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When I first started researching my Bedford ancestors, Luetta Bedford Kirker passed on to me information from other researchers that indicated Moses Bedford was the son of Zachariah Bedford, the son of Daniel Bedford of Montgomery County, New York. This conclusion had been reached, because Moses Bedford's name was not mentioned in the subpeona listing Elias's wife and children for a law suite after Elias's death in 1841.
In February of this year, 2001, I received e-mail from a descendant of Zachariah Bedford, who has copies of the birth, marriage and death records from the family bible of Zachariah and Ann McLelland Bedford. Moses was not one of their children.
FitzWilliam Bedford, a son of Elias, submitted information to two county histories in the 1880's. One of these lists Moses as the son of Elias and the other does not.
Further research leads me to believe Moses was the son of Elias, but he could not be the son of Mary Maria Scott. Elias and Mary were married on 16 September 1824. I recently looked up this Bartholomew County record, and there is no question they were married in 1824. Moses, however, was born 8 August 1819. This information came to me from Moses's grandaughter, Mary Smith Van Horne Brockman, who was herself a genealogist, and who I visited for a week in the 1950's. Although I have no proof, I believe her information was copied from a family bible. All of the other dates on the list she sent to my father have proven correct, I have that original list. Furthermore, a date of 1819 is more in sync with the ages reported in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. A young male of the appropriate age for Moses appears in Elias's 1840 Tippecanoe County census.
I am presently looking for the court records on the lawsuit from 1842 against the heirs of Elias Bedford, to see if Moses is mentioned in the court papers. The subpeona mentioned above was found in Tippecanoe county, but it appears the lawsuit was filed in the Indiana State Court, and I have so far been unable to locate those records.
At the time I met Aunt Mary, I also met her sister, Elizabeth Bedford Van Horne, Aunt Lib. My aunts told me of a "grandmother" who had been raised on a plantation and waited on hand and foot by slaves. This certainly did not sound like Elizabeth Swank or Annie McLelland. Luetta will attest to the fact that I did not feel comfortable with Annie as an ancestor, and in fact, I never researched her.
So, if Moses is Elias's son, and Mary is not his mother, who was? I think eventually we will find that Moses's mother was a lady named Olive Millard, and her father was a William Millard. I postulate this theory based on the way Moses named his children. This, of course, will have to be proven.
What I have my doubts about is that John Bedford was Elias's father. The information I received from Luetta shows that Daniel Bedford had a son named John, and a son named Elias. I am inclined to think that Elias was Daniels son, not grandson--this seems to be supported by the way both Moses and Daniel named their children--not a John in either family.
I am still in the process of collecting supporting data and as soon as I am able to sort it out, I will change my website to reflect the new information on the relationship of Moses and Elias.
My website can be found at:
...www.jps.net/msvnhrn/VanHorne/bedford.html
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