By
Gary
B. Sanders
November
2025, Revised April 2026
Gabriel
Pickering III of Craven County, North Carolina, and his children
Children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove of Covington County, Mississippi:
Phoebe Pickering (about 1798-after 1860)
Aaron Pickering (about 1800-after 1860)
Kesiah Pickering (1804, Mississippi-1884, Texas)
James Timothy Pickering (1813-1884)
Possible children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove:
The wife of Gabriel Pickering III: do we have any evidence?
I begin with my fourth great grandfather, Gabriel Pickering, who died before March 22, 1789 in Jones County, North Carolina. He appears to have been a son of an earlier Gabriel Pickering who died about 1763 in Craven County, North Carolina and the Gabriel Pickering who died in Craven may have been the son of an even earlier Gabriel who appears in Virginia records about 1700. The younger Gabriel Pickering of Craven is referenced as "Gabriel Pickren, Junr." when witnessing a deed by which the elder Pickering acquired land from Philemon Morris in 1753 in North Carolina. The other witness to the deed was William Morris, a son of Philemon Morris.
Gabriel, Jr., or Gabriel III, as he is sometimes called, is usually assumed to have been born in the early 1730s, perhaps about 1732, if he had just turned twenty-one in 1753 when the previously mentioned deed was signed. Gabriel, Jr., is also mentioned in the estate settlement of Gabriel, Sr., in 1763 (who is referenced as "Sr." in that document). So far as I can tell, the only occasions when Gabriel, Jr., is referenced as "Jr." were during the period from 1753 when he witnessed the land deed and 1763 when his father died. After the death of his father in 1763, the "Jr." designation was dropped, as was the custom at that time. In those days, unlike today, "Jr." was rarely used as part of a man's name unless there was a possibility of confusing him with another living person with the same given name.
Although the younger Gabriel is mentioned in numerous land records from 1763 until his death about 1789, the names of his children are not often clearly revealed from those records and can only to be inferred from family relationships, autosomal DNA evidence, and assumptions concerning the pattern of migration of assumed descendants. There are two exceptions, one of which is a reference in a Jones County deed to a son of Gabriel named William:
March court, 1789. Robert Parry deposes before Frederick Harget, Justice, that 20 or 30 years ago he heard GABRIEL PICKREN, father of WILLIAM PICKREN, say and tell true boundaries of certain land, GABRIEL PICKREN being now deceased. James McDaniel deposes same, Mar. 22, 1789.
The other exception refers to another son of the younger Gabriel named John:
Records of Jones County, 1779-1868, vol. I, Abstracts of Deeds, Book 15 (1819-1822), image 587 of 1090. Also a tract on both sides of Pocoson Swamp, except 50 acres granted by patent to Gabriel Pickering and given by Pickering to his son John and by him sold to Daniel Koonce, which last two tracts were deeded to Frederick Harget, Jr., deceased.
That the above reference is to a son of Gabriel Pickering, Jr., named John rather than to a son of Gabriel Pickering, Sr., is indicated by another deed from 1788 which shows the Gabriel mentioned in the preceding deed was active in the 1770s and 1780s, well after the death of Gabriel Pickering, Sr., in 1763:
Records of Jones County, 1779-1868, Vol. I, Abstracts of Deeds, Book F (1787-1792), image 144 of 1090."35,26—Aug. 2, 1788. John Pickren to Daniel Koonce for 250 pds. 25 acres on N. Side of Pocoson Swamp along Abraham Bussets line, which was granted to Phillip Willy, Jan. 16, 17554. Also a tract of 25 acres on Skippers line conveyed from Robert King to Gabriel Pickren, Dec. 29, 1773. Also a tract of 10 acres at main road which land was conveyed from Frederick Harget to Gabriel Pickren, Sept. 25, 1776. Also a tract of 3 acres granted to Gabriel Pickren, Oct. 22, 1782, and 5 acres patented to him, 1782, on Mill Pond. In all here being sold 28 acres adjoining lands of Thornton, Moses and Gabriel Pickren, Harrison, and Frederick Harget. Wts. Robt. Jarman, Lew Bryan.
There are several other deeds that are relevant to our search, but these two are sufficient to establish that Gabriel, Jr., had a son named John. The references to this John appear to cease in the late 1790s. None of these deeds tell us when this John Pickering died, if he had children, or if he moved elsewhere. There may very well be such records, but I do not think we are going to find them by searching Ancestry.com or online databases. To obtain fresh information, research in records that are not yet digitized would probably be required.
Nevertheless, the thesis I present here is that this John Pickering in Jones County, North Carolina in the 1780s and early 1790s, is most likely the same John Pickering who appears in the records of Mississippi Territory about 1803 and who died in Covington County, Mississippi, about 1820. I believe John's father Gabriel Pickering III (about 1732-about 1789) probably was the father of the following children:
The overwhelming majority of my autosomal DNA Pickering matches are with descendants of these five Pickering siblings. I do have one possible match with a descendant of Richard Pickren, the brother of Gabriel III, but with that exception, all my numerous autosomal Pickering matches are with descendants of the five people listed above. This fact and the pattern of the migration of many descendants of these siblings from North Carolina to Mississippi is why I think these five people listed above are children of Gabriel Pickering III who died in 1789.
Of these five, my direct ancestor is John Pickering who died about 1820 in Covington County, Mississippi. He and his family appear in several records of the Mississippi Territory from 1803 until about 1820. Below are several examples.
Ancestry.com
records: JOHN PICKERING MS Mississippi Territory
Petitioners1803/JOHN PICKERING MS Washington District
Petitioners 1804/JOHN PICKERING MS Washington County Census
1808/ JOHN PICKERING MS Washington County Census 1810
https://www.trackingyourroots.com/data/alpet.htm, Early settlers of Mississippi as taken from land claims in the Mississippi territory / [selected and edited] by Walter Lowrie, editor, Easley, S.C., Southern Historical Press©1986, p. 711: William Coleman was presented as a witness; and, being duly sworn, deposed, that he was in nowise interested in this claim; that he was in the State of Georgia on the 3d of March, 1803 , and could not say that the present claimant inhabited and cultivated the land in question at that time; that, when he returned from Georgia , in the month of May, 1803 , he found John Pickering , the present claimant, working upon this land; that he had a house partly raised, about ten acres under fence, and five or six acres cleared, which appeared to have been cleared the preceding winter; that he raised on said land a crop of corn that season; that the said John Pickering had at that time a wife and a number of children.
Early settlers of Mississippi as taken from land claims in the Mississippi territory / [selected and edited] by Walter Lowrie, editor, Easley, S.C., Southern Historical Press©1986, p. 627. John Pickering was one of the signers of a petition to Congress in 1815, from the citizens of the eastern half of Mississippi territory. The petition concerned land sales. Another of the signers was Moses Pickering whom I believe to be John’s brother. Moses lived in what became Marengo County, Alabama.
p.70,
Alabama
Historical Quarterly:
Here
we
find a petition in about 1817 from
the “inhabitants of the Alabama Territory residing near the waters of
the Mobile” about a proposed land boundary that was signed by John
Pickering and Aaron Pickering. The Aaron
here is probably the son of John. Although he was not yet twenty-one
years old, he may have been considered old enough to sign the petition.
1810
Mississippi
Territorial census:
John Pickering
1 white male over 21
3 white males under 21
1 white female over 21
4 white females under 21
Alabama,
U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1890:
Name John Pickring
Record Type Resident's
List
Residence Date 1816
Residence Place Alabama Territory,
Washington, Alabama, USA
Line Number 2415765
Name: John Pickering
Gender: M (Male)
State: Alabama
Locality: Mississippi Territory
Residence Year: 1820
Household Remarks: Name on petition to Congress, ref. 22 Jan 1816, by
inhabitants of MS territory [apparently on lands on Tombigbee River sold
in 1811] who defended their country & could not earn money seek now
for.... [The preceding is a “reconstructed census.”
It does not mean that John was still alive in 1820; it merely
presumes he may have been alive in 1820 because he signed a petition in
1816-GS]
In 1822, a John Pickering registered land in Washington County, Alabama. Alabama was admitted as a state in 1819. Mississippi had been admitted in 1817. Previously both had been part of of Mississippi Territory since 1798. During the Mississippi territory period, land claims were usually registered in St. Stephens in what is now Washington County, Alabama. If the 1822 record refers to the same John Pickering as the earlier claims, this record appears to be the last reference to him. In 1830, Sarah Pickering, apparently a widow, is enumerated on the 1830 census of Covington County, Mississippi, with several children in her household. In 1840, she is the elderly woman living with the family of James Timothy Pickering, and in 1850, she is enumerated with his household. Hence, the conclusion of many researchers of this family, including myself, is that John and Sarah Pickering were probably the parents of the younger Pickering children who appear in the land and marriage records of Covington County from the 1820s to the 1850s.
