Planning a Road Trip to Cecil County

It's the time of year when thoughts start to turn to visiting other areas for family research and this time, I'll be looking at a few old houses as well as visiting several old cemeteries. Most of my family's roots are in Pennsylvania, but my maternal line includes the Reynolds family and many of them were in Cecil County for several generations. My Reynolds ancestrors were Quakers, so the direct line was easy to follow, at least as far as where they were born is concerned; determining their final resting places, in some cases, has been a bit more challenging.

Here's what the line looks like, starting with my grandfather:

Gregg David Reynolds (1899-2003), buried at Maidencreek Friends, Berks Co., PA, son of:

Isaac Gregg Reynolds(1864-1943), buried at Oaklands, West Chester, Chester Co., PA, son of:

David M. Reynolds(1815-187), buried at Penn Hill Friends, Lancaster CO., PA, son of:

Samuel Reynolds(1770-1842), buried at ?, possibly Octoraro Friends, Cecil Co., MD, son of:

Jacob Reynolds(1728-1799), buried at ?, probably at West Nottingham Friends, Cecil Co., PA

Just south of Blue Ball village in Cecil County is a very old home, known as Meadowbrink, that was the home until recently of a long line of Reynolds descendants. In 1966, a newspaper article stated that the house was 240 years old and that it had been built by Jacob Reynolds. The dates don't quite work out for that to have been the case as Jacob wasn't born until 1728, two years after the house was supposedly built. If the house is from 1726, it is possible that it was built by his father, Henry Reynolds, the family's immigrant ancestor. The house in question in Blue Ball was shown on the 1873 Atlas for the area as being owned by I. Reynolds, which would have been Israel Reynolds, son of Thomas and grandson of Jacob. In Jacob's will, probated in 1799, he left his home to his son Jacob, Jr, while Israel's father inherited a property which had been purchased from a John Clendennin. When Jacob, Jr. died in 1811, he left the home to his widow, Esther nee Taylor, but it is certainly possible that the house was later sold to Thomas, in whose line it remained for several more generations. It is, however, quite likely that Jacob was no longer in the Blue Ball area when he died, especially since his will names him as being in West Nottingham hundred and Blue Ball was in East Nottingham hundred. All of which merely leads me to believe that Jacob is probably buried somewhere in West Nottingham hundred, most likely at the West Nottingham Friends burial ground in Harrisville.

Jacob's wife was Rebecca Day, daughter of John Day, whose home, known as Hebron's Gift, lies on Brick Meetinghouse Road in Cecil county. John operated a tannery here which remained in operation until the middle part of the 1800's. In recent years, the house has been throughly renovated and modernized.

Since both of these houses belonged to my ancestors at one tme, I am hopninse enough to take a decent picture of each of them, and since they'ds also close to the cemteries at Rosebank and Brick Meetinghouse, it will be a good time to visit those as well.