Black Families in the Records of Christ Church, Philadelphia

Dataset CreatorsMichelle Belden, Christ Church, PhiladelphiaAllan Hasbrouck, Christ Church, PhiladelphiaWalt Rice, Christ Church, PhiladelphiaCarol Smith, Christ Church, PhiladelphiaChrist Church, Philadelphia volunteers and staffChrist Church, Philadelphia, established in 1695, was the first Anglican church in Pennsylvania and the birthplace of the Episcopal Church of the United States. It was here that members of the Continental Congress and later the federal government worshiped. An active parish, its congregation continues to gather in its mid-eighteenth-century church, now a National Historic Landmark.1The original “Black Families in the Records of Christ Church” dataset contains information on all the people baptized, married and/or buried at Christ Church Philadelphia from 1709 to 1913. The data comes from sacramental records that are now digitized and freely available.2Made available for publication are a transcription of the General Register and spreadsheets for Black baptisms and Black marriages, featuring more research and imputed information. There are 49,895 entries (each corresponding to a person) and 31 fields covering biographical and sacramental data. The “Notes” field in particular is useful for locating Black individuals in the records.Performing genealogical research on Black families in America can be difficult. In addition to all the usual challenges of working with old handwritten records, Black Americans were not even included by name in many types of records, and not in the U.S. Census until 1870. This dataset can share some woefully missing information to the historical record.Below is a description of fourteen black families, some enslaved and some emancipated, reconstructed using this dataset:1: Quako and Hannah’s FamilyQuako and Hannah were married 2/2/1749. No last names are noted for bride or bridegroom, and both are recorded as “negroes slaves of Mr. Allen.”3 The records show Quako and Hannah had four children: Samuel, born 4/21/1749 and baptized 5/21/1749; Joseph, born 6/13/1751 and baptized 7/14/1751; James, born 10/29/1752 and baptized 12/3/1752; and Hanah, born 3/7/1755 and baptized 4/13/1755.42: The Woodbee/Woodby Family Emanual Woodbee and Jane Linkhorn, both noted as “free Negroes,” were married on 12/19/1756.5 The records show they had five children: Jane, born 2/20/1762 and baptized 3/27/1763; Joshua, born 6/16/1765 and baptized 8/21/1765; Abraham, born 7/26/1766 and baptized 8/24/1766; Elizabeth, born 7/17/1770 and baptized 9/2/1770; and Charlotte Hannah, born 8/16/1772 and baptized 8/16/1772. Note that the last name Woodbee is later spelled Woodby, several children are listed with no last name, and in one case only the father’s name is listed.63: The Keen-Ray FamilyWilliam Keen and Cornelia Ray, both “free negroes,” were married on 10/3/1757.7 According to our records, “Will & Cornelia, free negroes” had a daughter named Philip, born 1/22/1759 and baptized 3/4/1759. (It is possible the name was misspelled and should be Philis or Philippa.) Although no last name is listed for Philip, Cornelia is not a common name in the records and the dates fit.84: Polydore and Rose’s FamilyPolydore and Rose were married on 12/31/1767. No last names listed; both noted as slaves.9 They had a daughter named Sarah, born Sept. 1771, baptized 3/10/1772.105: Fortune and Lucy’s FamilyFortune, “negro slave of Mr. Brown,” and Lucy, “negro slave of Mr. Philips” were married on 2/5/1771.11 They appear to have had three children: George, born 3/31/1771 and baptized 5/1/1771; John, born 4/30/1778 and baptized 5/16/1779; and Ann, born 5/2/1783 and baptized 8/2/1783.126: The Frederick FamilyThomas Frederick, “a free Negroe,” married Elizabeth, a slave, on 3/27/1782.13 They had two children: John Francis Frederick, born 12/16/1782 and baptized 5/4/1783, and Catherine, born 1/13/1785 and baptized 8/7/1785.147: The De Sylvas/Desylvas FamilyEmanuel De Sylva married Judith Jones on 8/3/1783. They are noted as “Free Mulattos.”15 It looks like Emanuel and Judith had a daughter named Mary Desylvas - such variations in spelling are common in the records - born 1/13/1785 and baptized 9/24/1786.168: The WIlliams FamilyJohn