These children are not enumerated in any specific document but must be inferred from bits of conflicting family tradition, census records, and marriage documents. The most obvious child is James Timothy Pickering who was born about 1813; because Sarah was living with his family in 1840 and 1850, it is a reasonable conclusion that he was her son.
One of the proven descendants of James Timothy Pickering was Archie James Pickering (1905-1988) who spent decades researching his ancestors. Upon Archie's death, his papers were donated to the University of Southern Mississippi. Archie’s research was extensive and voluminous, as is evident in this quotation from his granddaughter, Molly Pickering Pate, as quoted in a post on February 17, 2015 from Jan Isele:
My information came from Daddy's cousin, Archie Pickering. Daddy took Bruce and I to see once when we were visiting Paw Paw, JC Pickering. Archie and his wife had a shop out back that was his "genealogy work place." He was an old man by this time and he had spent years compiling the Pickering Family Tree! His wife must've had a stroke or something because she just sat silently by. Archie allowed me to take the huge stack of papers home with us to copy. Bruce and I went over to the home of Mrs. Alice Stock, who had a copy machine at her home. She allowed us to copy all the pages with our own paper. It took us a long time!
More recently, in the fall of 2024, Bob Pickering, a descendant of Richard Pickren, the brother of Gabriel III, discovered an online depository at Archive.org that contains most of Archie Pickering's research, including his correspondence with other researchers or family members and family group sheets that show Archie's proposed reconstruction of the Pickering family tree.
I have examined in some detail the Archive.org files on Archie Pickering's research and I believe him to have been a thorough and conscientious researcher. No doubt he realized that at the end of his research that there were many missing links in his Pickering genealogical chain. Many of those gaps and ambiguities in the record are still unresolved to this day, decades after he completed his research.
Though Archie James Pickering was the great-grandson of James Timothy Pickering (1813-1884) of Covington County, Mississippi, it does not appear that there was any solid family tradition passed down through the generations about the parents of James Timothy or the identity of any of James Timothy's siblings or even where the family lived prior to their move to the Mississippi Territory just after 1800. Archie collected bits of useful but fragmentary Pickering tradition and supplemented this with his own research in historical records, which was extensive. He also conducted numerous interviews with relatives. Archie approached all of this with an open mind and apparently was willing to change his opinion as new information came to light.
What relatives provided to Archie about the parents of James Timothy Pickering was somewhat conflicting and vague. Most said that James Timothy's father may have been named John; one person mentioned an "Abe." My opinion is she had heard there was a "Gabe" (Gabriel) in the family tree and interpreted this name as "Abe.” There was more consensus among the relatives that Archie consulted about the name of James Timothy's mother, who was usually identified as Sarah (or Phoebe) Hargrove. Archie eventually created family group sheets which had both a John and an Abe Pickering, but if he had any evidence this "Abe" ever existed, he did not provide documentation. As for the existence of Sarah Hargrove Pickering, this part of the tradition seems to be somewhat confirmed by the 1850 census; there is an elderly Sarah Pickering living with James Timothy Pickering's family, and she is of the right age to have been the widow of the John Pickering who died about 1820.
Archie came to the initial conclusion that John of Covington, Mississippi, whom we have previously discussed, must be the son of an earlier John and Archie believed this second John was the son of Gabriel III Pickering (the one who died in 1789). Or maybe he thought at first that John of Covington was the son of John Pickering, the son of the first Gabriel, the one who died in 1763. What he initially believed is not quite clear. He seemed to move back and forth on the identity of the father of John of Covington, depending on the documents he was consulting at the time. This older John was born about 1730, according to Archie's initial arrangement, but this theory would cause chronological difficulties in the birth years of Gabriel II and III. Apparently, all of this was just conjecture as tried to make different scenarios works, and it appears that after exchanging letters with North Carolina Pickering researcher William Doub Bennett, Archie accepted Bennett’s conclusion that John of Covington was most likely the son of Gabriel Pickering III who died in 1789. Archie and William Bennett were both well-aware of the land records from Jones County in the 1780s that mention a John Pickering, son of Gabriel Pickering.
I agree with their conclusion that Gabriel III did indeed have a son named John and I believe that this son is most likely the same John Pickering who died about 1820 in Covington, Mississippi. I believe Gabriel III was born about 1730 and his children (Moses, Gabriel, Keziah, William, and John) were all born in the 1750s or 1760s. My conclusion is based as much on autosomal DNA matches as on any specific documentary evidence. Archie and William Bennett relied solely on the land records of North Carolina, but we all three agree that the Mississippi Pickerings trace their ancestry back to Gabriel III.
Unfortunately, Archie’s records do not explain in any significant detail how or why the family of John Pickering of Covington Count moved from Jones County, North Carolina, to Mississippi Territory. It seems obvious there was never a family tradition within the Pickering family of Covington that they were descendants of the various Gabriel Pickerings of Jones County. Perhaps the Jones County connection was suggested by the fact that there was a Gabriel Pickering living in Franklin County, Mississippi, in the 1820s, and this Gabriel was from Georgia and it was well known that some descendants of Gabriel Pickering II of North Carolina had moved to Georgia, and therefore Archie assumed his ancestors were from Jones County. This appears somewhat unlikely, however, because Archie Pickering did not try to place the Franklin County Gabriel Pickering within his family tree at all, so far as I can tell from the documents at the Archive.org site where his records are stored. Nevertheless, it was the assumption of Archie that the Pickerings of Covington were originally from Jones County, and we can ascertain something of the progression of Archie’s thoughts on the origin of his Pickering family from the depository of his research. I will give several excerpts from these, and add comments of my own in brackets.
Pickering file no. 2, p. 176:
Letter
of William D. Bennett to Archie Pickering, June 16, 1984.
"Jones County Deed 14:401 show that your John Pickering, Jr., was the son of Gabriel Pickering, Jr. This deed includes several tracts that descended to John from his father Gabriel which were granted long after Gabriel, Sr., has died."
[In other words, Archie's John, Jr., is not a John, Jr., at all, just John, son of Gabriel, Jr. Here, William D. Bennett is pointed out that the John Pickering in this deed cannot be a son of an earlier John Pickering, as Archie had earlier proposed. I do not think Bennett is here taking a position on whether the John Pickering mentioned in this deed is the same person as the John Pickering who died in Mississippi, though I think it is likely such was his belief. William Bennett was a prominent Pickering researcher in North Carolina but he is not related to the Gabriel Pickering line at all.-gs]
Pickering
file
no.2, p. 140-143:
Letter of Herbert D. Pickering (1891-1988) to Archie Pickering, no date
but before 1988. Herbert was a great grandson of James Timothy
Pickering.
“There is no doubt in my mind but what Sarah Phoebe Hargrove Pickering was the mother of James.”
“Aunt Nannie Lowery had Mahala Purvis make a note in the Bible that Phoebe Hargrove was the mother of James [James Timothy] and she was buried in Seminary.”
[This suggests that Herbert Pickering believed that Sarah Hargrove and Phoebe Hargrove were the same person. "Aunt Nannie Lowery" was a daughter of James Timothy Pickering and Mahala Purvis was her daughter. This indicates the family Bible did not have any information about the parents of James Timothy until Aunt Nannie asked her daughter to record the information about Phoebe Hargrove Pickering.-gs]
“In 1886, when my father [James Monroe Pickering] was sixteen, he stayed with his grandfather James [James Timothy] . . . . . by land [near?] the house where John Pickering died.”
[Perhaps, I am not reading the preceding correctly, as the writing is somewhat blurred.-gs]
Pickering
file
no. 2, p. 151:
Letter, November 17, 1974 of Jean Nicholson Loflin to a Mrs.
Montgomery [I think Jean’s husband Grady Loflin was related to the
Pickerings in some way—not sure about who Mrs. Montgomery was and her
relationship.-gs]
“Archie said he couldn’t get his line out of Mississippi. Well, tell him his ancestors were John and Sarah Pickering. John was the original grantee for 280 acres of public lands granted for settlement in Alabama (at the time it was Mississippi Territory) on March 3, 1803. At that time Sarah was about 39 years old and I feel sure John was that old or older. “
“I believe James T. was the youngest child, born about 1811, Sarah being about forty-seven years old at that time.”
“John Pickering’s property was located on the waters of Tolla Creek.”
[As an aside, it's interesting to note that my great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Pickering, probable grandson of John, named one of his sons Tola Pickering. I always wondered why that child had a Hispanic sounding name, but I now think he was named after the location of the property that John Pickering once claimed on Tolla Creek.-gs]
Pickering
file
no.2, p. 163:
Letter from Arthur W. Pickering (descendant of a Bucks County, Penn.,
Pickerings) to Archie Pickering, apparently in response to an inquiry.
