Surname Saturday: Rebecca Frost and her Famed Family of Frostburg, Maryland

Here it is Saturday once more and time for my all-time fav blogging blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers called Surname Saturday. It's at the top of my fav list because I get to look at the chart and report and closely examine a particular line, taking much needed time to think about what I'm looking at. It's nice.

This week is sort of connected to last week's post about Mary Ann (?) Eckhart who was mother of John Eckhart. John married Delilah Porter, and now we're talking about her mother's family. Maybe a chart will help, this one as a cropped screen shot from Mom's tree on Ancestry.com. Find it on Ancestry here.

 



Delilah's mother was Rebecca Frost. Maybe. Well, most likely. After a big review of the main research tool covering the Porters of Allegany County, Maryland, Mom and I came to the exact same conclusion about Delilah's parentage. She is not listed as a child in any of the usual sources so it all came down to conjecture. You can read about our search for here. And then a Surname Saturday post about the Porters here. So I'll not be re-making my case for Gabriel McKenzie Porter and Rebecca Frost being her parents at this time. Instead, let's just enjoy the time and place and follow the people.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, that's Mom, living and loving it!

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly 1892 - 1969
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly 1894 - 1985
 

8. Francis Patrick Kelly 1854 - 1923
9. Christiana Eckhart 1861 - 1932

18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917

19. Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909
John Eckhart was born 5 Nov 1831 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland and died 5 Mar 1917 in the same place. He married Mary Myers on 22 Apr 1859 in Allegany County, Maryland.
Mary Myers was born 20 Mar 1837 in Frederick County, Maryland and died 30 Oct 1909 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.
They had the following children:
9. Christiana Eckhart 1861 - 1932
Maggie L. Eckhart 1864 - ????. She married William Rechter.
Rachael Eckhart 1865 - 1940, who married Thomas W. Gracie, and then at his passing in 1909 in a horrible mining accident, she married Robert Strathan.
John Thomas Eckhart 1867 -1917. He married Rachael Pengilly.
Mary Catherine Eckhart 1868 - ????.

36. Jacob Eckhart 1801 - 1835/6

37. Delilah Porter 1812 - 1881
This couple were both born and died in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.
They had the following children:
18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917, who married first Mary Myers, and when she died, married Rebecca O'Brien.
Rachael Eckhart 1829 - 1895. She married Basil Anderson

OK, so at this point we begin the conjecture portion of our journey. No proof, no numbers. But I'll continue on and sketch it out for you.

Gabriel McKenzie Porter 1776 - 1842
Rebecca Frost 1774 - 1813
Gabriel's second wife was Sarah Jane Anderson (1771 - 1863). See there's another Anderson connection right there! It looks like she might have first been married to Samuel Porter, and I'm not sure which Samuel Porter that was but it looks like it was Gabriel's brother.
Gabriel was born in Carrollton, Baltimore, Maryland as were so many other Porters from this era. But then they moved to the western part of the state. Rebecca Frost comes from the family for whom Frostburg is named.
Gabriel and Rebecca had a bunch of kids however Delilah is not named as one of them. So let's skip naming them, shall we?

Josiah Frost 1745 - 1813
Elizabeth Parcell 1745 - 1813

Look, I have to tell you right here that it was just last fall that Mom and I started feeling comfortable with Gabriel McKenzie Porter and Rebecca Frost as parents of Delilah Porter. This Frost line is fascinating with Revolutionary War guys and town founders all over the place. But we're taking our time and not getting ahead of ourselves. Slow and steady. So let me leave it here. Sorry about that.

Long story short, if you live in Frostburg and say you descend from the Frosts, you better be sure. I'll stop now. Mom still lives in Frostburg;)

Photos courtesy Find A Grave.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/08/surname-saturday-rebecca-frost-and-her.html

 

 

Surname Saturday: Plenty of Porters!

I get a headache whenever I think about the Porters of Allegany County, Maryland. There were a lot of them and they passed a bunch of names down through the generations just to make my life miserable... or at least that's how it feels. I generally love doing these Surname Saturday posts, the popular and useful blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers because I learn a lot about what's known and what's not known about each branch on the old family tree. But the Porters, oh, no! Not them!

Here's the deal. The Porters are one of the oldest families in Allegany County and got their land as part of the military lot grants after the Revolutionary War. Plus, some of the written histories about the Porters indicate that Porters in the area predate those lot assignments. They're all over the place in Allegany County! Never mind. Our connection is one female, Delilah Porter, whose presence escaped all of the published material on the Porter line. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. So let's do this chapter and verse.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Recent DNA evidence and further analysis points to Delilah being the daughter of Samuel Porter, son of John Porter the immigrant and patriot soldier. As soon as more information is collected a now Porter post will appear here.
This lineage is not correct!!

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly 1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, that's Mom, living and loving it!


4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly 1892 - 1969
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly 1894 - 1985

8. Francis Patrick Kelly 1854 - 1923
9. Christiana Eckhart 1861 - 1932
 

18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917

19. Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909
 

36. Jacob Eckhart 1801 - 1835/6

37. Delilah Porter 1812 - 1881
This couple were both born and died in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.
After Jacob's death Delilah married James Anderson (1818 - after 1860) who came from Grays landing, Pennsylvania, but was in the area after 1845. You'll notice that Delilah and Jacob Eckhart's daughter, Rachael, married Basil Anderson, but we're not certain exactly how all of these Anderson people fit in.
They had the following children:
18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917, who married first Mary Myers, and when she died, married Rebecca O'Brien.
Rachael Eckhart 1829 - 1895. She married Basil Anderson.

OK, sports fans, here's where we take a leap of faith. Mom and I have worked long and hard on the problem of Delilah Porter's parents and I did a blog post about how we both reached the same conclusion. We did it using a published genealogy by Samuel Doak Porter, "A genealogy of the Porter family of Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan." He cites his sources and they include three known books about this line and other lesser know sources, many of them are old bibles held by descendants as well as personal family records. He did a fine job but as you'll notice we're back in the earliest years of the 1800s and before. Memories fade, records of births were kept at home, if they were kept at all, and primary source documentation... well, good luck with that! There are big holes in the Porter family tree as you can see by the chart below.

 

The hand drawn chart of the Porters from Samuel Doak Porter's book with all of the Josiah's highlight. The Andersons came in on one line and that helped solidify the connection from Delilah to her probable brother Josiah, and then back in through the generations.

 

So here's what we have penciled in for Delilah Porter. We're basing this on the premise that the Josiah Porter named in Jacob Eckhart's will as guardian for their children was the much respected Josiah Porter and Delilah's brother, as would have been the custom. You might notice that there are no numbers with these names and that's because they are "penciled in" pending further proof. They get a number when we're sure they belong to us:)

Gabriel McKenzie Porter (1776 - 1842)
Rebecca Frost (1174 - 1813)
Gabriel's second wife was Sarah Jane Anderson (1771 - 1863). See there's another Anderson connection right there! It looks like she might have first been married to Samuel Porter, and I'm not sure which Samuel Porter that was but it looks like it was Gabriel's brother, see below.
Gabriel was born in Carrollton, Baltimore, Maryland as were so many other Porters from this era. But then they moved to the western part of the state. Rebecca Frost comes from the family for whom Frostburg is named.
Gabriel and Rebecca had a bunch of kids and I have to tell you right here that Delilah is not named as one of them. So let's skip naming them, shall we?

John Anderson Porter Sr. (1737 - 1810)
Nancy Ann McKenzie (1741 -1786)
It's this John Porter who served in the Revolutionary War and is buried at Rose Meadow Cemetery, also called the Old Porter Cemetery, photo below. John and Nancy had about eight children: Mary (1765 - 1765), Michael (1768 - 1826), Samuel (1770 - 1828),  Thomas (1772 - 1854), Gabriel McKenzie Porter (1776 - 1842), Moses (1780 - 1861), John M. "Squire Jack" Porter (1783 - 1863), see painting below, and Elizabeth Eleanor (1785 - 1855).

Below are the maps of the Allegany County Military lots (in sections, as screen shots)

in which you can see those assigned to men named Porter.
(Map courtesy Evergreen Heritage Center.)

 



Grave of John Anderson Porter Sr. (1737 - 1810)

Old Porter Cemetery

John Porter Sr. (1694 - 1776)
Elinor Durier (1692 - 1778)
Both of these people were born in Gloucester, England. It is commonly said that John Sr. was a Jaccobite, and "made himself obnoxious" to the King George I. He landed on these shores in Carrollton, Maryland where his children were born and raised. Not much is known about the children, except for John Jr. who took land in the western part of the state. They also might have had children named Samuel, Henry, Josiah, and Michal plus two girls who are unnamed... but take that with a grain of salt.

 

The Old Porter Cemetery on Rose Meadow, Allegany County, Maryland.

 

View from the Porter land at Rose Meadow.

 

John M. "Squire Jack" Porter, as painted by Frank Maxwell Mayer,

on the porch of his house at Rose Meadow.

Squire Jack served in the War of 1812.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/surname-saturday-plenty-of-porters.html

 

The Creative Process: The Purpose of Pauses

In a "previous life" of about a dozen years or so ago I was a painter. Not a house painter but an artist painting in oils. Had a show and was experiencing a let down afterward so called a woman who was a cracker jack painter of long standing whom I respected to no end. Mary listened to me whine for a tolerable amount of time and then said simply, "Even the fields go fallow." Yeah, give it a rest.

Mary was wise in the ways of nature and looked there for direction on solving many of life's problem. I thought and thought about the fields going fallow and how it was nature's way to rest and get all systems ready for the work that would follow, like the spring and summer follow the resting time of winter. Before our conversation ended she said: now go be useful to yourself, rest, and then when you're ready, clean something.

