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ELKANAH FREEMAN

Generation 7

In 1977, when I first began researching the Freeman Family background, I had only the knowledge shared with me by Grandmother Freeman (Edna Agnes Egglefield) of Tampa, Florida in a 1940 visit there regarding entries in the Family Bible about Freeman Family members as far back as 1746 in Canaan, Connecticut. A transcript of this record by my mother Theresa Freeman (nee Zapfel) was given to me by my brother Robert Allen Freeman of Staten Island, NY

In the next ten years my research confirmed the Bible entries and added many other members to the family genealogy.

I spent two years reading and analyzing the property deeds in Canaan, Connecticut; then laid out the properties in a mosaic for Canaan, Connecticut.

During the course of this research effort, I learned much about the composition of families in Canaan in the early 1700's and expanded this to encompass Berkshire County, Massachusetts which adjoined Canaan on the north. Ultimately I realized that Elisha Freeman, born in Canaan in 1746, was fathered by Elkanah Freeman. At the suggestion of New Marlborough (MA) genealogist Ted Atkinson I pursued a course of action that ultimately confirmed that Elkanah Freeman of Sheffield, Massachusetts and Canaan, Connecticut was the same Elkanah Freeman of Rochester, Massachusetts who was fathered by John Freeman, born 1678 in Eastham, MA.

The bloodline lineage of Elkanah Freeman is traced back to Edmund Freeman, the Immigrant, in Freeman Genealogy by Dr Frederick Freeman (published 1875), but he was unable to provide any more information on Elkanah Freeman (and his brother Eli Freeman) than that they were sons of John Freeman, and the dates of their births.

Following is the background of Elkanah Freeman, my Freeman Family bloodliner.

Generation 7 begins with Elkanah Freeman. He was a son of John Freeman and Mercy Watson.

The Freeman family was living in "Harwich now Brewster", Massachusetts during the births of all their children from 1702 to 1728. Elkanah was born there on 6 February 1716-17, and his younger brother, Eli, was also born there afterward on 27 April 1722.

A Guide for Genealogical Research by Archibald F Bennett, page 327, explains: "By statute in 1752, the legal year was thereafter to begin on January 1st. For the period prior to that date, in order to describe accurately a date falling between January 1st (beginning of historical year) and March 25th (Beginning of church and legal year), it is necessary to use a system of double dating. Thus February 10th would be written Feb 10th 1740-41 ... signifying that day was 1740 Old Style or 1741 New Style. The actual year would be, of course, the later year by modern reckoning, the last figure indicating the year according to our present computation".