52 Ancestors: #46 ~ "Child" Waterman

This is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" Challenge begun by Amy Johnson Crow, author of the blog No Story Too Small.



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.

1. Samuel, b. 4 Apr. 1778; d. 28 May 1857.
2. Erastus, b. 6 May 1780; d. 13 Apr. 1859.
3. Child, d. at Franklin, Conn., in 1784.
4. Jerusha, b. 8 June 1786; d. 1 June 1867.
5. Phebe, b. 22 Jan. 1789.
6. Asher, b. 26 Oct. 1791; d. 19 Jan. 1785.
7. Eusebius B.
8. David B., b. abt. 17 mar. 1798; d. 3 Mar. 1851.
9. 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

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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.^↩