Elijah Norton Henderson (1801 - 1879)

Born 1 Nov 1801 in St. George, Knox, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died 24 Nov 1879 at age 78 in St. George, Knox, Maine, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Lea Sullivan [send private message]

Biography

Elijah was born in 1801 in St. George, Knox, Massachusetts, the son of Jabez Henderson and Hannah Beckett. He passed away in 1879 in St. George, Maine.

Sources

• family research online

"Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4M5-WJ2 : 14 January 2020), Hannah Henderson in entry for Elizah Henderson, 1801. "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4M5-WJY : 14 January 2020), Hannah Henderson in entry for Elijah Henderson, 1801.

"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:63RX-DVN2 : 10 September 2021), Elijah Norton Henderson, ; Burial, Tenants Harbor, Knox, Maine, United States of America, South Parish Cemetery; citing record ID 218612460, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

RESEARCH NOTES from another online genealogist: Last Changed: 8 April 2016 by TQuanstrom. Added here by Lea Walker Sullivan

After reviewing all of the record hints for Hannah and Jabez Henderson and their kids, I was initially a little confused. It seemed like half of the records were from St. George, Maine and the other half were from Salem, Massachusetts. I know that Maine was technically part of Massachusetts in the late 1700's but St. George and Salem are 176 miles apart according to google maps - and that would have been quite a distance to travel back in the 1780s. I wondered if maybe there were two separate families, one in Maine and one in Massachusetts, who all happened to have the EXACT same names in the EXACT same birth order and all of the children were approximately the same age. Finally I realized that all of the Maine records were BIRTH records and all of the Massachusetts records were CHRISTENING records. That led me to decide that this is in fact one family that resided in Maine, but traveled the very long distance Salem, Massachusetts for the christening of their children. Usually children were christened within days or weeks of their birth, but the Henderson children were christened months, even years after their births - probably due to the distance they had to travel. I'm not sure WHY they would travel to Salem for the christenings...perhaps they didn't have a church built in St. George, Maine yet. Or Maybe Hannah's parents were still living in Massachusetts...who knows, maybe Hannah's father was a clergyman and performed the christenings or something. In any case, I am pretty convinced that this is one family and the birth and christening records are for the same children even though the dates are much farther apart than you traditionally see.

List of children with birth and christening dates: Benjamin Henderson - born in Maine 26 May 1786, christened in Salem, MA 23 September 1787 John Henderson - born in Maine 1 March 1788, christened in Salem, MA 19 July 1789 Elizabeth (Betsey) Henderson - born in Maine 28 January 1791, christened in Salem, MA 19 May 1793 David Henderson - haven't found birth record yet, christened in Salem Ma 19 May 1793 (same day as Betsey) Sarah (Sally) Henderson - born in Maine 15 Jan 1796, christened in Salem, MA 21 Aug 1796 Mary Henderson - born in Maine 26 Jan 1798, haven't located christening record yet Elijah Norton Henderson - born in Maine 1 November 1801, haven't located christening record yet