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Subject: [Phly-Rts] Father Philp Stafford, Augustinian Priest.
Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 19:26:48 EDT

For years I have had a photocopy of the marriage record for my 3rd
great-grandparents Mathias KIGER and Rebecca LINMIRE (as their names are spelled
on the marriage record--actually Matthias KIGER and Rebekah LINMEYER). They
lived in Salem County, NJ, and are buried in a Methodist Cemetery there.
Rebekah's family was always closely associated with the Moravian Church in
Gloucester County, NJ. Matthias's family was originally Catholic but by the
time of the couple's marriage on 29 Oct. 1803 most members of the family had
become Protestants.

I had assumed they married in Salem County and were married by a Protestant
minister but any record of the marriage in Salem County alluded me other
than the copy I was sent of the marriage certificate in the possession of my
cousin who had no further information about the marriage. No one in Salem
County was familiar with a Rev. Philip Stafford either and the marriage
record states that the couple were married by Rev. Philip Stafford.

Witnesses were: Christopher LINMIRE (the bride's father)
Barbara KIGER (the groom's sister)
Margarite WOODS (sic) (Margaret WOODS is the groom's uncle's widow--who had
remarried--hence the surname WOODS). [Of possible interest is the fact
that Catharine Margaret HOPKINS, widow, had married Adam KIGER/GEIGER on 5
April, 1763 and is found in the records of Old St. Joseph's RC Church in
Philadelphia.]

Now, searching Google Books, we have the following reference to Rev.
Philip Stafford:

"In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth there was but one
priest in the United States of that name,—reverend Philip Stafford, one of Dr.
Carr's assistants in Philadelphia, who first registers at St. Joseph's, of
that city, Oct. 30, 1800. Fr. Stafford though of the same order as the
doctor,—an Augustinian, had however no school degree. It may be he had some
connection with the Albany mission, unknown to the writer, and is the
churchman referred to above as " Dr. Stafford." At Villanova in the convent
library, it may be added, is a Philosophic, (Poitiers, France, 1774) with an
autograph signature reading " P. Stafford, 1778.""
Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia,
Volume 19, p.383

It now appears the couple was married in a Catholic ceremony and that Rev.
Philip Stafford was in some way associated with Old St. Joseph's in
Philadelphia. I don't find any reference to him in Catholic Trails West, Vol. I
though (the volume that covers Old St. Joseph's).

So, I'm wondered if anyone on the list has every run across Augustinian
Priest Father Philip Stafford?

Joan

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  • Re: [Phly-Rts] [PAPhl] Father Philp Stafford, Augustinian Priest. by Claire K <>
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