Family History Library Film #0987957, items 1 to 4 are the Free Will Baptist Church Records of New Durham, N.H. from 1780 to 1900. They are an odd bunch of records. Most genealogical records get better and more complete the more recent they become. Not these. The best records are from 1780 to 1820. After 1820 they peter out almost completely. The actual records are 10-20 pages of church meeting records and suddenly three pages of marriages. Then more church meeting records and then three pages of deaths. And so on, and so forth. Completely random. I wish the coverage of 1780 to 1820 were complete, but even that isn't. However, the vast majority of records fall between those two dates. After that there are two membership lists from the 1870s and 1890s upon which lines are drawn through members' names with the notation, died and date.
It was easy to find Benjamin York's marriage however:
There are some wonderful extras in this record: "Nov. 23d this day Benjamin York of Middleton was married to Rebekah Daughter of Abner Coffin of Rochester." The name of the father of the bride and the places of residences are quite special. I knew this record existed. However, a few lines below it I found another marriage for ancestors I didn't expect to see:
[1782] Novr ye 24th this Day Ebenezer Runnals of New durham was married to Elizebath Daughter of Isaac Stanton of Midelton.
This was quite a discovery for me. I knew this couple got married, but not that early. I noted Ebenezer's death record in the New Durham Vital Records and based on that record and the 1850 U.S. census Ebenezer was born ca. 1765 and hence married at age 17, which is a bit young. More likely he was born about 1762-3 and his age at death was underreported. His parents lived to be 85 and 93 respectively and his great-grandfather also lived into his 90s. [I've often wondered if longevity could be an added bit of evidence in making a preponderance of the evidence argument.] In any case, the marriage record above clearly shows that Elizabeth Stanton married Ebenezer Runnels.
Again, the "true" purpose of my looking at these records was to see death records post 1865, but there were none.
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