area. But fate brought her here and even led her to our church where she had the chance encounter with this crazy genealogist who happened to be working on a project to connect the individuals in the church to each other and who was intrigued by the Vermont license plates.  She will now have a lot to share with all her relatives back in Vermont about the part of the family that they knew nothing about and which they now have more thoroughly documented than they ever dreamed of.

Not only do I get to exercise my genealogical investigation skills, but I now have a new cousin who I get to see each week at church. And Joy now has a connection in the area and will no longer feel so isolated from any relatives.

Notes:

*1 - https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-bethel-web.html

How I Met Your Mother

I this blog I’d like to examine the circumstances behind how the various couple in my family tree met. I’ll start by looking at my four sets of great-grandparents, then my two sets of grandparents, then my parents, and finishing up with describing how I met my own wife.

Great-grandparents

Louis Russell and Anna (Annie) Merchant – Louis was the oldest child of Walter Russell and Lois Ann Cook. The family lived in Kent, CT, a small town in NE Connecticut. When he was 11 his mother passed away. His father remarried a few years later, to a woman by the name of Cornelia Sutphin. The family moved to the nearest major population center, New Milford, CT, but even New Milford had a population of less than 5000 people.

Annie had been born in Dutchess County, NY (right across the border from the part of CT where Louis lived) to immigrant parents. By the 1890s it appears that the family may have moved across the border into CT as that is where Anna’s older siblings had married and settled.

Louis and Annie met in New Milford. They were the same age, and were both “newbies” in that small town, having lived elsewhere during their growing up years. But with so many things in common, they would have had a natural affinity to each other They were married in New Milford in 1892 when they were not yet 21. They settled initially in Sherman, CT, a small town just a few miles to the west along the CT/NY border, then later moved to Cornwall, CT, about 20 miles upriver from New Milford, and eventually back to New Milford.

Maurice Levy and Caroline Northrop – Like Louis and Annie, Maurice and Caroline had much in common. Maurice had been born in Brooklyn, NY to immigrant Jewish parents, but the family had moved to New Milford, CT when he was only a few months old. Caroline had been born in Lee, MA, but her family also moved to New Milford when she was only age 2. In 1880, Maurice and Caroline were only a few pages apart in the census records, so they would have been school mates during their growing up years, although he was two years older than she. They married in New Milford in 1893, when he was 23 and she was 21. They moved back to Brooklyn shortly thereafter.

Wilson Pierpont and Annie Merrill – Wilson and Annie were both from families who had been in Waterbury, CT for several generations. Both families lived in the east end of Waterbury, and were fairly close to Wolcott where they each had family connections. However, they were not neighbors like my other great-grandparents, and since Wilson’s father was a farmer and Annie’s father was a printer, they would not have had business dealings with each other. However, it’s possible that both families attended the same church. I am not able to state with any certainty how Wilson and Annie met each other.

Clarence Blackman and Alice Talmadge – The Blackman and Talmadge families were both large families from the same section of the town of Prospect, CT. Clarence’s father was the local blacksmith and would have given services to Alice’s father who was a farmer. Being only seven months apart in age and attending the same small school in Prospect, Clarence and Alice would have also known each other in that environment. So, a link between the two would be quite natural. I am fortunate enough to have a picture of a joint Blackman/Talmadge family reunion taken about 20 years after their marriage.

Grandparents

Erskine Russell and Vera Levy – Like their parents, Erskine and Vera had much in common. Erskine’s parents had married in New Milford, but he was born in Sherman, then later the family had moved to Cornwall. The family moved back to New Milford when Erskine was about 7, but following the birth of his youngest sister, his mother died. For a while the younger 3 siblings were sent to live with relatives in New Milford. His father remarried and the youngest daughter came back to live with the family. But Erskine’s youngest brother had also passed away in the meantime and his second youngest brother chose to remain living with relatives.

Vera’s parents had also been married in New Milford, but they had moved to Brooklyn, NY where she and her sister were born. Vera’s father passed away in 1910 when Vera was young teenager and her mother moved the family back to New Milford almost immediately.

