My niece, Latrice, messaged me on June 14 of this year. She said that a Southwest Airlines’ ticket sales special was ending soon and asked if I was interested in tagging along with her to visit Maryland. Was I interested? Yeah!!
We booked flights into DCA and then began figuring out what we’d do once there. A cousin, Kevin, provided the names of DNA kin that he’d been talking with over the past year that lived in Maryland. I telephone both cousins and we agreed to meet. Both suggested the Hilton Garden Inn as a place to stay, so we booked accommodations.
Latrice and I did what researchers to, we looked for sources of information accessible in Maryland. We identified the Calvert Court House as a possible source but learned that the courthouse had suffered at least 2 fires, the last in 1881 or 1882. This meant that deeds and probates containing the names of our enslaved ancestors were most likely lost forever. We had the names of cemeteries in which several Phillips, Torneys, Kents and Taylors were buried, so we added those cemeteries and churches to the list of places to see.
A week or so before our trip, I telephone the 2 DNA cousins who we had never met, of our upcoming trip. It turned out that both had scheduling conflicts and would not be able to meet with us on the dates we were actually in Maryland. One cousin provided the name of another cousin, Beverly, who lived in Solomons with whom we could instead meet. I cold called that cousin and though hesitant to meet with a random DNA cousin, she agreed to meet us at our hotel.
Latrice had arrived a day earlier and visited friends and co-workers in nearby Virginia. I arrived the next day and telephone Beverly when I arrived in DC. She graciously met us at the hotel and then drove us to St John’s United Methodist Church off Sollers-Wharf Road in Solomons. There we found the grave sites of Phillips, Kents, Torneys and Taylors. The oldest grave was that of Moses Torney, the son of Eliza Phillips and Major Torney. Moses was my first cousin, 4 times removed. His mother Eliza was the sister of my third great-grandmother Charlotte Phillips. His headstone reads, 1810-1942. Moses was actually born about 1861 and died January 5, 1942.
The church was built in 1880 and later rebuilt in 1953. The original church, the St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1829 existed on a nearby plot of land. The site is breath-takingly beautiful surrounded by trees and vines on a hillside in a rural area.
Beverly and her sister talked with us about other distant relatives and other places that might be of interest. They connected us with other local historians who provided us with research resources. Over the next days, Latrice and I visited the Calvert County Courthouse, Library and Historical Society, all in Prince Frederick. We found helpful people at each location and were able to add some more information to our collection of family history. We found deeds for land sales and purchases that occurred after the courthouse fire that provided names for further research and cemented theories we previously had.
We drove to the marina and sat along the Paxtuent River and tried to picture our ancestors oystering and navigating those waters. I don’t know if I will make another trip to Calvert County, Maryland, but I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in August of 2023.
Best,
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 