52 Ancestors Week 13: Worship

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: 

Week 13
The theme for Week 13 is "Worship." The lives of many of our ancestors were shaped by their choices (or lack of a choice) in how and where they could worship. This week, consider an ancestor and how their worship practices influenced their life.

When someone asks if you’re a god, you say “YES”!

Comments

So, there was that time when all the Catholic churches in Haverhill combined into one....

https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2024/03/52-ancestors-week-13-worship.html

Answer 1

My maternal Great-Grandfather, Albert VanBeuren Shelton, taught the senior Sunday School Bible Class at Sebree General Baptist Church in Sebree, Webster County, Kentucky for 62 years. He served as the Sunday School clerk and trustee the same number of years, and was a deacon for 48 years. I was so happy to locate the newspaper article on him below. A cousin had sent me a copy of the photo with the caption below it. I have searching for a copy of this article for a very long time. I'm so happy to have found it.

Answer 2

Hi Chris,

Happy Palm Sunday 

I have many a ancestor who was of a faith with my maternal side being Protestant and paternal side being mostly French Catholic. We have a few reverends on my maternal side. 

I think spirituality is a personal choice for most based on the experiences they have lived. 

My grandfather James Elwood Gibbs Sr (1929 - 2003) became a minister of the Gospel mostly because of his experience during the Korean War and the horrors of it he witnessed first hand. He also came from a home of Protestant faith as his father was an ordained minister as well.

Answer 3

My 2nd great grandfather, George Miller, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1809 but unlike his siblings he moved to Canada at age 20, settling in Cooksville, near Toronto, Ontario.  He was a carriage-maker by trade but his early religion is still being researched.  Whatever it was, George converted to the Methodist faith in 1841, influenced by his second wife Amelia Munro and the Reverend Horace Dean who was on the Toronto preaching circuit.

When there was a great fire in Cooksville in 1852, George moved his family and business north to Owen Sound, located about 90 miles north of Toronto on Georgian Bay (part of Lake Huron).  After retirement in the 1880s,George went about Owen Sound, doing good, visiting the sick, earning the nickname "Father Miller."  When he died in 1891 he was the oldest member of the board of trustees for the Methodist Church.  Below, Owen Sound in 1874.

Comments

So I've heard, Eric.  One of my cousins lives in that area.

Answer 4

Happy Palm Sunday to those that are Celebrating it. Happy Eastern Orthodox Sunday to my Fellow Eastern Orthodox!

My dad was an Orthodox priest Wine-524

My GGG Grandfather (Wine 259) was a member of the Dunkard Church of the Brethren (German Baptist Brethren) He was said to be a minister and allowed  African  Americans and Native Americans in his church.

 Now my mom, Kerestesy-3, was a member of the Choir of the Carpatho Russian Church Home | American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America (acrod.org)

My Grandmother,  Komisar-19, was Carpatho Russian Orthodox after the church left the Catholic Church. Before that she was raised Catholic. It was said if she didn't get married, she would have become a nun.

My GGGG Grandfather Keresztesi-7 was Jewish but became Catholic when he fell in love with a Catholic girl in the mid 1800's. He then left his Jewish life to become Catholic.

Comments

ha ha!  I read that as Drunkard Church and I thought, what a great name!  

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Well, it was West Virginia.  They did have moonshine back then.

Answer 5

Håkan Werme (1490-1558), my direct ancestor 13 generations back, was one of Gustav Vasa's (Swedish King Gustav I) bailiffs.  He was bailiff (Kronobefallningsman) of Kronoberg Castle in Växjö, Sweden, until he resigned in 1547 and then became bailiff of Trögd and Åsunda districts from 1551 to 1556, living in Enköping from 1550 to 1558.  Among other things, he was responsible for the soldier-escorted silver transports from the Sala silver mine. In 1558, a band of robbers succeeded in robbing the transport, and, alas, Håkan (with some others) was sentenced to death; he was beheaded in 1558 in Uppsala.

His son Nils Einar Håkansson Werme (1548-1610) got religion and Nils' young son, my 9th great-grandfather Paulus Nicolai Wermius (c.1570-1642) became the assistant vicar in a 13th-century wooden church in Värmskog, a village (now dissolved) in the Diocese of Karlstad, Värmland County, Sweden on a bay of Lake Värmeln.

A literate man, in 1602 Paulus was promoted to chaplain (Kapellan) in the 12th-century wooden Stavnäs parish church in Värmland in 1602, handling administration, documentation, and record keeping.  I sometimes wonder if he recorded legible or barely legible entries in the Husförhörslängd and other Swedish church records when I’m searching online at the National Archives of Sweden (Riksarkivet) or ArkivDigital.