It seems that this Arthur Pickering and Archie exchanged several
letters:
“A Mrs. Lowrey, a niece of your James Timothy, living in Jackson, Miss., about 1935 or six mentioned that she thought Sarah’s husband was Abe or Abraham but she was not sure since none of the other members of the family could remember.”
[This "Mrs. Lowrey" may be Lena Aultman Lowery, who was a grandniece of James Timothy Pickering's wife, Catherine Aultman. She was therefore not a Pickering by birth nor a niece of James Timothy Pickering and her knowledge of the Pickerings was only what she picked up from conversations with them. Could this statement refer insted to Nannie Pickering, the daughter of James Timothy, who married a man named Francis Lowry? Possibly, but Arthur W. Pickering states "Mrs. Lowrey" was living in 1935 or 1936 in Jackson, Mississippi, and Nanie Pickering Lowry died in April 1930 in Covington County. Even if Arthur Pickering had the date wrong and or was referring to Nannie’s daughter, Mahala Pickering Purvis, this only confirms that there was no firm certainty in the family about the name of James Tmothy's father. So far as I can tell, neither Mahala Purvis or Lena Lowrey was living in Jackson, Mississippi in 1935 or 1936, as claimed in this letter. -gs]
Apparently, regardless of which family member was the source of the name “Abe” or “Abraham,” Archie came to eventually believe that John Pickering and Abe Pickering were two separate individuals living in Mississippi Territory about 1810 and that the woman others referred to as Sarah Phoebe Pickering was really two different women, with Phoebe Hargrove married to Abe and a Sarah Unknown married to John. In his online records, there are family group sheets where he gives the following reconstruction:
John Pickering, born 1764, died about 1818, son of John Pickering, son of John Pickering, son of Gabriel. This John married Sarah, born 1764-died 1857. In other word, Archie believed this Sarah was the same person as the widow on the 1830, 1840, and 1850 census, but that she was the grandmother rather than the mother of James Timothy. Notice also that he has Gabriel II having a son named John and then a grandson named John who moves to Mississippi. This is difficult to fit chronologically with the known records, and I rather suspect that this family group sheet was completed before he corresponded with William Bennett who developed a more chronologically workable thesis. The group sheets on the Web site of Archie’s work, therefore, may not represent the positions Archie held toward the end of his life.
The group sheets further proposed an Abe Pickering, born about 1791, died about 1823. son of the John above. This John married Feby who died in 1838. Archie even states that a Reverend Samuel Graves performed the funeral service.
Unfortunately, Archie Pickering does not provide any verifiable documentation for this theory that Sarah and Phoebe are different people or that John had a son named "Abe" or that a Reverend Samuel Graves performed Phoebe’s funeral service. So far as I can tell, there are no land, legal, or marriage records whatsoever of an Abe Pickering in northeast Mississippi or western Alabama in any documents in the first half of the nineteenth century, in fact no evidence that this "Abe" ever existed at all. I did not find a Samuel Graves on either the 1830 or 1840 census of Covington, either. There was one in Amite County in 1840, but he was a young man who apparently had recently married. I think Archie’s apparent source for this “Abe” Pickering theory, Lena Aultman Lowery, may have heard an older Pickering say something about a "Gabriel" or "Gabe Pickering" in the family ancestry and perhaps she heard this as "Abe.” It is, of course, entirely possible, for someone to “fly under the radar,” so to speak and to have existed for decades and yet hardly appear at all in historical records. Still, I am very skeptical of the “Abe,” theory, because it appears to be based on a comment from a single person, is contradicted by statements of equally reliable and contemporary family members, and it is not confirmed by any paper trail at all. It would be rather astonishing if proven true.
It is tempting to think that Archie must have had some "deeper" information that what we have before us, but I do not think that is the case. He did have access to family members that were closer in time to our Pickering ancestors, but it is evident that they knew almost nothing about their Pickering ancestors beyond vague references to the possible name of the parents of their ancestor James Timothy Pickering. Therefore, Archie's reconstruction of the family of John ("Abe") Pickering and Sarah ("Phoebe") Hargrove are not superior to any construction we make today in 2026 and are possibly even missing some key elements that we have access to and he did not, such as DNA evidence. If Archie had proof or evidence of the reconstruction provided in his family group sheets, he was too good a researcher not to provide it—and since he did not provide proof, the family group sheets are just a proposed and tentative reconstruction, nothing more. I am not sure they even represent the views he had at the end of his life.
I thoroughly enjoyed looking through Archie Pickering's valuable research, but I did not see anything there that would provide us solid information about the first Gabriel Pickering in Craven County, the one who died in 1762. There are some clues provided within that research, nevertheless, that we may need to investigate further. The one thing that really stood out to me was that William D. Bennett, whose reputation as a Pickering researcher is stellar, believed that the Jones County land deeds prove that Gabriel III (died 1789) had a son named John Pickering. This provides reassurance that we on the right track in assuming the line of descent goes from Gabriel II (died 1763), Gabriel III(died 1789), to John (died about 1820 in Mississippi).
Therefore, as much as I admire the research that Archie Pickering accomplished and passed down to us for our research, I do not see any evidence to support his theory that Sarah and Phoebe are different people or that John had a son named "Abe." It seems simpler and more in accord with the available documentation to assume that John Pickering and Sarah Phoebe Hargrove (her maiden named does seem to be part of the family tradition) were the parents of James Timothy Pickering. I further believe, as I have explained before, that John Pickering of Covington was most likely a son of Gabriel Pickering III of North Carolina and that Gabriel of Franklin County, Mississippi, was one of John's brothers.
Gabriel Pickering (about 1760-about 1828) of Franklin County was also most likely the father of Joseph Pickering of the same county. Although Archie did not place Joseph, who was born about 1793, on his group sheets as a child of John of Covington, many family trees at Ancestry.com do make this dubious assumption. Joseph Pickering of Franklin County seems to be the same Joseph Pickering who married in Clark County, Georgia, in 1813. He does not show up in Mississippi until Gabriel Pickering, also from Clark County, moved to Franklin County, Mississippi. The most logical assumption is that Joseph grew up in Georgia and came to Mississippi with his father, Gabriel. If Joseph of Georgia was a son of John of Mississippi, why was Joseph living in Georgia as a teenager at the time of his marriage, whereas John and his family had been in Mississippi at least since 1803? I see no evidence whatsoever that Joseph was the son of John Pickering of Covington County or that Joseph ever even lived in Covington County. I have several autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Joseph, and I believe they are due to Joseph’s father Gabriel having been a brother to my ancestor John of Covington.
Archie and I agree that his ancestor James Timothy Pickering, born about 1813, and my ancestor Aaron Pickering, born about 1800, were brothers, but we differ on many of the details of their lives and the names of the other siblings. Although I admit that we do not know for certain the names of all the siblings, I believe a good case can be made for attributing, at the very least, five children to John and Sarah Hargrove Pickering. What follows is a genealogy report of my own reconstruction of their descendants, followed by a discussion of the evidence and documentation for each child.
Descendants of John Pickering, son of Gabriel Pickering III
1. JOHN PICKERING (GABRIEL, GABRIEL), was born Bet. 1758 - 1764 in Craven County, North Carolina, and died Bet. 1822 - 1830 in Covington County, Mississippi. He married SARAH PHOEBE HARGROVE Abt. 1792 in Jones or Duplin County, North Carolina, daughter of BRAY HARGROVE. She was born Abt. 1765 in Duplin County, North Carolina, and died Abt. 1857 in Covington County, Mississippi.
Children of JOHN PICKERING and SARAH HARGROVE are:
2. i. PHEBE PICKERING, b. 1798, Tennessee; d. Aft. 1860, Covington County, Mississippi.
3. ii. AARON PICKERING, b. Abt. 1801, Washington County, Mississippi Territory; d. Bet. 1845 - 1850, Covington County, Misssissippi or Washington County, Alabama.
4. iii. KEZIAH PICKERING, b. September 22, 1804, Washington County , Mississippi Territory); d. October 10, 1884, Real County, Texas.
5.
iv. JAMES TIMOTHY PICKERING, b. August 16, 1813, Washington
County, Mississippi Territory; d. January 01, 1884, Sanford, Covington
County, Mississippi.
Generation No. 2
2. PHEBE5 PICKERING (JOHN4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born 1798 in Tennessee, and died Aft. 1860 in Covington County, Mississippi. She married WILLIAM A. LEGGETT 1822 in Covington County, Mississippi, son of BENJAMIN LEGGETT and MARY UNKNOWN. He was born 1801 in Jefferson County, Georgia, and died Bet. 1860 - 1865 in Seminary, Covington County, Mississippi.
