Ancestor Birthday - April 6th - Elisha Shipman 1788 - 1863

Here is another one of my 4th great-grandfathers, Elisha Shipman. I have already posted about his son, Joseph L. Shipman, on 25 Jan 2017 and his mother, Margery Avery, on 11 Jan 2017. Now it is Elisha's turn. Of course Elisha didn't get to have his turn on his birthday because April 6th was one of those two ancestor days and Elisha came in second.

When I was first starting to research the Shipman family, an Ohio cousin provided copies from a family history book, The Shipman Family in America, published in 1962 by the Shipman Historical Society. This book included my family: my father Lester Albertson, grandmother Lucie Smalley Albertson, great-grandmother Rosa Ella Shipman Smalley, 2nd great-grandfather Joshua Rodney Shipman, 3rd great-grandfather Joseph Lester Shipman, and it included a 4th great-grandfather, Elijah Shipman, the son of Abner and Margery (Avery) Shipman. It stated that Elijah, born 22 Apr 1785, had "Served from Connecticut in the Revolutionary War, Moved from Connecticut to Ashtabula County, Ohio, and Married Catherine________." Since the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, I should have been more cautious about this information. I had found Joseph Lester Shipman in Ashtabula County, but I couldn't find a record of Elijah being there. I only found 3 Shipmans from the early days: Amos, Elisha and Nathaniel. Then my cousin, Beverly Frain, again came to my rescue. A Connecticut researcher had found a letter written from Ashtabula County in 1837 where the writer noted "Mary Cary is married to Josep Shipman Elisha Shipman son." Now I could research the correct brother. I should have known. I have taught enough Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes to realize that people are always getting those two Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha, confused.

Elisha did marry someone named Catherine, as she is there with him on both the 1850 census in Lake County, Ohio, and again on 1860 census in New London County, Connecticut. They went against the norm and moved west from Connecticut to Ohio and then went back to Connecticut. It is believed that Catherine died in Connecticut in 1860. I looked for the record and still haven't found it, but I did find the record for Elisha when he died in East Lyme, Connecticut, 8 Mar 1863.

Tomorrow I will try to give my conclusions about Elisha's children.

Posted 7 Apr 2017