VISIT BY HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
On September 9, four members of Public Safety and Administration Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Delegates visited the Archives for a tour and lunch. Ed gave the committee members an electronic tour of the Archives first, concentrating on the Maryland Manual On-Line, Maryland Electronic Capital, the computerized finding aids to government records, and special collections. The originals of a number of documents which can be seen on-line on the Archives' web site were on display in the Electronic Classroom. After the electronic tour, the members, Peter Francot, chair; John F. Slade, III, Vice Chair; Wheeler R. Baker; and Sue Hecht were given a walking tour of the building. The members of the subcommittee were very interested in Ed's discussion of the problems facing the Archives and the state with regard to the permanent storage of electronic records.
MARRIAGE RECORDS IN FRANCE
by Chere Potter and D. Frank Potter
[Frank Potter is a reference volunteer at the Archives]
Early settlers in Maryland came primarily from the British Isles. But in the course of tracing our roots we may discover that a few of our ancestors had an earlier French connection or origin. English genealogical research often leads back to the Doomsday Book which contains many names of Norman and French genesis. The name Potter appears to be very English, but likely was once Potier. The surname of Nestor Hoet, grandfather of Chere Potter, is pronounced O-Way in French and was alternately spelled several ways, including Howe. The pronunciation remained similar. It takes but the removal of the accent to change its complexion from French to English.
Transcribed below is a French marriage record which should be enlightening for anyone with French ancestry and interesting to other genealogists because of its style and content, especially compared to Maryland records. The local clerk wrote the document in narrative form, rather than just filling out columns in a matrix format. The narrative type of recordation was a common practice of the time, especially in small villages, not only for marriages but also for births and deaths.
These records can be accessed at the local town halls. A researcher can request the book for a specific year and there find a chronological history of births, deaths, and marriages. In many cases one document may contain marginal annotations about subsequent events. For example, a birth record may contain notes about that person's marriage and death. In addition, ancient church records are sometimes kept at the mairies (town offices). Usually (our primary experience is in small villages) the researcher is given the original record to peruse. These bound journals are kept in ordinary metal or wooden cabinets, generally in quite old buildings. One wonders about safety, security, or microfilm backup.
A French marriage record contains a wealth of information and is signed by the parties involved. It shows the place and time of marriage; names of the bride and groom; their occupations, places and dates of birth, and legitimacy; and similar information about their parents and the witnesses. The document also reveals marriage traditions and laws. In the case below the civil ceremony occurred on July 30, 1888, preceded by the publication of the banns on the 15th and 22nd and the appearance before a notary on the 28th to make a marriage contract (not to be confused with a prenuptial agreement). Usually an additional religious ceremony would take place at the church, often directly following the civil proceedings. The reading of the birth certificates is curious, perhaps done to establish identity.
These French documents provide so much information about parents that it facilitates tracing preceding generations as far back as the annals go.
Transcript of Marriage Record of Nestor Hoet and Marie Catherine Machu
The year 1888, the 30th of July, at 11:30 in the morning, before Augustin Prevot, mayor, officer of the civil state of the community of Bevillers, canton of Carnieres, district of Cambrai, department of the Nord, publically appeared in our community building, Nestor Hoet, the first party, weaver, aged 23 years and 9 months living at Fontaine-au-Pire, born at Caudry the first of October 1865, legitimate son of age [in his majority] of Theophile Hoet, weaver, aged 62 and of Josephine Cardon, aged 60, of no profession living at Fontaine-au-Pire, here present and consenting, and the second party, Marie Catherine Machu, weaver, aged 20 years and 6 months, living in Bevillers where she was born the 27th Sept 1867, legitimate, minor daughter of Andre Machu, plowman, 61 years old, and of Josephine Leduc, 56 years old, day worker, his spouse, living at Bevillers, here present and consenting, all of these have requested the celebration of marriage to take place between them and of which the publications [banns] have been made in conformity with the law of Bevillers and Fontaine-au-Pire on the 15th and 22nd of this July, no objection to the said marriage having been signified to us, permitting their request, and after having read the birth certificates of the future bride and groom and Chapter VI of the Civil Code entitled: respective rights and duties of the spouses, we have inquired of the husband and wife to be if they want to take each other for man and wife, each of them having separately answered in the affirmative, we declare in the name of the law that Nestor Hoet and Marie Catherine Machu are united in marriage. To our question, they declare to us that on the 28th of July current, a contract of marriage was made between them in front of the Honorable Arthur Fontaine, notary at Avesnes-les-Aubert, so done in the presence of Theophile Hoet, 40 years old, brother of the groom, dayworker, living at Caudry and of Joseph Hoet, age 28, weaver, living in Beauvois, brother of the husband, and Jean Baptiste Machu, 34 years old, first cousin of the bride, weaver, living in Beauvois and Damien Montay, weaver, age 31, brother-in-law of the bride, living at Fontaine-au-Pire. The father and mother of the bride having said that they can't sign their names, the newlyweds, and the parents of the husband, and the four witnesses have signed with us after the rites were read.