Williams married Hager (no last name listed) on 7/14/1784. Both are listed as “negroes.”17 Their daughter, Rachel, was born in August of 1782, which is prior to their marriage date. However, Rachel was baptized on the same date as the marriage, which makes the familial relationship very likely.189: Scipio and Elizabeth’s FamilyScipio married Elizabeth on 8/27/1784; no last names given, bride and groom listed as “blacks.”19 Peter Moore, son of Scipio and Betsy Moore (“negroes”), was born 8/31/1781 and baptized 9/23/1781.20 Peter was born before the marriage of Scipio and Elizabeth, and Betsy is a variant of Elizabeth, but Scipio is a unique name in the records.10: William and Hannah’s FamilyWilliam married Hannah on 12/1/1787. No last names given, bride and bridegroom noted as “negroes.”21 Elizabeth Scot, daughter of William and Hannah, “blacks”, was born 10/12/1792 and baptized 5/31/1793.22 11: The Cole-Douglas FamilyJames Cole married Sarah Douglas (“blacks”), 5/16/1788.23 They had a daughter named Sarah, born 7/1/1789 and baptized 7/26/1789.2412: The Smith-Bean FamilyAnthony Smith married Hannah Bean on 12/4/1788.25 They had a son, Anthony, born 6/8/1791 and baptized 10/28/1791, and a daughter, Margaret, born 11/15/1795 and baptized 3/28/1796.2613: The Haines/Haynes-Hickes FamilyPeter B. Haines and Sarah Hickes were married on 10/23/1821.27 Stewart Douglas Haynes (again, such variations in spelling are common) was born to Sarah and Peter on 4/4/1825, and baptized on 4/14/1825.2814: The Alsep/Alsop FamilyJames Alsep married Sarah Stockton on 5/23/1822.29 The “(c)” marking, as seen in this record, serves as shorthand for “coloured” in these records, and is in fact expanded to “col” in their son’s record. Charles Alsop, son of James and Sarah, was born 6/2/1824 and baptized on 3/8/1825.30There are more possible family connections to be explored in these records, allowing for all the complications of handwritten records of the colonial era. This means more work with the original dataset could be very fruitful.For example, Jacob and Easter married on 10/7/1770. No last names listed, “Jacob slave of Mr. Rogers, Easter slave of Mr. Casdrop.”31 A couple named Jacob and Esther, identified as “negroes,” had a daughter named Juliet, born 4/3/1771 and baptized 8/26/1771.32 Is it possible the name Easter (or Esther) was written down incorrectly, and these are the same person – wife and mother?Sometimes the names of bride and groom in a wedding record match the names of mother and father in a baptism record, but the child was born before the wedding. This could mean that there are two different couples, or that the couple married after having a child. Furthermore, if there are no last names listed and the first names are common, it is hard to determine relationships with accuracy.Some more examples of difficulty discerning familial ties in these records:Example 1) Hagar and William, “Negro slaves of Judge Laurence” were married on 9/7/1774.33 William Maclain, born 9/22/1761 and baptized 11/18/1768, is listed as the “Natural Son of William Maclain & Hagar Jones, Molattoes.”34 “Natural” here means born out of wedlock, which would explain the discrepancy in dates; however, would a couple described as “molattoes” in one record then be described as “negro slaves” in another?Example 2) Thomas, negroe slave of Paul Oxe, and Chloe, negroe slave of I. Solter, were married “by consent of their owners” on 12/31/1775.35 A son named Thomas was born to John & Cloe “Nagroe Slaves of Mr. Cross” only seven months previously, on 5/1/1755.36 Is it possible the bride and groom were sold by Mr. Cross to separate owners, after they had a child? Although heartbreaking, family separation was a common enough cruelty inflicted upon enslaved people at that time.Example 3) Sarah Fletcher and Isaac Richardson married as “Free negroes” on 10/13/1777.37 Less than three years prior, twin sons named Samuel and Isaac were born to Isaac and Sarah, “negroe Slaves of James Tilghman, Esqr.” and baptized on 7/17/1774 at two months of age.38 It is possible there were simply two couples with the names Sarah and Isaac; it is also possible that Sarah Fletcher and Isaac Richardson started their family while enslaved, and were not able to