Thus, both Erskine and Vera found themselves in the 1910s in New Milford – Erskine living with a father, step-mother, and three of his younger siblings, and Vera living with her mother and younger sister. They married in 1914, both of them being but age 19, apparently in an attempt to “escape” their family life. They moved to Bridgeport, CT. But with the stresses in their respective backgrounds and improper motives for getting married the marriage did not go well. They had two children, then separated, got back together for a short time, then divorced and each married someone older (in Erskine’s case, 10 years older, in Vera’s case, 30 years older). They were apparently each looking for the mother/father figure that they had lost when one of their parents had died.

Harold Pierpont and Sara Blackman – Harold and Sara both grew up in Prospect, CT – he with foster parents with whom he had been placed when his mother died only a few days after he was born, and she with her parents. They were only two months apart in age and both attended the same small school in Prospect for their education. They married just three weeks after Harold turned 21.

Parents

Vernon Russell and Sylvia Pierpont – My father had been born in Bridgeport, CT, but the family moved several times during his growing up years – to Waterbury, back to Bridgeport, to Danbury, then to New Milford. Then during 11^th grade, he left home and went to live with his grandparents in Waterbury. There he finally established some “roots” and made a number of good friends. Just around the corner was the Hill family with his best friend Harold and Harold’s older brother, Bob, who married Vernon’s older sister. A block in the other direction was Mill Plain Church where he made friends with the Pierpont family, especially the oldest son, Clarence (Zeke). Vernon, Harold, Bob, and Zeke, all graduated from high school and worked at one of the brass factories in Waterbury. During WWII, all of them also served their country.

My mother was the younger sister of Zeke, and with four years difference in their ages, did not have a relationship with the older boys. She had also gone to hairdressing school in Hartford after graduation from high school and so had been absent from the social scene in Waterbury. But when WWII began, she returned to her home in Waterbury and rejoined the young people’s group at church. At the time she was dating someone else.

Those in the young people’s group who were not serving in the war began writing letters to those who were serving. Thus, it was that someone mentioned that my mother was knitting “little things” for babies in a letter that was sent to my father. When he wrote back asking why, she jokingly replied in the next letter, “you should know, you’re the father.” This began a repartee that went on for several months. In the meantime, my mother had broken up with her former boyfriend, but my father didn’t know that.

Nonetheless, when my father finally returned from his service abroad, he was staying temporarily with his sister and brother-in-law who lived just a few blocks from my mother. He looked her up, found that she was not “spoken for” and they became engaged just a few weeks later.

Myself and my wife

Unlike all my ancestors above, my wife and I did not have any geography in common. I was born and raised in CT and she was born and raised in upper MI. However, our paths crossed for a brief period of time and that’s all it took.

I had chosen to go to college at Michigan State University. I had finished my undergraduate degree and was working on a graduate degree, but still living in the same off-campus housing unit. My wife had worked for a year after high school, then enrolled in a local community college, and finally into a program at MSU that was an intern program where she only spent two quarters on campus – the summer before her junior year and the spring of her junior year. Thus, the 10 weeks of that spring quarter were the only time that we were on campus together.

A friend and I had come out the back door of the living unit. The unit had a total of 100 residents, 50 male and 50 female, with a shared dining room and student center in the middle, but the parking lot was behind the male side. Thus it was that we saw a vehicle we did not recognize with a pair of female legs sticking out from under it. We did not think that was an appropriate thing for a female to be doing, so we pulled her out, discovered that she had been trying to unjam the linkage in the transmission (and she apparently didn’t know that you needed to have a second person pushing in the clutch when you did so). We unjammed it for her and I thought to myself, any girl who would try that is worth knowing. I found out who she was, then asked her out a few days later. By the end of the quarter we were “pinned”, I visited her nearly every weekend during the summer, we got engaged on Labor Day weekend, then married the following summer. The rest, as they say, is history.