Church Records Provide a Hopeful Clue to the Bird Family

New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965, digital image; Ancestry.com:  accessed 11 Nov 2020, citing FamilySearch.org microfilm 000961018.

With Hurricane Eta descending on my area I decided to spend this rainy windy prelude to the storm searching for my mysterious Bird family.  All I know is that my paternal 4th great grandparents:

• Hannah Byrd was born in New Jersey, possibly Monmouth, about 1775.  She married Thomas Duer about 1797.  The couple relocated about 1808 to Trumbull County, Ohio where she lived for the remainder of her life, dying in 1858 in Mahoning County, Ohio.  Mahoning had been split from Trumbull County. Hannah may or may not be the Hannah Dyer that married on 22 September 1831 in Jackson, Trumbull County, Ohio widower James Preston who lived on the land next to Thomas and Hannah's. No divorce records have been found and Hannah returned to using Duer as her last name in the 1840 U.S. federal census. She was buried in Jackson Township Cemetery, North Jackson, Mahoning County, Ohio.
• Spouse Thomas Duer was born about 1775 in New Jersey, possibly Sussex County.  He died, probably unexpectedly since he was intestate, on 29 November 1829 in Jackson Township, Trumbull County, Ohio and is buried in the Price Mills Cemetery in Pricetown, Trumbull County, Ohio.  The cemetery was not the closest to his residence at the time, however, it was known as a cemetery for those of the Presbyterian faith.

There certainly are a lot of "probably/possibly/maybe" in what I know!  Records are scant for the New Jersey area at the time of their birth, the start of the American Revolution.  

I have discovered many Berd/Bird/Burd,/Byrd families in New Jersey but never able to determine that any had a child named Hannah.  

Some researchers have surmised that Hannah was a Quaker, as there has been records found for permission for a Mary Duer to leave Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1806, about the time my Hannah relocated to Ohio.  Except I have found no evidence that my Hannah was using the name Mary.  

There is also a record of a Hannah Byrd from Monmouth, New Jersey, recorded with a Joseph and Thomas in a Quaker index but there isn't enough information to determine that was my Hannah.   

There are a sizeable number of Duers that were of the Quaker faith and as I learned this past summer, the Presbyterian and Quaker Duers were distant cousins that kept in contact with one another through the 1700's in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  That leaves the possibility that Presbyterian Thomas Duer married Quaker Hannah Byrd.  

What I could never reconcile was when and where Hannah and Thomas met.  I have no records that Thomas was ever in Monmouth as I have no records that Hannah was ever in Sussex.  

On a side note, imagine researchers in the future looking back at our time period to try to figure out where their ancestors met - will there be records of dating aps available?!  Hmm, what a mess that will be.

Last month I decided to try to trace the path of the only Bird that was in Trumbull County, Ohio at the time that Hannah was alive to determine if there was any connection between the two of them.  

Benjamin Bird, born about 1872 in New Jersey and who died before 1860 in Ohio, was the one and only individual with a similar surname.  Possibly he was a younger brother or cousin of Hannah or maybe not related at all.  When I began to search for New Jersey records for him, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find the info I have posted in the picture above...Benjamin, along with an Elisha and Margaret Bird, were all married in Pleasant Groves, now Warren County, then Sussex County, New Jersey by a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Joseph Campbell, in September and October of 1809. These flimsy findings may just lead me to Hannah's parents.

Today, I'll try to determine the relationship between Elisha, Margaret and Benjamin. Hoping that a Hannah shows up, too! I will likely not find further church records from Trumbull County as the circuit riding minister records for the time period are scant.   Perhaps there is a connection between them, not only in Sussex/Warren but also in Monmouth. I can't wait to get started.