Children of PHEBE PICKERING and WILLIAM LEGGETT are:
i. BENJAMIN6 LEGGETT, b. August 27, 1823, Covington County, Mississippi.
ii. MARY LEGGETT, b. January 25, 1825, Covington County, Mississippi; d. 1881, Wayne County, Mississippi; m. PHILLIP FINLEY MCRANEY; b. July 26, 1812, North Carolina; d. February 21, 1871, Covington County, Mississippi.
iii. JAMES JASPER LEGGETT, b. April 14, 1826, Covington County, Mississippi; d. Aft. 1860, Covington County, Mississippi; m. MARTHA ANN SMITH, January 07, 1856, Covington County, Mississippi; b. 1830, Mississippi; d. December 29, 1907, Wayne County, Mississippi.
iv. JEREMIAH LEGGETT, b. December 13, 1827, Covington County, Mississippi.
v. JOSEPH LEGGETT, b. April 16, 1829, Covington County, Mississippi.
vi. JOHN C. LEGGETT, b. March 13, 1832, Covington County, Mississippi.
vii. SARAH JANE LEGGETT, b. April 15, 1833, Covington County, Mississippi.
viii. WASHINGTON LEGGETT, b. December 28, 1836, Covington County, Mississippi.
ix. ELIZABETH LEGGETT, b. February 14, 1839, Covington County, Mississippi.
x. NANCY FRANCES LEGGETT, b. March 26, 1841, Covington County,
Mississippi.
3. AARON5 PICKERING (JOHN4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Abt. 1801 in Washington County, Mississippi Territory, and died Bet. 1845 - 1850 in Covington County, Misssissippi or Washington County, Alabama. He married MALINDA SARAH? BULLOCK Abt. 1824 in Covington County, Mississippi, daughter of SILAS BULLOCK and ISLEY BARLOW. She was born Abt. 1810 in Mississippi Territory(now Pike County), and died Bet. 1830 - 1840 in Covington County, Mississippi.
Children of AARON PICKERING and MALINDA BULLOCK are:
i. JOHN G.6 PICKERING, b. January 18, 1825, Covington County, Mississippi; d. February 04, 1917, Angelina County, Texas; m. (1) MARTHA A. RAINWATER, December 29, 1844, Washington County, Alabama; b. Abt. 1825, Washington County, Alabama; d. Bef. 1868, Tyler County, Texas; m. (2) ELIZABETH LIZZIE JONES, February 17, 1869, Jasper County, Texas; b. July 18, 1835, Alabama; d. July 30, 1915, Angelina County, Texas.
ii. WILLIAM L. PICKERING, b. December 18, 1827, Covington County, Mississippi (parentage not certain); d. September 18, 1880, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana; m. SARAH ANN HARGROVE, 1851, Mississippi; b. November 07, 1829, Covington County, Mississippi; d. July 26, 1890, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
iii. ANDREW JACKSON PICKERING, b. March 04, 1829, Covington
County, Mississippi; d. Bet. 1890 - 1900, Anderson County,
Texas(probably); m. (1) ELIZABETH ANN DAVIS, December 16, 1852,
Henderson County, Texas; b. January 01, 1822, Seneca, Pendleton
District, South Carolina; d. Abt. 1865, Chambers County, Texas; m. (2)
REMEMBER JANE SHELTON, September 10, 1865, Henderson County, Texas; b.
February 04, 1842, Morgan, County Illinois; d. May 25, 1879, Henderson
County Texas; m. (3) SARAH SALLIE JANE MITCHAM, July 08, 1880,
Henderson County, Texas; b. December 1835, Clarke County, Alabama; d.
Aft. 1910, San Augustine County, Texas.
4. KEZIAH5 PICKERING (JOHN4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born September 22, 1804 in Washington County , Mississippi Territory), and died October 10, 1884 in Real County, Texas. She married JOHN BANKS RAWLINGS January 15, 1822 in Washington County, Alabama (Mississippi territory). He was born December 20, 1794 in Greensville County, Virginia, and died Bef. 1870 in Beeville, Bee County, Texas.
Children of KEZIAH PICKERING and JOHN RAWLINGS are:
i. JOHN PICKERING6 RAWLINGS, b. October 16, 1822, Mississippi.
ii. ISAAC HAMBLIN RAWLINGS, b. October 19, 1824, Mississippi.
iii. SARAH JANE RAWLINGS, b. February 06, 1825, Mississippi.
iv. JAMES MACKING RAWLINGS, b. July 09, 1827, Mississippi.
v. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON RAWLINGS, b. September 29, 1829, Mississippi.
vi. ELIZABETH BARLOW RAWLINGS, b. March 07, 1831, Mississippi.
vii. FRANKLIN PLUMER RAWLINGS, b. March 17, 1833, Sumter County, Alabama.
viii. GEORGE WASHINGTON RAWLINGS, b. June 29, 1835, Sumter County, Alabama.
ix. THOMAS JEFFERSON RAWLINGS, b. September 03, 1837, Covington County, Mississippi.
x. HINCHEY ARMSTED RAWLINGS, b. November 26, 1839, Covington County, Mississippi; d. Aft. 1880, Goliad, Goliad County, Texas.
xi. MARTHA LOUISE RAWLINGS, b. February 26, 1842, Covington County, Mississippi.
xii. SUSAN VIRGINIA RAWLINGS, b. January 25, 1844, Covington County, Mississippi.
xiii. EMMA GREENVILLE RAWLINGS, b. March 10, 1847, Covington
County, Mississippi.
5. JAMES TIMOTHY5 PICKERING (JOHN4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born August 16, 1813 in Washington County, Mississippi Territory, and died January 01, 1884 in Sanford, Covington County, Mississippi. He married CATHERINE AULTMAN May 09, 1828 in Mississippi, daughter of THOMAS AULTMAN and AMELIA WATTS. She was born December 23, 1813 in Georgia, and died September 11, 1884 in Covington County, Mississippi.
Children of JAMES PICKERING and CATHERINE AULTMAN are:
i. THOMAS WALKER6 PICKERING, b. 1833, Covington County, Mississippi; d. Aft. 1860, Covington County, MIssissippi; m. (1) MARGARET PAMELIA WATTS, Abt. 1854, Covington County, Mississippi; b. Abt. 1836, Mississippi; d. Aft. 1860, Covington County, MIssissippi; m. (2) ELIZABETH PACE, Aft. 1860, Covington County, Mississippi; b. Abt. 1837, Mississippi.
ii. JOHN BENJAMIN PICKERING, b. May 20, 1835, Covington County, Mississippi; d. April 09, 1902, Covington County, Mississippi; m. RACHEL MAHALIA SPEED, Abt. 1859, Mississippi; b. December 15, 1839, Covington County, Mississippi; d. Aft. 1920, Covington County, Mississippi.
iii. WILLIS PICKERING, b. March 28, 1837, Covington County, Mississippi; d. April 05, 1889, Jones County, Mississippi; m. CELIA ANN GRAVES, August 20, 1861, Smith County, Mississippi; b. May 09, 1844, Mississippi; d. January 28, 1932, Jones County, Mississippi.
iv. LAVINIA PICKERING, b. June 10, 1839, Covington County, Mississippi; d. August 04, 1890, Covington County, Mississippi; m. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SPEED, March 10, 1859, Covington County, Mississippi; b. August 10, 1834, Covington County, Mississippi; d. February 05, 1910, Covington County, Mississippi.
v. MARY PICKERING, b. January 17, 1840, Covington County, Mississippi; m. RICHMOND HARRISON TURNER.
vi. KEZIAH PICKERING, b. July 08, 1844, Covington County, Mississippi; d. May 07, 1902, Covington County, Mississippi; m. (1) ALBERT TURNER; m. (2) JOHN WILEY KEYS; b. Abt. 1845, Mississippi.
vii. GEORGE WASHINGTON PICKERING, b. January 09, 1847, Covington County, Mississippi; d. April 08, 1877, Smith County, Mississippi; m. MAHALA ADELINE SULLIVAN; b. August 1849, Mississippi; d. October 1918, Smith County, Mississippi.
viii. ISAAC PICKERING, b. 1849, Covington County, Mississippi.
ix. NANCY NANNIE PICKERING, b. March 06, 1854, Covington County,
Mississippi; d. April 10, 1930, Covington County, Mississippi; m. ROBERT
FRANCIS LOWRY; b. August 24, 1851, Covington County, Mississippi; d.
August 10, 1934, Covington County, Mississippi.
Now,
for
a brief discussion of each child:
Children
of
John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove: Phoebe Pickering (about
1798-after 1860)
Phoebe
married
Andrew Jackson Leggett (1801-after 1860). Although there is no record
their marriage, family tradition among their descendants is that her
maiden name was Pickering. Judging by the birth of their first child,
the marriage must have taken place about 1821 or 1822 in Covington
County. This couple appears on the 1820,1830,1840,1850, and 1860 census
records of Covington County. Archie did not include Phoebe among the
siblings of James Timothy, which is surprising. I have over twenty
autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Phoebe, and with most of these
people, I have no known surname connections except through the Pickering
family. My conclusion, therefore, is that she is undoubtedly a child of
John and Sarah Phoebe.
