Tuesday, April 20, 2010

25. Ann Baker

A student named Ann Baker attended the Mordecai school for two years, 1814 and 1815; she's listed as being from Halifax, Virginia, with Leonard Baker as the adult attached to her account.

"Ann Baker" seems a very ordinary name; but "Leonard" is fairly distinctive for early 19c. Virginia. Turns out, there was a Leonard Baker in Halifax Co., Virginia, who performed many marriages 1780-1815. He's said to have died in 1818. This is one of those cases where someone's name appears often in the genealogical record, but only because he's officiating at the weddings of others.

BUT... he seems to have used the nickname "Leo." Which opens up some other avenues of identification. As Leo Baker, he's listed as "pastor of the Musterfield church" and brother of Rev. Elijah Baker (1742-1798), also a preacher in Virginia. According to James Barnett Taylor's Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers (1838), the Baker brothers were of "humble parentage," born in Lunenberg Co.

Still no way to know for sure whether Ann Baker was Leonard's daughter or a niece or even a granddaughter.

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