Johns Townsend: Elizabeths, Asenath Confusion: The Byberry & Mooreland Record Correction

I've tried to clarify something in my past three blog posts, but apparently I wasn't very clear from the messages I have received. What I am going to do here is attempt to clarify what I believe to be a minor error in the Byberry and Mooreland Records and help a few folks make the jump to the established genealogies that are otherwise correct.

The problem comes in "Parsing Johns," something for which I have the utmost sympathy.

To understand this posting, you will need two resources at your fingertips. If you don't, it won't make much sense. One is the Joseph Martinedale's History of Byberry and Mooreland Townships. (I use the PDF version). The other resource you will need is the Townsend Genealogy: A record of the Descendants of John Townsend, 1743-1821,  and of his wife Jemima Travis, 1746-1832 (1909).


There are several John Townsends who are contemporaneous and many were prodigious. Two who are often most often confused is John Townsend in Jefferson County and John Townsend in Orleans. Now, they shouldn't be confused, their geography is different. Jefferson County is practically Canada; the Finger-lakes are dead center in the state of New York.  But in a modern age of research by search engine, it is easy for the confusion to occur. People get thrown off the trail and give up forever stuck in 1850.

Byberry and Mooreland Records

The Byberry and Mooreland records of the Townsend family have an error in the surname of a wife of John (17). The wife of John in the Townsend section of the genealogy is Asenath Strickland. For absolute clarity, the family to which I refer are the children of Evan and Abi James. In the Byberry & Moorland records that is page 350, Evan (8), John (17). But the Carver family, in the same book, has it correct. I've put the pages side by side below, so people can see what I am referencing. 
Notice the Carver genealogy (on the left) has the spouse correct, but the birth order of the children wrong, which I regard as a small matter. One child was born in Byberry, Robert, the rest in Jefferson County and that is really outside the scope of the Byberry records. But notice what happens in the Townsend Records. John's wife is listed as Strickland, and Thomas marries Elizabeth Strickland.

Just to make it more interesting, some genealogies have decided that John is married to Elizabeth. This makes things quite confusing.

The correct spousal record from Jefferson County and from the Carvers is that John Townsend in Jefferson County is married to Asenath Carver. Thomas Townsend is married to Elizabeth Strickland. Rachel Strickland marries John Strickland Jr (in Burlington, NJ). Evan marries a Carver.

Thus, two Townsends marry two Carvers; two Townsends marry to Stricklands. They are the survivors the 1769 pox epidemic.


One last mention on the Townsend record in Byberry is that Rachael Townsend is missing. On page 349 of the Byberry Records Evan and Abi's daughter Racheal is mentioned. Now she should not be confused with her Aunt Racheal who died in the pox epidemic of 1769. This is a Rachel who is a sister of Thomas, John, Elizabeth, and Evan. She marries a John Strickland Jr. in Burlington, NJ and moves to the Black River Region with Thomas and John Townsend. She had 11 children when she arrived there, and perhaps more once she was there. All those children have Townsend blood.  It is a fair omission because the Byberry and Mooreland records are geographic records, not family records as such, but there are Strickland and Townsend researchers who have not caught that tiny detail.

Back to the marriage record error on John Townsend (17) son of Evan and Abi. Now, it is clear in the Jefferson County records that Elizabeth is a Carver. The Townsend page DOES have the birth order of the children correct, whereas the Carvers do not.

You would be surprised at how many genealogies have John Townsend married to Elizabeth Strickland based on the Byberry and Mooreland records.

This is where the confusion begins.

Dutchess County Townsend Group

That error in Byberry and Mooreland is causing a lot of people grief because they look at the Townsend section of Byberry and Mooreland and not the Carver section (understandably). Of course, who would go to the Carver section when one is researching Townsend unless one has a clue to lead one there.

Then consulting the Strickland genealogy they find out Elizabeth married a Townsend without checking the first name.

Then people go in the census and the search engines an look for a John and Elizabeth and end up in the Fingerlakes region with the Dutchess County group. Then they consult the Townsend genealogy and end up with a dead end.

 The John and Elizabeth down in the Finger Lakes region (contemporaneous with John Townsend and Asenath Carver in Jefferson County) are with the Dutchess County group. That is a John Townsend (545, p 85) and Elizabeth Cowen in the Townsend Genealogy.  Now, Thomas and Elizabeth in Lowville (#15 p. 350 son of Evan (8) and Abi James) and John and Elizabeth in the Fingerlakes region BOTH have sons named Jesse, and daughters Mary or Ann. Because half of the counties involved did not exist at the time of their respective unions, there are few records to consult to clarify the matter for the confused descendant. 
It can lead to a lot of confusion for someone trying to research the family. 

The matter can be set straight by someone noting the correction and the clear and obvious differences in geography and careful attention to the first names of the spouses. 

It certainly has caused the Dutchess County people grief, because some of them do end up in Jefferson County of a different branch of the family. It has also caused some grief for some of the Byberry people. 

I imagine the rest of the planet knows of this error, and I am the only one unaware. However, I suspect there are others equally ignorant, and thus the topic of this blog.