Children of John Pickering and Sarah Phoebe Hargrove:
Aaron Pickering (about 1800-after 1860)
As
with
Phoebe and the other children, there is no direct documentary evidence
that Aaron was a child of John and Sarah. Nevertheless, there does not
appear to have been any other Pickering couple in Covington who could
have been his parents. I used to believe Aaron was born about 1805
because the 1840 census gives his birth years as between 1800 and 1810.
The year of birth that Archie provided in his family group sheet for
Aaron, 1809, does not work at all with the data we currently have. Aaron
is probably the same person as the Aaron Pickering who signed a petition
with John Pickering in 1817 (see above). He was probably still a
teenager at the time, probably just seventeen or eighteen years old, but
perhaps old enough to serve in the militia. Even if the Aaron of 1817 is
not the same Aaron who appears on the 1840 census, Aaron’s birth must be
closer to 1800 than 1809. The reason Archie, many other researchers, and
I all assume that Aaron is a son of John is because of a vague, but
uncertain, family tradition and Aaron’s appearance on the 1840 census,
where he is enumerated near James Timothy Pickering. Archie mentions
another family tradition that “Aaron was a miller at Williamsburg,
Covington County.”
Aaron
was
appointed as postmaster in January 1837 in Williamsburg,
Covington County. On the 1840 federal census, Aaron is
enumerated with two sons, age 10-15. He is also enumerated on the 1841
state census with two sons and on the 1845 Mississippi state census. He
does not appear in previous census records or on the 1850 census. I used
to think that he died between 1845 and 1850, but I recently became aware
of the following article that was posted at an Ancestry.com public
family tree. Unfortunately, no other citation source was given for this
article and I am unable to trace the source. The article states that in
November 1859 Aaron Pickering was appointed in Covington as one of the
delegates to a state convention in Jackson, Mississippi to be held in
January 1861. This appears to be a reference to the convention in which
Mississippi voted to secede from the Union:
From
the Southern Star.DEMOCRATIC & STATE RIGHT’S MEETING.
In Covington county—pursuant to public notice a large and respectable
number of the citizens of this county assembled in the court house in
Williamsburg on Monday the 19th day of November, when on motion, Hiram
Hathorn was called to the chair, and Dr. John Gartman appointed
Secretary. The object of the meeting being explained by Col. Thomas H.
Hopkins, (he having been called on to do so,) who moved that a committee
of seven be appointed to draft a preamble and resolutions expressive of
the sense of this meeting. The chairman appointed G.D. Pattimore, Aaron
Pickering, J.L. Jolly, G. D. Gere, William Leggitt, Samuel B. Hathorn,
and Wm. Loftin, said committee who after a few minutes absence, reported
the following preamble and resolutions which was unanimously adopted:
Whereas our Democratic friends in many of the counties of this State has deemed it proper and necessary to hold public meetings to devise ways and means by which they can honorably sustain the principles which it ever has been the pride and glory to avow—and believing that object can better be promoted by the contemplated convention to be held in the city of Jackson the 8th of January next.
1. Therefore Resolved, That we cordially approve of holding a state convention in the city of Jackson the 8th of January next.
2. Resolved, That nine Delegates to wit, Samuel B. Hathorn, Aaron Pickering, J. Watts sen., P.C. Duckworth, G. D. Patterson, Dr. John Gartman, James L. Jolly, Jesse Buckholter, and Samuel Hathrorn, be appointed delegates to represent this Co. in said convention.
3. Resolved, That
our delegates be instructed to vote for such men as they shall in their
wisdom deem best calculated to sustain and carry out those glorious
principles contained in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of ’98 and
’99.
I
now believe that Aaron may have died in the 1860s in Covington County.
It is still difficult to explain, however, how he could have been living
in Covington County from 1845 until after 1860 and yet not appear in any
known record.
The given names of Aaron’s children are not known from any documentary evidence but may be inferred from census data and other records. My research indicates he probably had three sons:
Andrew
Jackson
Pickering was my great grandfather and our family tradition in Texas is
that John G. Pickering was his brother. There is no controversy or doubt
about their being brothers, as the children of Andrew Jackson Pickering
regarded John G. Pickering as their uncle. Therefore, if Andrew J.
Pickering is a son of Aaron, then John G. must be also. Since one was
born in 1825 and one in 1829, the birth
dates fit well with the 1840 census. Nevertheless, there are indications
that William L. Pickering (1827-1880) may have also been a son of Aaron.
My third cousin, Melonie Zenner, conducted extensive interviews with
descendants of Andrew J. Pickering in the 1990s. She referred to William
in a 2002 forum posting: “He MAY be the brother of John (G./Gabriel)
Pickering and Andrew Jackson Pickering. These two brothers were from
Covington Co., Mississippi and can be found in Texas during 1850's and
later. Family history has been that they had relatives in Louisiana.”
William L. Pickering married a woman Sarah Ann Hargrove, his second
cousin; she was also the grandniece of Sarah Phoebe Hargrove who married
John Pickering. The William Pickering family later moved to Ouachita
Parish, Louisiana. Archie Pickering suggested in his research that
William may have been a son of Aaron but he provided no specific
documentation, only a vague family tradition. If we assume all three
boys were living in Covington in 1840, the only Pickering in Covington
County in that year who could have been the father of these three boys
is Aaron. Why, then, only two and not three on the census? Perhaps John
G., who was fifteen at the time, was working as a hired hand with
another farm or perhaps he was traveling at the time of the census, or
perhaps William L. was living with another family. In 1850 William L. is
living with the family of Andrew Leggett, whose wife had a Pickering
connection that has yet to be satisfactorily explained. I will suggest
an alternate explanation for who William’s parents were later.
Regardless of the identity of the parents of William L., I feel
confident that Andrew Jackson Pickering and John G. Pickering were
definitely children of Aaron.
My
cousin
Melonie Zenner also referred to a vague family tradition within our
Pickering family in Texas that the mother of Andrew Jackson Pickering
and John G. Pickering was named Malinda, or perhaps Sarah. Tradition did
not mention the maiden name of Aaron’s wife. Whoever she was, we know
only that she was old enough to have a child by the year 1825 when John
G. Pickering was born and she must have died between 1829 when Andrew
Jackson Pickering was born and 1840 when the census shows Aaron living
alone with his two sons. Based on autosomal DNA matches, I now think
that her maiden name was Bullock and that she was the oldest child of
Silas Bullock and Isley Barlow of Covington County. I have numerous
autosomal matches with descendants of the siblings of Malinda Sarah
Bullock. For example:
David Bullock (1812-1882), highest match 38 cm
Rhoda Bullock, (1813-1880), highest match 19 cm
Nancy Bullock, (1819-1880), highest match 42 cm
Silas Bullock, (1821-1906), highest match 18 cm
Martha Bullock (1824-1870), highest match 20 cm
Elizabeth Bullock (1825-1860, highest match 26 cm
John J. Bullock (1826-1901), highest match 15 cm
Vashti
Bullock
(1830-1909), highest match 12 cm
These
are
rather substantial matches and I can find no other connections in my
family tree with the Bullocks except through the wife of Aaron
Pickering, whose surname was unknown to me before I compared the
autosomal results. If Malinda Sarah was the daughter of Silas and Isley
Bullock, she was probably born about 1810, married Aaron about 1825, and
died in the 1830s, leaving Aaron to finish raising the three sons on his
own.
The
oldest
son, John G. Pickering, married Martha Rainwater on December 29, 1844 in
Washington County, Alabama. There has been much speculation that his
middle name was “Gabriel,” but there appears to be no family tradition
or paper documentation as to his actual middle name. The 1850 census of
Washington county shows them with two children, Jason Aaron and
Caroline. By the early 1850s this family had moved to Texas, where, in
1857, he was appointed a postmaster in Tyler County. It may be
remembered that his father had also been a postmaster back in Covington
in 1837. In 1860, John G. was still in Tyler County, but he moved to
Jasper County by 1870. In 1880 he was in Angelina County, but by 1900 he
was back in Tyler County again. He died in Angelina County in 1917. His
first wife died in the 1860s and he married Elizabeth Lizzie Jones in
1869 in Jasper County.
Children of John G. Pickering by his first wife, Martha Rainwater (about 1825-about 1868):
Children
of John G. Pickering by his second wife, Elizabeth Lizzie Jones
(1835-1915), married February 17, 1869:
1. Anna Pickering, (about 1872-before 1900). She probably died young.
2. Armitta Mittie Pickering, (about 1875-1903). She married Ernest Eugene Allen, December 5, 1892 in Tyler County, Texas. They had numerous children.
John
G.
