Over the past several weeks, I've been introducing you to the children of my 4th great-grandparents, Dr. Luther L. Waterman and Phebe Barker. One of their nine children passed away before reaching adulthood.
Unfortunately, I don't even know the name of this child, or when he or she was born. I say "he or she" because I don't know if this child was a boy or a girl. He or she was only listed as "Child" in the book Waterman Family, Descendants of Robert Waterman, Volume 1 by Donald Lines Jacobus.1
Even though I don't know much about this little child, he or she deserves to be remembered just as much as the other children of Luther and Phebe Waterman. And so, here's what I know about the little Waterman child known as "Child" Waterman in my family tree.
This little child is listed along with the other children of Luther and Phebe Waterman on page 297 in Volume 1 of Mr. Jacobus' book about my Waterman family as follows.
- Samuel, b. 4 Apr. 1778; d. 28 May 1857.
- Erastus, b. 6 May 1780; d. 13 Apr. 1859.
- Child, d. at Franklin, Conn., in 1784.
- Jerusha, b. 8 June 1786; d. 1 June 1867.
- Phebe, b. 22 Jan. 1789.
- Asher, b. 26 Oct. 1791; d. 19 Jan. 1785.
- Eusebius B.
- David B., b. abt. 17 mar. 1798; d. 3 Mar. 1851.
- Lucinda, b. abt 1803.
You can see "Child" Waterman listed as number 3, stating that he/she passed away in Franklin, Connecticut sometime in 1784.
I also found the following record on Ancestry.com. It's a page from Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 for Franklin, Connecticut.2
The entry near the bottom shows a record of death for one of Luther Waterman's children. The child died in 1784. Unfortunately, this record doesn't indicate whether this child was a male or female or when he/she was born.
This is cropped from the page above.
I went back a few pages in the record on Ancestry.com and found the title page. Here is a cropped portion showing the title of the record.
Perhaps someday I'll be able to find information regarding the birthdate for this little child and whether the child was a male or female.
Thanks for reading!
Jana
© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved
1 Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. The Waterman Family. Vol. 1. New Haven, CT: E.F. Waterman, 1939. 297. Print.↩
2 Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 2013. Volume 36. Page 4. Franklin, Connecticut. Pautipaug Hill Congregational Church. Original data: Connecticut. Church Records Index. Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut.↩
I noticed a couple points: no one's child was listed by name so that means maybe there was a name given but not recorded for this particular record; one child was listed as stillborn so apparently the others lived a short time, at least.
ReplyDeleteWendy,
DeleteThank you for noticing this and bringing it to my attention. I wonder if I can somehow find out the name of Luther and Phebe's child. It would be amazing if there is a Waterman bible out there somewhere that lists this child's name. Or maybe a birth record or another document somewhere that I haven't seen yet.
Thanks for stopping by!
It makes me wonder if there is a more complete record with the church, but not indexed. Do you know exactly which church these records were for?
ReplyDeleteSadly, I have several similar situations where there is only a mention of a child and no name or gender attached. It's just not enough.
Hi Michelle,
DeleteThe records were from the Pautipaug Hill Congregational Church in Franklin, Connecticut. Perhaps I should do a search to see if there are records available from this church that I can check out.
It really is sad to just see a child listed without a name or gender in a family tree. Hopefully I will be able to find more information about this little "Child" Waterman in my tree. Thanks for stopping by!
Jana, if only we could name all the little angels in our families. They each deserve a memorial of some kind.
ReplyDeleteSo true Colleen! I wholeheartedly agree. Thanks for stopping by!
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