David Mackelfrish and Alice Jones File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by the author Bob O'Neal. WRONeal@aol.com USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations.
_________________________________________________________________________ I have a compiled DRAFT family genealogy, which I entitled "Descendants of David Mackelfrish and Alice Jones his wife of London Towne, MD, Anne Arundel County 1658-1712". It goes 27 pages, fully documented and done using the Commsoft program ROOTS III (now ROOTS V), in standard registry format. Our oldest known U.S. ancestor is David Mackelfrish (1658-1712) who was a well documented merchant living in Londontown MD from at least 1694 to 1712. He is believed by most researchers to be the progenitor of all McElfish/McElfresh/McKlefresh descendants in the U.S. We have not discovered any others with those names (other than his descendants) in the U.S. before 1750 or even 1800. It appears he and his family were the only Mackelfeish immigrants to America before 1700. Just now there is an archaelogical/historical archivist team conducting a "dig" under the auspices of the "Londontown Foundation" in what was once this small village on the South River in Londontown. Their purpose is to re- construct London Towne as it was in the late 1600s, a thriving tobacco port. There will soon be published a booklet on the results of this dig. The archivist is working with the archaeologist to flesh out the history with facts. There is a Mackelfish Street there and they have identified the location of David Mackelfrish's dwelling. He was a landowner, tavernkeeper, ferry operator and merchant in those days, probably arranging as a factor to send tobacco to England in exchange for goods on return. The ships were unloaded by lightering as there were no docks large enough. A signs says he was (probably self-described with tongue in cheek and an up-the-Brits smile) "Lord Mayor of London Towne". In 1996 I discovered that there was a parish record in the Church of Scotland listing David Mackelfreish baptised in 1758 in South Leith, near Edinburgh, Scotland, with parents, John and Jonet Mackelfriesh with marriage recorded in 1754. (LDS films #1067773 and 1067770). Since there were no other listings of a David Mackelfreish or related spellings, and the time period seems right, we are going forward with our research with the assumption that this David and his parents are the same David of 1600s London Towne. We believe the McElfishes of Allegany Co MD all stem from David (1658-1712). Sometime in the early 1700s, his son David (1702-1738) of Anne Arundel Co and descendants became know as McElfresh and followed adifferent migration pattern. My genealogy treats only the McElfish line. Anyone interested in a short version of my McElfish descendant chart can just let me know and I'll send one. If you are a McElfish researcher, and really want a copy of my genealogy, that is also available. (I am a REAL fanatic when it comes to documenting sources, and encourage ALL researchers to fully document each and every event. It's the only way we can truly advance our research and build our family history to stand the test of time.)