The Preacher's family

I did a summary of all the preachers in our family six years ago for a family reunion. Some of our family are pretty closed to people who don't attend a church with a sign out front that says Church of Christ. They wouldn't want to admit that their heritage included many who were leaders in other churches.

I have been recently researching the Burgess family of North Carolina. My mother's family descends from them but there was really no information known about them in our family. Several of my cousins had done genealogy research but none had discovered the connection to the Burgess family.

The Shiloh Baptist Church in Camden County North Carolina is the oldest Baptist Church in North Carolina. It dates back to 1727.

It first met in the house of our ancestor William Burgess and later after he donated the land where they built a church building. Burgess, his son and grandson all served as Preachers of the church. Another grandson was a minister in the Methodist church.

House churches are popular today in many places as an alternative to a church that meets in a building. Folks today probably thought it was their original idea.