Pickering, who was my great granduncle, had several occupations, such as
journeyman printer, timber merchant, and country doctor. He was
certainly an interesting character. My second cousin, John Winton
Pickering, who died in 2011, recounted this bit of family lore in an
email:
I
only knew that as an old man, he visited his nephew, Joseph Aaron
Pickering (my grandfather) at Murchison, Texas (not far from Tyler),
and my father John M. (born 1900/died 1953) as a child recalled that
his Great Uncle John, veteran of San Jacinto, had white whiskers and
would drink Watkins Liniment and exclaim, "Blaze, damn you, blaze!" I
suppose that Watkins products cured a lot of ills in those days, and
Dr. John probably prescribed it often and used it himself.
The
old
doctor also claimed, toward the end of his life, that he was the same
person as the John Pickering who is documented as having fought at the
battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. It appears he was
even able to get a pension from the state of Texas based on his claim. Even though a
2003 article
by
a respected journalist in Texas identified John G. Pickering as
the John Pickering who fought in the Texas Revolution, this claim is
almost certain not true. The most charitable explanation for my great
granduncle’s behavior is that as he became older and as his memory
faded, he may have convinced himself of this claim by reading accounts
of the Texas Revolution that mentioned a John Pickering as a Texas hero.
The
John
Pickering who fought in the Texas Revolution was killed in a skirmish
with Indians in 1838 near San Antonio and is buried
in that city. In my Find-a-Grave memorial to that John Pickering, I
wrote:
John
G.
Pickering was a brother to Andrew Jackson Pickering who was born in
Covington County, Mississippi in 1829. The apparent father of the two
brothers is the Aaron Pickering who appears on the 1840 census with
two sons under twenty years of age, therefore both sons being born
after 1820.
John
G.
Pickering married Martha Rainwater, his first wife, December 28, 1844
in Washington County, Alabama. John and Martha appear on the 1850
census of Washington County and the 1860 census of Tyler County,
Texas. The census data suggests this couple moved to Texas during the
1850s. John's brother, Andrew Jackson Pickering, first appears in a
Texas record in 1851.
John
G.
Pickering was born about 1825, according to the 1850 and 1860 census.
All our available evidence indicates that John G. Pickering was living
in Mississippi in 1836 and was only ten or eleven years old;
consequently, he could not possibly be the same person as the John
Pickering of the Texas Revolution.
Unfortunately,
we
know nothing about the genealogy of the John Pickering who fought at
San Jacinto. No available documentary record mentions where he lived
before he came to Texas, nor are the names of any of his Pickering
relatives known to researchers.
As
previously
mentioned, John G. Pickering appears on the 1850 census as born in 1825
and on the 1860 census as born in 1826. The 1870 census suggests he was
born in 1818, but the 1880 census has 1825 again. The 1900 census has
him born in January 1825, but in 1910, he is age, 92, born 1818. In his
attempts to get a Texas state pension, he
claimed that he was born in 1818 and that he came to Texas in 1836 and
personally knew Sam Houston and other heroes of the Texas Revolution,
but as his marriage in Alabama in 1844 and appearance on the 1850
Alabama census as a twenty-five and later on the 1860 Texas census as a
thirty-four year old, effectively refute the claim he
made as an old man to have been born in 1818 and to have arrived in
Texas in 1836.
In
fact,
John G. Pickering and his brother Andrew Jackson Pickering may have
arrived in Texas at the same time, possibly in the year 1851. Andrew
Jackson Pickering does not appear on the census of Mississippi, Alabama,
Arkansas, or Texas in 1850. He was certainly was in Henderson County,
Texas by January 1852; the first document of his brother John G. in
Texas is an 1857 record in Tyler County where John was appointed
postmaster, but John G. had probably
already been living in Texas for several years at the time of his
appointment.
Melonie
Shelton
Zenner has done extensive research on this family. She is related to the
Pickering family through her descent from Susan Davis Anding, who was
the sister of Andrew Jackson Pickering’s first wife, Elizabeth Ann
Davis. I am grateful for the original research she did and shared with
me.
The
first
documentary record of Andrew Jackson Pickering is on January 1, 1852
when A. J. Pickering is listed as a chain bearer on the David A. Anding
survey in Henderson County, Texas. Apparently, he was working for his
future brother-in-law, as David Anding was the husband of Susan Davis,
and on January 16, 1852, Andrew J. Pickering married Susan’s sister,
Elizabeth Ann Davis.
The
only
Davis family members listed in the 1850 Henderson County, Texas census
are relatives of Susan and Eliza Ann. Their brothers Thomas H. Davis and
Andrew P. Davis were enumerated on that census. They were the children
of John Davis and Susan Patterson who had previously lived in the
Pickens District, South Carolina. Andrew Jackson Pickering’s future
wife, Elizabeth Davis, is enumerated in 1850 with the family the David
A. Anding, her sister’s husband. Family records state Elizabeth Ann was
born on January 1, 1814, but according to the census, she was born about
1822. She was therefore several years older than her husband.
Andrew
J.
Pickering and Elizabeth Davis had one child named Mary Amanda Pickering,
my grandmother, who was born in March 13, 1854 in Henderson County,
Texas. Andrew J. and Eliza then moved to Chambers County, Texas, where
they appear on the 1860 census with their daughter:
July 17, 1860 House #377 Wallisville Post Office, Chambers Co., Texas census:
A. J. Pickering, age 35 years, male, laborer, born in Mississippi.
Eliza A. Pickering, age 38, female, born in South Carolina.
Mary A. Pickering, age 6, female, born in Texas.
While
in
Chambers County, Andrew J. Pickering became a neighbor and good friend
with a German immigrant named John
Stengler. This information is found in a book by Kevin Ladd, Chambers
County,
Texas in the War Between the States, published in 1994, page
130. Stengler family letters written during
the Civil war have survived and Pickering is mentioned in several of
them.These letters were later donated to the University of Texas.
Andrew
J.
Pickering joined Spaights
Battalion
of Confederate volunteers where he served with Fritz, Charles and
William Hankamer, stepchildren of John Stengler. This is a partial
record of his service, according to the Ladd book:
Civil War Records list Private A. J. Pickering, age 32, in Co. F., 11 (Spaights) Battalion Texas Volunteers. formerly designated as the 6th (Likens) Battalion Texas Infantry. Enrolled March 26, 1862 in Liberty county, Texas by Captain Ashley W. Spaight. Mustered into service April 21, 1862 in Liberty county, Texas. Valuation of horse $95.00 and equipment $20.00. Listed on Company muster roll for April 21, 1862 to June 2, 1862. Paid August 8, 1862, October 31, 1862, Absent October 31, 1863, and sent to the hospital in Beaumont February 23, 1864. Last page of record shows still serving July 1864, signed by J. B. Hyatt.
The
book
by Ladd also mentions Pickering in several other passages:
page
130:
A. J. Pickering was born about 1829 in Covington, Mississippi and was a
farmer by occupation. He enlisted in Company F. of Spaight's Battalion,
serving under Captain William B. Duncan. Pickering
appears on the 1860 census of Chambers County with his wife, Eliza A.,
age 38, and a daughter, Mary H. [the middle initial, of course, should
be A, not H-gs], Pickering, age 6. The census lists Eliza's birthplace
as South Carolina. He appears to have been
a close friend and neighbor to the family of John Stengler and served
with Fritz, Charles and William Hankamer. He
is mentioned in some of the Stengler family letters written during the
Civil War period and published in this volume.
page
312:
a letter from John Stengler to Fritz Hankamer written from Crackersneck,
April 20th, 1865: Dear son, I sold the lifter [?] to Pickering for his
cattle, they are 2 gentle cows, 1 4-year old beef, 1 3-year old heifer
and a 1-year old heifer and 1 work ox.
page 313:
As much as I can see from yours, your wish that I would make inquiry in
regards to the Kadet [?] which you have from Pickering for the horse.
Andrew
Jackson
Pickering’s first wife, the former Elizabeth Ann Davis, died between
1860 and 1865, presumably in Chambers County, where she is most likely
buried. We know his first wife was deceased because of his marriage on
September 10, 1865, to Remember Jane Martin, the widow of James Martin.
Remember Jane was born February 4, 1842, probably
in Morgan County, Illinois, the daughter of Joseph Shelton and Polly
Cole. There were four children born to this
union of A.J. Pickering and R.J. Martin before Remember Jane herself
died in 1879 in Henderson County, Texas, where the family had returned
at some point between September 1865 and June 1866. They probably
returned in late 1865 but definitely by June 1866 when their first child
as born. The 1867 Henderson County, Texas voter’s registration list has
Andrew J. Pickering in Precinct #2, having lived in the state 16 years
(since about 1851) and having lived in the county and precinct two
years.
