Church Building in Churchville, MD
Usually, when I sit down to write a blog I start with a general idea of where I want to go. I find a photograph that relates to the story. Then I let the words flow. Inside of two hours or so, I have a basic story crafted. I insert a few links then spend some time tweaking it. I may sit on it for a day and come back to the topic edit it a bit more, then hit "publish."
This topic of "Inheritance of Faith" has stumped me. I've sat down to craft it two or three times and I've come away unsatisfied. I stopped and did a bit more genealogical research and returned to the topic to try to write the story -- but still, it has been slow.
It may be that for this topic I started out thinking I knew how the story was going to unfold, but what I was uncovering wasn't going to fit quite that cleanly. It may be because there were so many holes that a cohesive story just wouldn't materialize. It may be that the inheritance of faith is more complicated than I considered. And yet, to a man of faith, it is so important.
This was important in ancient Israel when in Deuteronomy they were instructed:
"'You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
The family responsibility to secure that inheritance of faith was emphasized again in Malachi where it rebukes men for being faithless to their wives and essentially asks, "What was God seeking in faithful marriages?" -- "Godly offspring."
Yet, it turns out that faith is inherited in multiple ways and in different intensities. Sure, families can transmit an inheritance of faith, but so can societal relationship. Faith doesn't just come by inheritance -- it can also come simply by someone who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
I was raised in a Southeastern American Christian family worshipping regularly with the churches of Christ. I am an example of inheriting faith from the faith practices of my parents and nearby grandparents.
While I knew recent faith histories, the genealogist in me wanted to know, 'How did my family get associated with the churches of Christ?'
The churches of Christ, as a recognized entity, emerged during the Second Great Awakening in the United States. Is my inheritance of faith story connected to that awakening? This is where genealogical research comes in.
During the 1920s the churches of Christ were evangelizing in Pensacola, Florida. Transportation to worship was being offered, especially to children and teenagers. My grandmother, Ellen Anderson, was invited and allowed by her parents to attend. Through that invitation, her faith journey began. She, then, influenced her sisters. Ellen also converted her soon to be husband, Ira Huckaby during their courtship. My maternal line, then, had been members of the churches of Christ only since the 1920s. I would not be able to discover a direct line (though there is one) back to the Awakening.
My paternal grandmother was also associated with the churches of Christ. She had not attended worship regularly - though her sisters and parents did. My father, though, inherited his faith from her mother and father, Redmond Rose and Wilma Moore Rose. Redmond had built a small church house (which he called "Wilma Chapel") on their property so they could worship when they couldn't travel to the larger town of Rome, Ohio. Redmond had been religious from youth. His father, Lewis, was religiously active. Lewis participated in building the Centerpoint Church in Scottown in Lawrence County, Ohio. My great-Aunt Roma had described Lewis as a "kind of a Baptist preacher." We think "kind of a Baptist" referred to the German Baptist Brethren - sometimes called, "Dunkers." (See Note)
The religious trail runs cold beyond Lewis. His parents were probably practicing Christianity, but nothing in the records tie them directly to a particular practice.
Wilma Moore Rose, though has a more clearly marked religious trail. She was directly responsible for influencing the religious path that my father took. Her parents were Lafayette Moore and Willamna Rossiter Moore. No single record about Lafayette indicates his religious preference but two facts provide clues. One is that his children were active in churches of Christ in the region of Noble, Ohio and he was the grandson of Timothy Bates.
Timothy was affiliated with the nascent Christian churches in Ohio. Timothy became a minister for the Christian church in 1833. Timothy, along with evangelist, John Burnett organized the Mount Ephraim Christian Church (the structure is now used by the Methodist) in 1839. Probably not coincidentally, Alexander Campbell, a prominent leader of the Christian church movement, was in the same county of Ohio in the 1840 census.
With that, I can reasonably tie my inheritance of faith to the Stone-Campbell Movement during the Second Great Awakening.
As I look across several ancestors I find many examples of other faith traditions.
My grandmother, Ellen, was influenced to change. The faith of her father, Oscar, was not discussed in our family and no records have been discovered. He was from Sweden and he was a mariner. He was known, by a note from my great-Aunt, to have been hospitable toward Norwegians in Pensacola. Maybe he was associated with the Lutheran affiliated Norwegian Seaman's Church. Ellen's mother, Emma, was, according to her obituary, a Methodist, but her inheritance of that is unknown.
The McCown's were Methodist in Ohio but were originally Presbyterians in Virginia. My paternal grandfather's families in Tennessee were Presbyterian (associated with Hopewell Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church built in 1833) or Primitive Baptists (associated with the Friendship Baptist Church and Valley Grove Primitive Baptist Church).
I have discovered in the deeper ancestral roots that there were a variety of other faith traditions.
- Anglican -- Christopher Robinson, an 8th Great Grandfather, was a founding trustee of the College of William and Mary.
- Catholics -- Pierre Openhaiser, a 5th Great-Grandfather, was born in Koblenz in the Holy Roman Empire, strongly suggesting at least a cultural connection to the Catholicism.
- Huguenots -- Abraham Michaux and Pierre LeGrand are examples of French Reformationist.
- Episcopal -- Oliver Brown, a 4th Great-Grandfather, was not particularly religious but late in life, according to an obituary, associated himself with an Episcopal church in Brooke, Virginia (now West Virginia).
- Quakers -- Willimina Rossiter Moore, who I mentioned before, was descended from Quakers. Her Great-Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Stephens Rossiter, was raised as a Quaker at Valley Forge.
- Separatist -- William and Mary Brewster, as well as, Digory Priest were Puritans who arrived in the Colonies on the Mayflower.
Seen collectively, these ancestors did not pass down a single religious tradition. They passed down a history of people searching beyond the inheritance, preserving it, adapting it, and at times casting it aside. Generation to generation there was some amount of change. Even when the names of the religions remained the same from generation to generation the practiced traditions and sometimes even core tenets still evolved. God alone can say, "I change not!"
Those who receive an inheritance of faith invariably change something about the way they implemented it as they made that faith their own. That is the rub. Like any other inheritance once you pass it on -- what you pass on is no longer yours.
Note: The German Baptist association is probably why the Lewis' father was thought to be a German immigrant. He was not. He may have descended from German ancestors, but he was born in Virginia.