MORE ON EDWARD PYE
by Robert Barnes
The "Unusual Inventory" described by Pat Meville in the last issue of the Bulldog, belonged to Edward Pye, who arrived in Maryland by 1682, held a number of offices, and died in 1696. In order to place him in his proper familial and social setting, the following information was garnered from my forthcoming book on British Roots of Maryland Families. Basic information on the Pye family was taken from "Memorials of the Family of Pye," The Herald and Genealogist, 5:130-133. This pedigree is "from the Visitation of Herefordshire, 1569, and is continued from wills, monumental inscriptions, parish registers, and other sources."
The Pyes were an armigerous family of Herefordshire, England. Their estate was called The Mynde. In heraldic terms, their arms were described as: Ermine (white with black spots), a bend lozengy (a diagonal strip of diamonds) Gules (red); Crest: on a wreath, a cross-crosslet fitchee gules between two wings erect argent white or silver).
Edward Pye's father, John Pye, son of Sir Walter and Joane (Rudhall) Pye, was baptized on 17 Dec 1620. He married Blanche, sister of Sir Henry Lingen of Stoke Edith. John and Blanche were the parents of "twenty-three children, and Blanche was 30 before she was married." One of these twenty-three was Edward.
Edward Pye, son of John, came to Maryland in 1682 and died in 1696. He married Anne, widow of Benjamin Rozer, daughter of Henry and Jane (Lowe) Sewall, sister of Nicholas Sewell. Pye was the step-son-in-law of Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore, and Anne was the sister-in-law of Philip Calvert. Edward Pye was a member of the Upper House and Governor's Council, a member of the Board of Deputy Governors, and a colonel in the army. At his death, his personal property was valued at £1,200.0.0.
Edward and his wife Anne were the parents of the following children: Henry, living 1716; Walter, died s.p. [sine prole, this is, without issue] in MD, having married a daughter of John Faunt of St. Mary's Co.; Charles; and Anne, married on 23 September 1714 to Robert Needham of Upper Hillston, County Monmouth.
Walter Pye, son of Edward and Anne, was described as "late of MD in the West Indies," when on 4 August 1699 administration was granted to Robert Chaplin, guardian of Charles, Walter, and Anne Pye, minors, nephews and niece of the deceased. (Withington, "Maryland Gleanings in England," Maryland Historical Magazine 2:282).
Charles Pye of the Mynde, Herefordshire, son of Edward and Anne, evidently returned to England, and was living between 1716 and 1743. He married Mary Booth, daughter of Charles Booth of Breinton, Co. Hereford. Charles and Mary had two children: John, and Anne, d. 5 April 1733, aged 13 mos.
John Pye, son of Charles and Mary, was living on 25 January 1764 when he was conveyed an indenture of "lease and release" by Edward, Duke of Norfolk. Also mentioned in the document were Mary and Elizabeth Pye, spinsters, and Baker Brooke and Henry Rozer (Charles County Court Land Records, O#3: 584 [MSA C670).
LIBRARY ACCESSIONS
by Shashi Thapar
Baxter, John William, Strohneiers of New Orleans
Chance, Jane, The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power
Cook, Eleanor M.V. Guide to the Records of Montgomery County, Maryland, revised
Corner, Helen Childs, et al, The Childs Family
Cushing, John D., First Laws of the State of Maryland
Davis, Harold Dean, The Fitzhugh Family of Dorchester County, Maryland, 1684-1992,3 vols.
Dorsey, John, Guide to Baltimore Architecture,3rd ed.
Dove, Milton Harold, Dove Trails: The History and Genealogy of the Dove and Related Families
Dryden, Ruth T., The Powell Family
Dryden, Ruth T., Cemetery Records of Worcester County, Maryland
Dryden, Ruth T., Lower Eastern Shore Maryland Marriages including Counties of Somerset, Worcester, and Wicomico, 1865-1906
Dryden, Ruth T., 1920 Census, Worcester County, Maryland
Dryden, Ruth T.,1920 Census, Wicomico County, Maryland
Dryden, Ruth T., 1920 Census, Somerset County, Maryland
Dyer, Linda, One Kind Favor: See That My Grave's Kept Clean
Fields, Cynthia Carrie Ross, The Gunter-Ross Family: A Pictorial History
Fleming, Paula Richardson, North American Indians in Early Photographs
Foster, Janet, British Archives: A Guide to Archive Resources in the United Kingdom, 3rd ed.
