Tag Archives: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

October 9, 2024 · 10:21 am

The Setons at the National Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration is the repository of all official documents of the United States government.  With Mother Seton and her family’s long history in the United States, particularly in the United States Navy, the Seton family appears in many different places in our nation’s official government repository.

First, it is also worth noting that the ancestral Seton family have their own collection in the National Records of Scotland from Glorious Revolution through 1785.

The most obvious place that the family is represented is in the census records, with Elizabeth Ann and William Magee Seton appearing in the earliest censuses in New York City, and then Mother Seton appearing in Emmitsburg in 1810 and 1820.  The census records provide massive volumes of information related to demographics and are used most immediately for congressional apportionment and for funding for public services.

Listing for Mother Seton and the community in the 1810 census under “E. Seton”

William Seton III, one of Mother Seton’s surviving sons, is among the most represented due to his career in the Navy.  Military records, for both genealogists and veterans, are among the most used and requested materials in the National Archives.  Within the collection “Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library,” there is a series called “Letters Received from Commissioned Officers Below the Rank of Commander and from Warrant.”  This series contains various letters documenting official correspondence of enlisted sailors and their interaction with superior officers.  Among these are 19 letters including requests for leave, administrative documents, and reports from William Seton reporting to his commanding officers.  They span from his time on the Macedonian during its tour of the Pacific (and whose log is in the possession of the Daughters’ Archive).  Many others request shore leave or ask for extensions of leave.

William’s sister Catherine makes an appearance in one of his requests.  On October 9, 1828, William requested leave to travel in Europe due do “the continued ill health of my sister, to whom the Phisicians [sic] have recommended that course, as the only hope of renovating her constitution.”  This occurred during Catherine’s “World Traveler” era, when she was making extended stays in Europe, before eventually becoming a religious Sister of Mercy.  His letters stretch through his return to Norfolk in 1833 and return to civilian life.

William Seton to the Secretary of the Navy, October 9, 1828:  “Sir[,] I had the honor a few days past, to apply to you for permission to travel in Europe.  I beg leave to state that my reason for doing so was the continued ill health of my sister, to whom the Phisicians [sic] have recommended that course, as the only hope of renovating her constitution”

William Seton Maitland, nephew of Elizabeth and William Magee, also appears in the military records during the Seminole Wars in Florida. 

In the more modern day, and as a preview of things to come, the National Archives is also in possession of the official proclamations from the U.S. government about Mother Seton’s canonization.  Under Press Secretary William Baroody’s files, held at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, is the official proclamation of Elizabeth Ann Seton Day, alongside a signed thank you letter from Sister Mary John Lindner for the community’s replica copy, signed by President Ford.  This replica will be on display next year (2025) for our exhibit “One of Us” at the Seton Shrine, celebrating the 50th anniversary of this event!

As a reminder of the vast scale of the National Archives, and the complexity of archival research, these records are among those that are digitized and available remotely to researchers.  This totals a mere 2% of the National Archives’ holdings, and there may well be other materials that one day are accessible without a trip to your nearest NARA branch.  William Seton IV, Mother Seton’s grandson, appears in Civil War veterans records, but his company, the New York 16th Artillery, have not been digitized yet. 

As an example of records which need to be visited in-person, these scans were lent to us by our friend and colleague Dr. Catherine O’Donnell and come from the National Archives branch in Kansas City, where Record Group 21 “Records of District Courts of the United States” reside.  Less than 0.5% of these records are scanned and online as of this time, but among them are early records of the United States bankruptcy court.  It is in these documents that the Setons’ life in New York City began to unravel, as the Seton-Maitland shipping company ran out of money, and the Setons were forced to sell their assets.

Front cover of 1800 bankruptcy filing
First page of Seton Family’s assets during bankruptcy case

Archivists at NARA are working hard to make more materials available, both in-person and remotely.  A way that you can help is to make more materials more searchable.  Their Citizen Archivist program allows anyone with an Internet connection to apply metadata and transcription to documents that have been scanned and made available.  These tags help make more materials searchable, so that that needle in haystack – that one stray name in a vast file – can turn up with a few strokes of a keyboard.

The records in the National Archives are the property of the American people.  Make use of your records, and help others make use of them too!

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March 7, 2022 · 4:07 pm

The Opportunity for a Richer Understanding of Canonization

This is a guest post by our archival intern for the semester, Jenna Brady, Mount St. Mary’s University class of 2023.