marry until they were later freed.Example 4) Phillis and John, slaves of Edward Milne and Jonas Phillips, were married on 8/25/1779.39 No last names were listed. The previous year, a daughter named Frances was born to John and Phillis Williams, “negroes.”40 (Frances was baptized 3/21/1779). Was she born to a different John and Phillis, or was she what was then called a “natural child,” although not noted as such?Clearly, this kind of research can be very complicated and messy. However, with these records online and available to the public, the tracing of black American families in colonial Philadelphia has become a more promising endeavor.412022-2025EnglishPhiladelphia, PA1709-1913Sacramental or Religious RegistryBaptisms, marriages, and burials, Christ Church, 1709-1718, v. 28, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_BaptismsMarriagesBurials1709-1718_v028#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1736%2C-414%2C8280%2C8264.Baptisms, marriages, and burials, Christ Church, 1719-1750, vol. 29, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_BaptismsMarriagesBurials1717-1749_v029#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2027%2C-508%2C10178%2C10158.Baptisms, marriages, and burials, Christ Church, 1750-1762, vol. 30, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_BaptismsMarriagesBurials1750-1762_v030#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2295%2C-525%2C10503%2C10483.Baptisms, Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, 1763-1810, vol. 31, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_Baptisms1763-1810_v031#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2094%2C-508%2C10179%2C10159.Baptisms, Christ Church, St. Peter's Church, and Saint James's Church, 1811-1831, v. 32, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_Baptisms1811-1831_v032#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2222%2C-513%2C10273%2C10253.Marriages, Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, 1763-1836, Vol. 36, https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/item/ChristChurch.RectorsRegisters_Marriages1763-1835_v036#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-184%2C6765%2C416%2C416.From 1936 to 1939, the WPA surveyed and indexed the records at Christ Church. In September of 2022, in the course of work on the Philadelphia Congregations project,42 Walt Rice exported a detailed spreadsheet (the original dataset) from Christ Church’s Access database of sacramental records, so that Carol Smith, Allan Hasbrouck, and Michelle Belden could update each entry with the volumes and page numbers containing individual records, thus linking the records to their scanned images. We inquired about any previous research into reconstructing slave families from the records. Hasbrouck ran a query for the terms “black,” “negro,” “slave,” “color,” and “coloured” in the “Notes” field. This query returned 209 hits in marriage records, 506 hits in baptismal records, and 4 hits in burial records.Combing through the “Notes” field with human eyes, Belden added many more records. The h abbreviations such as (C), (c) or C denoted “colored.” Notations such as “of William Hopkins” or “of mary hog” also signaled a slaveholder/enslaved relationship. The term “mulatto” was spelled in eight different ways in the records. “Negro” was misspelled as “negore” or “nogro,” “slaves” misspelled as “salves” or “slae.” After a thorough review, there were 552 black baptisms and 235 black marriages.Once all these relevant records were compiled, Belden began the process of sorting and matching names and dates across the marriage and baptism records. When possible, matches of spouses and children were confirmed (as much as possible) by reviewing scans of the relevant primary sources.Dataset Repository: Harvard Dataverse, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IQPXH6Enslaved.org Linked Data Representation: https://enslaved.org/visualizedata?type=Dashboard&field=po&proj=black+families+christ+church+philadelphiaCouncil on Library and Information ResourcesAthenaeum of PhiladelphiaAmerican Theological Library AssociationUniversity of Pennsylvania LibrariesConnelly FoundationPennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission