Thursday, October 31, 2024

 THE LAST AHA: 

CHASING ARTALISSA                                 

                           The grave of Artilissa (Church) Orr 1794-1874

(Authors note: This story is the story of a genealogical "rabbit hole." Reader beware.)


Recently, I have been involved in helping my cousin Dan Wells with his application for membership to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. While Dan's ancestral line to pilgrim John Howland looks great, gathering the proofs needed for the folks at Plymouth Rock has come with its share of challenges. Anyone who has ever applied to a lineage society (and especially the GSMD) will understand the pain and the scrutiny one must go through to have their ancestry reviewed and (hopefully) accepted here. 

The family line in question for Dan begins with Mary "Molly" Angel, her father William Angel, and Mary's husband Jonathan Church, Jr. We've had pretty good luck in verifying "Molly Angel as the daughter of William Angel"  and also as "one and the same" with "Molly daughter of William who was also the wife of Jonathan Church, Jr.," though admittedly, it hasn't been easy. We've done so in the absence of hard vital records, and have relied more on county histories, land sales, and deeds that name all three of them, along with what cemetery records might be available. However, it isn't just "one record" that has tied all these "Churches and Angels" together, but a confluence of all the records when viewed together. In summa, we believe these will appease a very thorough California State Historian and ultimately the powers that be at Plymouth Rock for final approval of Dan's Mayflower line.

           

                            

 

                


Moving on in Dan's line, the next part has been to establish "William Church," (Dan's ancestor) as Molly and Jonathan's son, and ultimately as the grandson of William Angel upon whom the Mayflower line depends. In this instance, we found ourselves lucky to discover that Molly and Jonathan's son William had a twin brother named Joshua (obviously) born the same day. This has allowed us to "piggyback" proofs off of one brother (twin Joshua) to the other (twin William.) Again, here we have used some of the same sources mentioned above with the help of a published genealogy or two, and also New York land sales and deeds involving both brothers that help us conclude and re-verify the line as:                                                                 

                                          
                                                    

All of this has gone well enough, but it got me wondering, What about the other children of children of Mary "Molly" Angel and Jonathan Church, Jr.? As you can tell from the pages in History of Montville, there were a lot of them. I began to wonder what information I could find about their other children that might help further link William Church to his parents (Molly and Jonathan). I knew that going here would not be easy. After 1801, Molly and Jonathan's kids just seem to have scattered to the wind. I had gotten lucky in the twin brothers William and Joshua remained relatively close insofar as they completed land sales with each other. I'd been lucky too in that William's date of birth on his cemetery record matched the History of Montville account, that his twin brother Joshua was buried with his second wife also named in History of Montville, and further, that twin Joshua's cemetery record names his parents as "Jonathan and Mary..."

                                    



But what about the other kids?

It was about then that almost by accident I discovered the twins' sister, "Artalissa Church." Now much of what I put forth here won't be acceptable as "proof" for those august folks at the General Society, but please, let me at least introduce you to "Aunt Artalissa." I think when you see all of these bits and pieces together you will see why adding Artalissa to the mix only strengthens the case for the veracity of my cousin Dan's ancestor William Church's line to "Molly and Jonathan," and ultimately to passenger John Howland of the Mayflower.

At first, I almost missed it. However, there she was, mentioned at the bottom of the page:

               


"Born December 27, 1794..." The name is spelled "Addelissa" here, so imagine my surprise when I found through a myriad of Google searches, one Mrs."Artallisa" (Church) Orr, born on, (you guessed it) "December 27, 1794." 

(There appears to be a couple of spellings for Aunt Artie's name...)

                    


Had I found one of William and Joshua's [missing] siblings as mentioned in History of Montville? I mean census records indicate that [sic] "Artilissa' Orr was born in Connecticut further compounding the likelihood that I had...but still... the odds of finding two different women, both named Artilissa Church and both born on December 27, 1794 in CT, are much better than you might think they are. Hey, this is genealogy where literally anything can happen. 

Remember: all of this started out because Cousin Dan's (Dan who is a former Soap Opera star) father was switched at birth as a baby which has indirectly led us to a Mayflower line from John Howland - so two babies with the same name born on the same day in 1794 in CT is nothing when compared to all that...

With little more than this to go on, I decided to see what else I could find on Dan's lovely and charming seven times great Aunt Artalissa. Oddly enough, the U.S. Census for 1850 revealed a few interesting clues:

         



Okay, color me crazy (no jokes please :) but here is sis Artalissa with her family in Mahoning County, Ohio. Is it unusual that "Aunt Artalissa" names her first son "William G" - which stands for "William Gaylord" or alternately "Gaylord William" (he goes by both) - and that she calls her third son "Jonathan"??? I mean what are the odds that "two babies girls both named "Artalissa" and both born in Connecticut on December 27, 1794, would name two of their sons "William" and "Jonathan" - "Jonathan" after her father (and an older brother - see deed above) and also call one of them "William Gaylord" - William being the name of her brother and grandfather and Gaylord being the name of her brother William Church's somewhat noteworthy son "Judge Gaylord Church of Mercer and Crawford Counties, PA???"

Yeah, I didn't think so either. This has to be William's sister.

However, in terms of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, this is like potpourri. It probably wouldn't pass the smell test. I have no way of proving it.

So moving on from the lovely and talented Artalissa, I decided to keep looking at any other possible ties between the children of Mary "Molly" (Angel) Church and Jonathan Church, Jr., and the other siblings of their son, William Church, Dan's ancestor. 

And that's when I found Lemuel.

                     

                          The grave of Lemuel Church 1797-1872

Sadly, there isn't much left of Lemuel Church's headstone, and as with his presumed sister Artilissa, some of the evidence would make the Mayflower Historian General at Plymouth cringe. Nevertheless, onomastic ties seem to abound here. Let's start with Lemuel's date and place of birth. As far as things to compare, there isn't a lot. The FindAGrave.com memorial states his birth as "7 June 1797." There isn't any way to verify that this is what the stone says other than taking the photographer's word that this is what the stone says. I also haven't discovered any document outside of census records that can approximate his date of birth beyond the year - still, consider the record for "Lemuel Church" in History of Montville:

    


June 3, 1797.

These dates of birth are unusually close together for two separate men named "Lemuel Church." Still, as we have seen before, "these things happen." As far as a place of birth goes for the Lemuel Church shown on the gravestone above, I found the best record of it to be the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Mahoning County, Ohio where it shows his state of birth as "Connecticut." 

   


You may recall "Mahoning County, Ohio." from earlier in this post. The interesting thing about this is where somebody else lived in 1850. Yes, the lovely and talented Artilissa (Church) Orr also lived in Mahoning County, Ohio in 1850.

You may also find it unusual and even serendipitous that this Lemuel Church of Mahoning County, Ohio also names his firstborn daughter (wait for it...) "Artalissa" and his firstborn son (you guessed it) "William." So is it possible that there are two men named "Lemuel Church" both born near or about the same date in Connecticut who both happen to be living in Mahoning County, Ohio, and who both like the names "Artalissa" and "William for their kids?" 

I suppose so....but not really.

It's kind of weird too that just across the border from Mahoning County is Mercer County, Pennsylvania...home to Dan's ancestor William Church.

Their brother??? Kind of looks that way.

Still, the GSMD probably won't buy it.

        


Go figure.

Could it be that two more of William Church's siblings as taken from the History of Montville have begun to take shape?

Then there's brother Jonathan...

          


But that's another rabbit hole. :)






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