Genealogical Society of New Jersey meeting, 5 June 2010

I attended the Genealogical Society of New Jersey meeting at Monmouth University on 5 June 3010. I had intended to attend the Bergen County Genealogical Society meeting but the GSNJ meeting was exactly what I needed for several genealogical projects I am working on.

The first two lectures I attended were on Dutch research. The first was an intro to the resources of the Dutch Reformed Church in America housed in New Brunswick. I will be contacting them about some marriages that were supposed to have been performed in the 1600s in New Amsterdam/New York. The lecturer was Russell Gasero, Archivist for the Reformed Church in American

The second was about identifying Dutch families in New York and New Jersey. I am trying to determine where Capt Jenkin Morgan lived in New Jersey and where his son lived and was married. I am also interested in ship captain's certificates issued by the Dutch in both the Netherlands and in America. I am trying to determine if my ancestor, Renelder Walker's mother might have been Dutch. Henry
Hoff was the lecturer. He is a Certified Genealogist, a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and Editor of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

The third lecture was on United Methodist Church Records. I learned that Methodist Circuit Riders were fully ordained Ministers. Many took correspondence courses before they were ordained. My ancestor, Rev James Sullivan, was ordained by Bishop Asbury at Nashville, Tennessee in 1793. I am told there should be a memoire or obituary available for him. I'll also look for some Perkins and Tunnell relatives. Materials from the Mission work of the Church are in the Archives and one Perkins cousin was a missionary to China in the 1800s. The lecturer was Dale Patterson, from the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, NJ

The last lecture was on Quaker records at Haverford. This was an interesting session with a nice guide to the archives given out by the lecturer. I'll be checking for a biography of my ancestress, Mother Mary Bennefield Phipps, a noted Quaker Preacher who died in the early 1700s. It was printed in an issue of the Quaker periodical, The Friend. This program was presented by Ann Wetherill Upton, Quaker Bibliographer in Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

I thoroughly enjoyed the lectures and thank the GSNJ for providing them.