During medieval times a pilgrim's road passed through the Stavnäs parish into Norway. According to legend, the local church was founded on the place where the pilgrims rested.  Interestingly, the current 1705 stone Stavnäs church has a sculpted wood crucifix and a sandstone baptismal font that Paulus would have used (photo); both date back to around 1200.

Paulus ultimately became the first Vicar (kyrkoherden) of Brunskog parish when it was created in 1621 around a large timbered church built in the 1500s to replace a small chapel built in the 1300s.  Some fifty years after his death a stone church was built, which was replaced by the current Brunskogs church (kyrka) in 1878. Many, many of my maternal grandfather's ancestors were baptized, married, and or buried over the centuries at my 9th great-grandfather Paulus' Brunskogs kyrka.

Comments

Would love to see the photo, Ray.

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Thanks for the reminder that the photo that I posted was from my personal profile and, since I am still living (in theory, at least), it didn't publish here.  I have added the photo to my 9th ggf's profile so it should now show.  Please advise if it doesn't.  Thanks, Ray.

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It is now shown, Ray.  You've given a very impressive and interesting answer, improved by the photo.

Answer 6

So here I went into the category "Notable Missionaries" and found the profile of Lilian Hunt Trasher. Her parents are connected to her, but this is it. So I added to the father his father and his grandmother to connect him to his ggfather Richard Lawrence Woodfin.

Comments

Well done, Jelena.

Answer 7

My husband's father and grandfather were vicars, his grandfather was the Archbishop's chaplain before becoming a misisionary in Basutoland . One of his mother's family was a 'notable' missionary to China. 

Unfortunately, my pedigree reveals less salubrious ancestors. Some were thrown out of the Baptists. I'm not certain it shaped their lives; poverty and overcrowded living conditions probably did that. 

In 1868 my ggg grandfather Joseph Dunkley and his son Henry Dunkley were found guilty  by the  local baptist church ' of conspiring with Eliza Dunkley and others to defame the Pastor's character with a view to protect the said Eliza Dunkley  from the consequences of her sins of which she has been guilty". Joseph and Henry were found guilty and expelled'  Eliza had ' admitted 5 charges and was adjudged to be not telling the truth about Mr Harding' (the minister)

Unfortunately, the record doesn't  give details, only the verdict  and the only Eliza I can find would have been only 14. ( the illegitimate d of Henry's sister)

Answer 8

Holy Week- such a good time to discuss worship. Resurrection Sunday is my favorite holiday.

My ancestors were protestant and Mennonite, with several preachers in the mix, mostly Baptist and Methodist.

Jessie James was not a minister; however, he was named after two family ministers, Asa Tillman Randolph and Jessie Kitchens. Jessie James' father, Frank James was also known to preach and two of Frank's brothers were also preachers, Jacob Newton James, AKA James L. Newton and James Riley James. James Riley was a Methodist preacher in Alcorn County, Mississippi, Hardin and McNairy Counties, Tennessee, and other Mississippi circuits. I have located his name on several marriage records in the area.

Another beloved minister in our family was Robert Odis James. Robert Odis was a Nazarene Minister, preaching in Missouri, primarily in the St. Louis area. He was called upon to hold the funerals of his siblings, which he graciously did and provided comfort to the family. I miss his humor.

Uncle Bill Odom (1926-1965) was another Methodist Minister in our family.  He left us way too soon.

Currently, we have several Lay Ministers serving their churches. I'm thankful for a family who worships.

Music is an important part of worship; my family has musicians who participate in and lead worship across the United States. 

 

Answer 9

A branch of my father's family were non-conformists / puritans / congregationalists, and it definitely affected their lives.

My eighth great grandfather, Richard Battiscombe (1601 - 1682) (Battiscombe-32) was a puritan, from Dorset, England.  In 1635, with his wife and 2 young daughters he sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Coony, at least in part due to the restrictions on those who were not members of the Churvh of England. After his wife died, in 1646, he returned  (sometime between 1647 and 1650) to England with 5 children, remarried, and had several more children. This may have  been due to the victory of the Parliamentarians over the Royalists in the English Civil War and the abolishment,  in 1650, of  the Act of Uniformity 1558 (which required Church of England attendance).

A generation later, his nephew Christopher Battiscombe (aft. 1655 - 1685) ( Battiscombe-70) was an active opponent  of Charles II and James II, and the re-stablishment of the Church of England, as well as James II's Catholicism..  He was a leader of the Dorset component of Monmouth's rebellion.  He was captured, arrested, and tried by Judge Jeffreys at the "bloody assizes". He was subsequently hung, drawn, and quarterd in September 1685. His "worship practices" cost him his life.

Comments

Quite a harrowing and fascinating family history, Janet.  I'm dang impressed!

Answer 10

Yes in my research of my family, I found many Ministers. I found the same with the research on my husband's family.

Many of my family were Baptist to include my father. My grandmother was Nazerine. Many of family were also Quakers, so I have read many Quaker writings while researching the family.