Hugh Wallis has prepared an online index to the Vaughans/Vaughns mentioned in the Wills of Breconshire, Wales–proved in the Archdeaconry of Brecon, 1575-1858, Diocese of St. David’s. You can access the wills by date of probate, testators given name, testators parish of residence, people sorted by date of probate, people sorted by parish of testator, and people sorted by surname: Vaughan, Vaughn, Ychan, Vychan. Surname index is 63 pp. long.
This is not a new reading of the Brecon wills. It is a database created from the LDS Abstracts and Index on 54 microfiche, #6024470-84, 6024222-60. It covers, however, Breconshire, parts of Monmouthshire (now in Wales), Radnorshire, and Herefordshire (in England).
To find this online database, go to Google and type “Hugh Wallis Genealogical Web Sites” in the search screen.
Or click on: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Ehughwallis/
Saddlebag Trails: Frontier Circuit Rider
Somewhere, in some library where I forgot to note either the library or the bibliographic details, I found a very informative book–Saddlebag Trails: The Frontier Circuit Rider. And I took quite a few notes, which I am still going to share with you. And hope that someone will find this genealogy gem and share with us all, the author and where it was published, the date and how we can access it.
Francis Asbury, the assistant to Methodist Divine John Wesley, became the first American Bishop by election at Lovely Lane Meeting House, Baltimore Conference, 25 Dec 1784. His circuit had been the American Circuit.
William McKendree, a Native American circuit rider in East and Middle Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Ohio was first a circuit rider in 9 circuits in Cumberland District (which included Mississippi). Then he became presiding Elder, and finally Bishop by 1834.
The designation “circuit rider” was usually applied to Wesleyan Methodist and Methodist Episcopal clergy. These men rode horseback from community to community preaching and bringing organized, consistent religion to the frontier. They traveled without “purse or scrip” depending upon their local members for food and lodging.
The Methodists were not the only churches with mobile ministers. The Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and others also sent out itinerants to care for the religious needs of the people.
Here is a list of frontier circuits you might not have considered:
__Concord, Massachusetts Bay
__Fairfield CT
__Princeton NJ
__Westchester County NY
__Phillipse Manor, NY
__Shenandoah Valley, Virginia–including South Branch, North Branch, Frederick County, Augusta County, Shenandoah County.
__East Tennessee–including Washington County, Greene County, Cocke County with spillover into Western North Carolina.
Pastoral records of itinerant ministers in Pennsylvania are edited and published in 2 volumes: Circuit and Circuit Riders by Phillip A. Rice and Jean A. Dellock. 1996. Available from Closson Press, 257 Delilah Street, Apollo PA 15613-1933. Or check http://www.clossonpress.com
And, Children of the Circuit Riders: The Asbury United Methodist Church, York Pennsylvania, 1781-1985 by George R. Sheets. York PA: The Church, 1985.
Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://www.arleneeakle.com
PS The Logan UT Family History Expo was wonderful. Enough people came out the Saturday before Easter Sunday to fill every chair and stand in the doorway of my session called: “Simplify Your Research: Map it! Chart it! Paint it!”
PPS One evidence comment–I overheard a speaker (actually unknown to me) say that shortly we would be able to cite our sources by using only a URL link on our websites. The reader can click the original source or record from which we gathered our genealogy. Bad procedure. Very bad. URL’s change, links are broken, and once the URL is found you still have to find the exact document where the data are. This is online, where the links mean something. Do you know how many times I click on a link and get an error message? Or the browser on my computer at the library cannot retrieve the web page for a whole variety of reasons?
In a written work or a printed pedigree, I’d much rather have a full citation–what record gives the data? Where can this record be found? Are there any problems in retrieving the record? Who gave the information in the record? And on and on.