Throughout my internship with the Daughters of Charity Archives, I have had the unique opportunity to go through the past newsletters of sisters from the West Central Province in the 1970s. The West Central Province was established in 1969 by the Daughters of Charity in St. Louis as one of five provinces located in the US. While there are several interesting topics and vast stores of history that I have read and learned about, one of the most exciting events was the Canonization of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. This momentous event took place on September 14, 1975 and was an event that many Daughters of Charity petitioned and prayed hard to achieve.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

The newsletters that I have had the opportunity to read and index recount the journey toward canonization and the great anticipation throughout the early ‘70s. The letters make constant reference to the different preparations that were being made by the provinces in anticipation of the canonization of their namesake. The newsletter from October 1975 is completely devoted to the events throughout the province; such as different Masses and talks that were held during the months preceding the canonization.  This description not only shows how important and monumental the canonization was to all involved but as the newsletter states, “brings into focus the oneness of thought and of purpose in the Daughters of WC Province…” (West Central Province Newsletter, October, 1975, 1).  It then goes on to include an excerpt from a sister in each province discussing the steps that were taken in their own province to prepare and celebrate. Many of these sisters are those who had been featured throughout the course of the newsletters regarding different matters of the province.

View of the crowd at the canonization in Vatican City

While the details of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s canonization are easily accessible today, being able to read firsthand accounts of the celebrations and the profound impact this had on her order gives a deeper meaning to the event. Through reading these newsletters, I have been given the opportunity to come to view the canonization not just as a celebration of a new Saint but rather as the canonization of the woman many sisters considered their mentor in faith and mother in life.

Special Edition of the Marillac Provincial Newsletter, October 1975

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February 5, 2021 · 8:51 am

The First Mission of Charity

This is part of a yearlong series about the early days of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s commemorating the 200th anniversary of the death of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, foundress of the community.  In 1850, Emmitsburg-based Sisters united with the global community of the French Daughters of Charity.

After Mother Seton and her companions left Baltimore in June 1809, the small group formed the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s in the village of Emmitsburg in northern Frederick County on July 31, 1809.  They began to enact their mission of service to those living in poverty and began with their nearby neighbors. 

Dated February 5 and addressed to Mrs. Seton, two women, simply named “Cecilia and Catherine” wrote “an account of the first Mission of Charity.”

This mission was in the tradition of Saints Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, whose rules for community life the Sisters adapted for the American situation.  When visiting the poor, sisters provided nursing care and resources to those in difficult situations.  Catherine and Cecilia evidently travelled to a home in the vicinity of Emmitsburg “after some difficulty on the road about eggs.” 

The family they ministered to on this day was sick, likely from one of the waterborne disease that routinely swept through Western Maryland in the early 19th century.  This brief letter described what the sisters observed about the family’s situation.  The spellings and grammar are kept as written (if you can imagine where the periods go in modern standardized English, it becomes easier to understand):

We found enough to do at first & even now but all the sick are much better 2 of them are now setting up it was yesterday the oldest girl is about though not well she eat but once since her Mothers death until we came.  She has eat a tolerable breakfast & was going to wash the bed cloathes in truth they are very dirty.  I think it would be much to the comfort of the one who is obliged to stay in bed if we could put something clean on her.  She is also getting better & better ever since we came, however we forbid the young girls to wash there is also 2 young men their brothers in & out all the time & perhaps you will not think it necessary to send Sisters for the night as they do not set up now at all.

They note that a doctor has not had the chance to visit yet, but they seem aware that they have done what they could to improve health and comfort for the family going through a difficult time.

The Catherine of the report may be either Sister Catherine Mullan or Catherine Seton, Mother Seton’s nine-year old daughter who travelled with her from New York and lived with the community.  After her mother’s death, Catherine lived with her brother William and travelled around Europe before joining the Sisters of Mercy of New York in 1846.

Cecilia could refer to either Sister Cecilia Seton, Mother Seton’s sister-in-law who was one of the first to join the community, or Sister Cecilia O’Conway.  However, other correspondence of Cecilia Seton shows a very different handwriting.  It shows far more similarity to Cecilia O’Conway’s handwriting, although not definitively so.  

The authors recognized this event as the First Mission of Charity undertaken by the new community!    

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