Garitee, Jerome R., The Republic's Private Navy
Gibb, James G., Archaeology of Wealth: Consumer Behavior in English America
Goodman, Jordan, Tobacco in History: The Cultures of Dependence
Guyther, J. Roy, Charlotte Hall: The Village, 1797-1997
Hamilton, Lamar, Alexander Hamilton of "Spy Park": The First Hamiltons of Portobacco (Maryland)
Hamilton, Lamar, The Hamiltons of Nanjemoy (Charles County, Maryland): John Hamilton and Elizabeth Burdit and Their Descendants
Hervey, Donald G., Mayflower to the Moon: Herveys and Gables
Hiatt, Catherine C., A Partial View of the Beasman-Baseman Family of Maryland
Lioi, Andrew A., Rosaria's Family: The Family of Bruno and Rosaria Lioi
Merryweather, Melanie, Genealogy of the Henry Family
Moylan, Charles E., Jr., The Third Generation: Richard McElfresh (1724-1808): Beginnings of the Westward Migration
Moylan, Charles E., Jr., Gorsuch-Lovelace Ancestry of Grace, Edith, Agnes and Alfred Gorsch of Westminster, Maryland, Part 1
Moylan, Charles E., Jr., An English Exodus: Dr. John Gorsuch (1607-1647) and Anne Lovelace (1611-1652)
New, M. Christopher, Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution
Oszakiewski, Robert Andrew, Maryland Naturalization Abstracts, Vol 2: County Courts of Maryland, 1779-1851 and U.S. Circuit Court for Maryland, 1790-1851, except Baltimore City and County
Phillips, Christopher, Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860
Porter, Frank William, II, Quest for Identity: The Formation of the Nanticoke Indian Community at Indian River Inlet, Sussex County, Delaware (Dissertation, PH.D.)
Prall, Richard Dwight, The Crabb Family, 2 vols.
Pusey, Lloyd Albert, Jr., Descendants of William Pusey: 300 Years of History on the Eastern Shore
Schlef, Gary W., History of the Canton Railroad Company, 1906-1996
Schwarz, Robert Devlin, 150 Years of Philadelphia Still-Life Painting
Seymour, Helen E., The Register of Baptisms of Talbot Circuit, Easton District, Philadelphia Conference of Methodist Episcopal Church, 1842 to 1875
Sheads, Scott Sumpter, Baltimore during the Civil War
Smith, Ralph D., Abraham Lemaster (1638-1722) of Charles County, Maryland and His Descendants, Vol. 1
Society of Colonial Wars in Maryland, Genealogies of Members, 1940-1994, and Record of Services of Ancestors, vol. 2
Society of Colonial Wars in Maryland, Genealogies of Members, 1940-1994, and Record of Services of Ancestors, vol. 3
Wallis, Guy, Boyer Family of Kent and Cecil County, Maryland and Tompkins County, New York
Warhus, Mark, Another America: Native American Maps and the History of Our Land
Washington County Free Library, Index to Hager's-town Newspapers, 1830-1834
Witkey, Lucille Schreiber, The Brooke Family Lineage with Many Related Families
Zimmerman, Kenneth Edwin, Guide to Research in Howard County, Maryland
Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist
Patricia V. Melville, Editor
Mimi Calver, Assistant Editor
Lynne MacAdam,Production Editor
Rita Molter, Circulation
The Maryland State Archives is an independent agency in the Office of Governor Parris N. Glendening and is advised by the Hall of Records Commission. The Chairman of the Hall of Records Commission is the Honorable Louis L. Goldstein, Comptroller, and the Vice Chairman is the Honorable Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals.
The Archivists' Bulldog is issued bi-monthly to publicize records collections, finding aids, and other activities of the Archives and its staff. Subscription cost is $25 per year, and the proceeds go to the State Archives Fund. To subscribe, please send your name, address, and remittance to: the Maryland State Archives, 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1686. Phone: MD toll free: (800) 235 4045; or (410) 260-6400. FAX: (410) 974 3895. E-mail: archives@mdarchives.state.md.us. The Editor welcomes editorial comments and contributions from the public.
The Archives maintains a Website on the Internet at: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us