My friend Mary intended that I take a well deserved rest after my show and then start the whole creative cycle all over again by cleaning my studio. I still follow that work pattern to this day. I'll chug along on a project, mostly genealogy stuff, and conclude the work, then take a short break. When I come back the first thing I do is get organized, make notes in the clear light of a new dawn, and outline what to do next. I clean as I go:)

In my last post I mentioned Eric Maisel's book, Fearless Creating, which I like very much as well as the other of his book about the creative process on my bookshelf, A Life in the Arts. They have both been helpful in my coming to a greater understanding of how things work. One of the most useful concepts for me is the concept, and a chapter title, "Hushing and Holding". In a nutshell Maisel gives direction that at the start of a new cycle or project it is helpful to simply hold the concept of the project within, not talk or write about it for a bit, and hold that thought. In the pause the concept will form itself. The mind will continue to work and resolve conflict, organize purpose, and solidify the squishy without too much effort on our part... while we go clean something.

He's a link to Maisel's book list in case you're interested: http://ericmaisel.com/books/

Hushing and Holding has been part of my work habit since I first read Maisel's words. It really works well for me even though it feels awkward not to dive in, make lists and email at least five people;) Sometimes it's hard for me to resist the urge to jump into action and "get 'er done".

I once chatted about this way of approaching the work with a renown artists I know well and he said, "Oh I never talk about my projects until they are started and the first brush strokes down on canvas. It erodes the energy to talk about it too early. Keep yourself to yourself."

This is very true of the creative process, I've found. There will be time once I have the project firmly in my mind for bouncing ideas off others and researching various strategies, but only after the real concept is so solid that I can write it down in a short paragraph.

It's the start of the new year and a good time to take stock of my genealogy projects... and clean up the stacks of papers gathering at my ankles. May we all be just a bit better and happier in our ancestral pursuits this time around!

Photo of the day from the Archive:

 

Rose Hill, the lands of my Porter ancestors
located in Western Maryland not far from the town of Frostburg.
A good place to sit, hush and hold.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-creative-process-purpose-of-pauses.html

SNGF: Ancestor Roulette!

Randy Seaver's bolg post for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is called Ancestor Name Roulette. (find it at: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html )  Now doesn't that sound cool?! Sign me up!

Here's part of Randy's SNGF post for Ancestor Name Roulette:
1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 50 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

OK, so here we go:) First step: pick a GGF. I picked my paternal GGF, Gustav Zeller born in Frostburg, Maryland in 1858. 1858 divided by 50 is 37, and that's my roulette number.

Second step: Using my Family Tree Maker software I ran an Ahnentafel report and checked out number 37. It's Delilah Porter! Delilah Porter was born 1812 in the general area of Eckhart, Maryland and died 1881 in that same place. She married Jacob Eckhart, born 1812 who died 1836, also in Eckhart.

Now, Delilah Porter has been a brick wall for Mom and I. Mom has investigated every nook and cranny containing records in Western Maryland, gone to every repository looking for her. Believe me, Mom knows this territory... and all the people at the front desk:) She came up empty for poor Delilah.

What we did know is pretty skimpy: birth and death year. Luckily she married a prominent resident of the area who left a pretty good paper trail and a dandy probate record. In it Josiah Porter was named the guardian of Jacob Eckhart and Delilah's children. This Josiah Porter was a thin thread linking Delilah to her family but it was just about all we had to go on.

So here are three facts about Delilah Porter of which we are sure:
1. Her husband was Jacob Eckhart (1812 - 1836, son of John Eckhart (1768 - 1835) and grandson of George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806).
2. Delilah Porter Eckhart and Jacob Eckhart had two children, a son John Eckhart (1831 - 1917) from which I'm descended, and a daughter Rachael Eckhart Anderson (1829 - 1895).
3. After Delilah's husband Jacob died she married for a second time to James Anderson (1818 - 1860). They had an additional 8 children.

For extra credit and to win the trivia prize (in my head), Delilah's presumed father Gabriel MacKenzie Porter (1776- 1842) married a second time to Sarah Anderson... and that's a whole bunch of Andersons right there, if you ask me!

Below you'll find a previous blog post about how Mom and I narrowed down possible family connections for Delilah using information contained in the book, "A genealogy of the Porter family of Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan," by Samuel Doak Porter. We each worked on our own and came to the exact same conclusion. Now as a relative newbie, I don't trust my results but I  sure trust Moms, not just because she's Mom but because she's been doing this since the early 1970s:)

http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/delilah-porters-parentage-good-luck.html

In a nutshell, we think that Josiah Porter named in the will was her brother. And if so that gives us a whole other window into the Porter clan and more family connections.

Thanks, Randy! That was fun:)

The Old Porter Cemetery.

A view from the Rose Hill, the Porter Property of old.
The site of old house (pictured below) sits to the right of this view.

 

"Independance (Squire Jack Porter)"
a painting by Frank Blackwell Mayer,

Now in the Smithsonian.
Squire Jack at home in Rose Hill.
Squire Jack was Gabriel's brother.
Gabriel is our most likely candidate for Delilah's father.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/sngf-ancestor-roulette.html