I figured out Scott's question on St. Cecilia's Church which I will send over tomorrow. If you are interested in the deeds, where on maps originally and such. Yes? No? Not sure how big the list is on the history stuff. But since I was in Genesee looking up the incorporation, here are the dates for the very early churches in Sheldon, be they there any more or not. In case some of you locals are members of the churches that are still there, they can go get a copy of their incorporation papers. Nice huh? By certain laws enacted from 1784, 1801, amended 1813 etc.(depending on the religion) you needed a certain number of males over the age of 21 before you could incorporate, and a certain # of trustees. So religious congregations were already established before they officially incorporated, usually meeting in schools. Seems from things I've read you had to be a group at least 2 weeks before you could hold the meeting to vote on incorporating. So here are the Sheldon Churches. They are by date, name, then the Liber and Page of the Miscellaneous Records Volumes where they can be found in the Genesee County Clerks Office: 8/26/1811 -Sheldon Protestant Episcopal Church - L1 P99 (I understand from the history books this one burned down correct?) 11/17/1811 - Lommis Settlement Baptist Society - L1 P119 1/17/1812 - First Baptist Church of Sheldon - L1 P109 Trustees, The Harmony Society 4/17/1821 - First Congregational Church of Sheldon - L1 P419 formed by the Trustees of the Union Society (held at the school by Elizer Websters) 11/25/1822 - Associated Baptist Society of Sheldon - L2 P20 2/1/1836 - First Freewill Baptist Society of Sheldon - L3 P160 11/3/1839 - The First Roman Catholic Church of Sheldon (NKA St. Cecilia's) - L4 P171 Trustees nominated by: Joseph Stone & Henry Redding Trustees: Peter George, Conrad Hyman, Hubbard George, and Jacob Balkey. More on St. Cecilia's tomorrow if your interested. They buy their first little parcel of land 2 weeks later. Seems to be just a tad different then the history books say. But thank goodness people wrote their histories down, they are the best clues to finding the original documents! Being an Abstractor as well as a historian, I find the beginnings of churches, cemeteries, and schools the most interesting, and challenging to research. (Done all mine in Alabama already. ;-) Since I live in Wyoming County now, of course I'm interested. -- Cindy Amrhein Historian/Abstractor "House Detective" Town of Alabama Historian Genesee Co., NY ********************** Historian's Page - Alabama, NY http://www.rootsweb.com/~nycalaba/ APHNYS (The Association of Public Historians of New York State) http://www.tier.net/~aphnys/