The
1870
Henderson County, Texas, census has these individuals listed:
A. J. Pickering, age 41, male, farmer, born in Mississippi. [Andrew Jackson Pickering-gs]
R. J. Pickering, age 29, born in Illinois. [Remember Jane Shelton Martin Pickering-gs]
M. A. Pickering, age 16, born in Texas. [ Remember Jane’s step-daughter, Mary Amanda Pickering-gs]
J.A. Pickering, age 4 years, born in Texas. [Joseph Aaron Pickering-gs]
S.A. Pickering, age 1 year, born in Texas. (Sara Aivia Pickering-gs)
The
following
is from the research notes of Melonie Zenner:
May 22, 1878 Henderson County, Texas. Remember Jane (Janie) Shelton Martin Pickering died and was buried in Willow Springs Cemetery, Henderson County, Texas. Tola Mosca Pickering, born March 18, 1877 and died December 10, 1879 is buried near Remember Jane Pickering. It is assumed this is the son of A.J. and Jane. This child is listed in the 1880 mortality records of Henderson County, Texas.
If we go to the enumeration of the family on the 1880 Henderson County census, we find several changes in the household. Mary Amanda had married in 1871, Malinda Burros was born in 1874, and Remember Jane and Tola Mosca had died.
1880 census:
A. J. Pickering, age 45 years, male, farmer, widow, born in Mississippi. [Andrew Jackson Pickering-gs]
Aaron J. Pickering, age 14 years, male, born in Texas. [Aaron Joseph Pickering-gs]
Sarah A. Pickering, age 11, female, born in Texas. [Sarah Aivia Pickering-gs]
Malinda B. Pickering, age 6 years, female, born in Texas. [Malinda Burros Pickering-gs]
During the 1870s, the Pickering family was often on the move. In late 1870 or early 1871 Andrew Jackson Pickering relocated to Erath County, Texas. He was still there on November 12, 1879 when he patented 160 acres in that county.The family may have moved back to Henderson during part of the decade. The reason for this move out west is not known, but it was while the family was living in Erath County that Mary Amanda Pickering, the seventeen year old daughter of Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Ann Davis, met and married Jesse Sanders (1845-1903). By early 1880 when the census was taken, Pickering and his family were back Henderson County.
On July 8, 1880, in Henderson County, Texas, A. J. Pickering married Mrs. S. J. Walker. Sarah J. Walker was enumerated on the 1880 census living in a household with three sons, one of whom was recently married. According to Melonie Zenner, Sarah Jane Walker was the widow of E.D. Walker: “I believe this is Sarah Jane Mitcham, widow of Edmond or Edward D. Walker. They are in 1860-1870 Clarke County Alabama census. She had five sons by Mr. Walker; he is deceased before 1870. I believe she is the daughter of George Washington Mitcham and Mary A. Green of Clarke County Alabama. She was listed in the 1910 Angelina County, Texas, census with son Henry F. Walker’s family.”
Whether this marriage of Andrew J. Pickering to Mrs. Walker lasted until his death is not known, but the last known record of Andrew Jackson Pickering is in 1890 in Anderson County, Texas where he is listed on the tax record with a cow valued at $10, a horse/mule valued at $35, and miscellaneous property worth $8. Apparently, Sarah J. Mitcham did not use the surname of Pickering in later life, because she used the name of “Mrs. S.J. Walker” in the application she filed for a Confederate widow’s pension in which an affidavit states her first husband died in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia in May 1864. On the 1900 and 1920 census she was also using the surname of Walker.
Presumably A. J. Pickering died between 1890 and 1900 because he does not appear on the 1900 or subsequent census records. His burial place is not known with certainty but it is most likely at the Willow Springs Cemetery in Henderson County where his second wife and one of his sons are buried.
Nor are the documentary records are clear on the year of A.J. Pickering's birth. The 1860 census has it about 1825, the Civil War battalion record has it about 1830, the 1870 census has it about 1829, the 1880 census has it about 1835. It appears first wife Eliza Davis was a few years older than her husband; the 1860 Chambers County census has her born about 1822. It is the opinion of Melonie Zenner, Pickering researcher, that the family records that give a date of January 1, 1814 for her birth date were incorrect and were caused by someone copying a birth date for one of her sisters. The preponderance of evidence Andrew Jackson Pickering himself is that he was born about 1829. This was the date that was accepted by Kevin Ladd in the previously mentioned book Chambers County, Texas in the War Between the States, Baltimore, 1994. Melonie Zenner suggested that one of her sources provided a March 4, 1829 birth date for Andrew Jackson Pickering, but I am somewhat suspicious of the month and day because that is also the month and day in 1885 my father was born, so I am inclined to believe someone in the family confused the two individuals.
According to other records collected by Melonie Zenner, there are over three hundred and fifty known descendants of A.J. Pickering, many of whom still reside in the Henderson County or northeast Texas areas. As previously mentioned, by his first wife, Eliza Ann Davis (1822, Pendleton District, South Carolina-about 1865, Chambers County, Texas), Andrew Jackson Pickering had only one child, my grandmother:
Mary Amanda Pickering, March 13, 1854, Henderson County, Texas-July 22, 1898, Murchison, Henderson County, Texas.
According to my father, Mary Amanda Pickering was generally known in the family as “Mandy.” My father, Jesse Jackson Sanders, was born in 1885. In 1896 his younger sister Bertha died; in 1898 his mother died, and in 1903 his father died. It must have been a difficult time for my father to have experienced these three deaths in his family between the ages of twelve and eighteen.
My grandfather, Jesse Sanders, was born on June 30, 1845, in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, the son of Isaac Sanders and Elizabeth King. Jesse’s parents moved to Montgomery County, Arkansas, in 1851 and they lived there until after the Civil War. Isaac obtained a land grand based on his service in the 1830s in Jackson County, Alabama, in the Seminole Indian Wars. When the Civil War began, it appears the Sanders family first fought for the Confederacy, then switched sides as the Union forces moved into the state. Therefore, both my grandfather and great grandfather fought in both Union and Confederate Armies. After the war, the family moved back to Tishomingo County, Mississippi, and it was from there that my grandfather set out for Henderson County, Texas about 1870. One motivation was that a Sanders cousin, Levi Lindsey Sanders of Ben Wheeler, was already living in the state.
We do not have a family tradition about how Jesse met Mandy Pickering. We assume Jesse moved first to Henderson County, Texas, but the first documentary record we have of him in the state is the record of his marriage to Mary Amanda Pickering on October 31, 1871 in Erath County, Texas. According to the 1939 obituary of their son, John Sanders of Murchison, the couple lived in Erath County until 1876 when they returned to Henderson County. Two of their children, John and Sarah Elizabeth, were born in Erath County. All the others were born in Murchison in Henderson County.
The children of Mary Amanda “Mandy” Pickering and Jesse Sanders:
1. JOHN TAYLOR8 SANDERS was born July 30, 1872 in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas, and died May 11, 1938 in Murchison, Henderson County, Texas. He married LULA N SKIPPER November 11, 1890 in Murchison, Henderson County, Texas, daughter of DANIEL SKIPPER and LUCINDA CUMBIE. She was born October 26, 1870 in Butler County, Alabama, and died December 08, 1901 in Murchison, Henderson County, Texas.
In 1893 Jesse Sanders received a land grant from Governor James Hogg for 87 acres of land in Murchison. Some of that land remained in the family until Sarah Elizabeth “Bet” Sanders Carroll died in 1974 and the last part of the old homestead was sold. The property was between the railroad track and Mockingbird Street in Murchison, with the other original grant extending westward toward the city of Athens. I was born in 1944 in a house on Mockingbird Street in Murchison, a house that no longer stands.
Mandy Pickering Sanders died in 1898 and was buried in the Red Hill Cemetery near the graves of the two children who died young, Randau and Bertha. This cemetery was originally established by the Methodist Episcopal Church and lies several miles east of Murchison on the road to Tyler. Jesse Sanders died in 1903. The death certificate lists the cause of his death as “malarial fever.” He had suffered from ill health for years. His 1899 application for a pension for his service in in the Union cavalry in 1863 in Arkansas stated that he had lung trouble and asthma. A 1900 newspaper article stated that he had been ill with pneumonia. My father, Jesse Jackson Sanders, was born in 1885. By the time he was eighteen years old, he had experienced the death of a younger sister in 1896, his mother in 1898, and his father in 1902.
The Sanders/Pickering area of the cemetery is straight across from the gate, toward the west fence.The burials are arranged in a row that goes from South to North:
Maggie Webb (daughter of J.A. Web and Fan Sanders. Fan was a daughter of Mandy)
Fannie Webb (daughter of Jesse Sanders and Mandy Pickering)
J. A. Webb (husband of Fan Sanders, a daughter of Mandy)
Letha Sanders (wife of Carl, son of John. John was a son of Mandy)
Levi Sanders (son of John. Levi was a grandson of Mandy)
Lula Sanders (wife of John, a son of Mandy)
John Sanders (son of Mandy)
Jesse Jackson Sanders (son of Mandy)
Bettie Sanders (Sarah Elizabeth Bet Sanders, daughter of Mandy)
Jesse Sanders (husband of Mandy)
Mary A. Sanders (daughter of Andrew Jackson Pickering, wife of Jesse Sanders)
Bertha Sanders (daughter of Mandy. She died when she was 5 years old)
Randau Sanders (daughter Mandy. She died in infancy in 1880. This is the earliest Sanders burial in the cemetery).
