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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2001-07 > 0995064757


From: "Sandra Ferguson" <>
Subject: [Scotch-Irish] Seceders in Pa/Ohio
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 18:52:37 -0400
References: <200107131017.AA996278460@mail.fea.net>


I am familiar with the individual church, and have dug up what there is on
the history of it, and early ministers, who were uniformly from
Scotland....and, I also have the earliest lists of church members. I have
written to and received info from the Historical branch of the Presbyterian
Church in Philly, but they have precious little on Seceders, from looking at
what they send me. To my eye, the membership sound pretty Scottish in
makeup; Findley, Duncan, Smith, Criswell, McAlister, Faris, McCann, Gammel,
Kerr, for example...certainly nothing typically Irish appears on the early
lists, and it doesn't seem to me that things changed any or splintered.
They were Seceder followers in the 1750s, and my family still was when they
were buried in a Seceder cemetery 100 years later, after the move to Ohio.
Without knowing where they were from (Scotland? Ireland?) I don't quite know
how I'd know what parish records in either country, to view, looking for
them......that was why I was hoping for..... some hint of which country,
with the date of arrival. However, I'm still leaning toward Scotland,
considering the names.
I've looked up a lot of deeds for the area, and have the original PA
land records for the area, but Smith's abound, so they were no
help......the same for wills.....I have access to all PA wills before
1834......
Personally, I've been pretty lucky in finding passenger lists for other
lines......our Quakers arrived in 1683, in Chester co, and I've found many
different ships that brought them here.....the same goes for my 1600-early
1700 Virginians.....many more ship names that I ever imagined
possible....finding them just took a lot of digging and looking. However,
Smith is impossible!
I'm a pretty canny researcher, and traced the Smiths to PA by searching
for what I believed were the namesakes of several of their children; I
couldn't believe that Andrew Finley Smith and Andrew Duncan Smith weren't
named for existing people....and I theorized that if I found them I'd find
the Smiths....it worked, and I discovered them all in the same churches in
York co. In fact, I've traced the original namesakes for all the
children.....however, there is no assurance that they all arrived in the
colonies together or even came from the same area of Scotland...and,
without some idea of where, Smiths are impossible to trace. I suppose I
could begin checking the IGI and OPRs for old Andrew Finley, but don't know
if it's worth it or not........can't imagine I'd get that lucky
again....and, of course, if I found Andrew and there were Smiths in his
"home" congregation, how would I know if they were "my" Smiths or
not........it's just a terrible name to work with!
Thanks for your thoughts on things.......

Sandra

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