Don D. Taylor (son of Modest Sanders). Modest was a twin to Levi and a daughter of John who was a son of Mandy)
Modest Sanders (daughter of John who was a son of Mandy)
The Pickering burials are also arranged south to north:
J. R. Pickering (Joseph Raymond Pickering, grandson of A. J. Pickering)
E. F. Milo Pickering (Ellis Franklin Milo, grandson of A. J. Pickering)
Patsy Pickering (Patsy Franklin Pickering, wife of Milo)
John M. Pickering (John Murchison Pickering, grandson of A. J. Pickering)
Ida Elizabeth Pickering ( Ida Elizabeth Nixon Pickering, wife of John Murchison)
J. A. Pickering (Joseph Aaron Pickering, son of A.J. Pickering)
Maggie Pickering (Sarah Maggie Beasley Pickering, wife of J. A.)
Roy Pickering (Roy Wayne Pickering, grandson of A.J. Pickering)
In
addition
to Mary Amanda Pickering Sanders, a daughter by his first wife, Andrew
Jackson Pickering had several children by his second wife, Remember Jane
Shelton (February 4, 1842, Morgan County, Illinois-May 25, 1879,
Murchison, Henderson County, Texas), whom he married on September 10,
1865 in Henderson County, Texas:
Joseph Aaron Pickering, the oldest son of Andrew Jackson and Sarah Remember Pickering, married Sarah Margaret “Maggie” Beasley on December 18, 1888. They lived in Henderson County, Texas. According to an e-mail I received from my cousin, John Winton Pickering, it was “Maggie” Beasley Pickering who inspired her children to gravitate toward musical careers:
My grandmother Sarah Margaret Maggie Pickering had, by all accounts, a total of 12 births, losing 3 soon after birth, one of which lived long enough to be named (Neater). Yet, Sarah Margaret Beasley Pickering was a tiny, frail-looking woman… She was the singer that inspired my dad, Aunt Daisy, and eventually all the rest of us to be involved in music. She was an excellent "Sacred Harp" singer, and never missed church. (Nor did Aaron, for that matter).
Maggie prayed over the years to die when Joseph Aaron "Aaron" Pickering did. She didn't want to live without him. He died of kidney disease at the age of 65 on March 23, 1932, and true to her word, in answer to her prayer (as told by her attending daughters), though she was not sick, she simply lay down and died the next day, March 24, 1932 - describing heaven for them all the while. There was a double funeral at Red Hill Cemetery, which is located only a few miles from their birthplace of Murchison, Texas. They were buried side by side in the Pickering family plot. Near them in the plot are my mom and dad, my brother Bill, and several other family members.
Maggie and Aaron’s son, John Murchison Pickering (1900-1953) and John’s wife, Ida Nixon Pickering (1906-1993), founded the Pickering Family Quartet in the 1930s, beginning a musical tradition that has lasted to the present:
In
1939, the group moved to Lubbock, Texas and sang daily on KFYO Radio,
performing concerts to huge crowds in school auditoriums and appearing
at singing conventions of West Texas. Bass singer J.W. Elliott, with the
maturing of Johnny as a singing member, soon left the group to join a
male gospel quartet. Johnny then became the full-time lead singer with
the group at age 6, standing on an apple crate to reach the microphone,
just as his older sibling Billy once did. The Holley family first became
acquainted with the Pickerings during this time, as they enjoyed gospel
music and “singings”. Buddy Holly was 3 years old, but Larry, Travis and
sister Pat were teenagers.
In 1940, The Pickering Family Quartet moved to Clovis, New Mexico, 100
miles west of Lubbock, Texas, to begin daily radio shows on KICA.
Theirs was a variety show, but featured Stamps and Stamps-Baxter gospel
songs, with a show-ending hymn. They became regional stars, especially
during World War II, performing for sell-out crowds at personal
appearances during those “radio days”.
The
Pickering family had known the Holly family from their Lubbock days when
the future rock star Buddy
Holly was just a toddler in his hometown. This acquaintance led
to a collaboration when Buddy Holley released his first records.
According to Wikipedia,
"The Picks was an American vocal quartet that backed Buddy Holly and the
Crickets' band
on nine of their first twelve Crickets releases on Brunswick in 1957, as
well as backing Buddy Holly solos for group sounds. The original members
were John Pickering (lead), Bill Pickering(tenor), and Bob
Lapham(baritone)."
As with the children Phoebe and Aaron, there is no specific document that proves Keziah (or Kesiah) was a child of John and Sarah, but their parentage is highly likely. I have over a dozen autosomal DNA matches with her descendants. She married John Banks Rawlings January 15, 1822 in Washington, County, Alabama. This couple moved to Texas by 1870 and left numerous descendants.
James Timothy Pickering, unlike his siblings, has a definite documentary connection to Sarah Pickering, as she is living in his household in 1850, though the census provides with no information on the nature of their kinship. James married Catherine Aultman on May 9, 1828 and by 1850, the couple had eight children in their household. Many of the descendants of James and Catherine still live in Covington or Jones or adjacent counties in Mississippi today. Among their descendants are former judge Charles W. Pickering, former U.S. Congressman “Chip” Pickering, and former Mississippi State Auditor, Stacey Pickering. And, of course, Archie Pickering, who did some of the research on which this article is based, was also a descendant of James Timothy Pickering.
There is significant controversy over the maiden name of the Ann Sarah Pickering to whom Andrew Jackson Leggett (1814-1874) was issued a license of marriage on June 21, 1837 in Covington County, Mississippi. This was followed by an announcement in Natchez Courier and Journal on July 14, 1837 that Mr. Andrew J. Leggett had married Miss Ann Charlescraft on July 2, 1837 in Williamsburg, Covington County, Mississippi. The question is which name, Pickering or Charlescraft, was her birth surname. Archie Pickering, whose research I have previously discussed, seemed to have been unaware of any controversy surrounding this marriage. His family group sheet has a child, Ann, born about 1811 to John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove, marrying Andrew Jackson Leggett with no note to indicate any problem with the identity of Ann’s parents. He gives her birth year as 1811, but the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census shows she was born about 1823. It would be highly unlikely that a woman born in 1823 could be the daughter of John and Sarah Pickering as John may well have been dead by that year, and Sarah would have been over fifty years old.
I have autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Ann Pickering and Andrew Jackson Legget, and I think it is unlikely these can be explained other than through a common Pickering ancestor, but I question whether Ann was a daughter of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove. I have developed a tentative theory of how Ann Pickering may have been related to John Pickering, but before proceeding further, I would like to quote from a discussion that was originally in a RootsWeb file created by Janice Leggett Bays. After Ancestry.com acquired RootsWeb, many of these files became inaccessible, but I will give the link just for the record even though the link no longer works. Because what follows is important for understanding the controversy, I am quoting the notes in their entirety.
Beginning the notes of Janice Bays:
Andrew Jackson "Jack" Leggett was in the CSA in the Civil War. He was postmaster of the Williamsburg Post Office.
He and wife, Ann, are buried at Williamsburg, Covington County, Mississippi.
Subject: Some thoughts on Andrew Jackson Leggett
From: Pinstride@aol.com
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 19:09:55 EST
Hello, Roy:
Below are some ideas I have recently shared with several Leggett researchers who are interested in the Covington County, MS family.
I'd
be
interested in your thoughts about this and in further comparing notes.
Andrew Jackson Leggett (1814-1874) was my great grandfather.
Thanks,
John Jamison
Mount Dora, FL
Subj: John And Judith Watts Group: The Charlescraft Mystery
Date: 12/13/2001
Dear Folks:
Some of you are interested in the Leggett connections of Covington Co., MS,
particularly the family of Andrew Jackson (Jack) Leggett (1 814-1874). If so,
read on. And let us know if you have anything to add. It' s a fascinating
case of taking a long time to link all the dots in one's family tree.
Happy holiday!
John Watts Jamison
+++++++++
THE CHARLESCRAFT MYSTERY
There is a persistent but undocumented family story repeated by numerous descendants of my grandmother, Mary Leggett Kelly (1850-1936). She was said to be the daughter of a woman with the maiden name of Charlescraft. For some years I have sought evidence to substantiate this story.
Seeming to contradict the Charlescraft story is a web-published marriage licenses for Covington County, which shows that a license was issued to "Leggett, Andrew Jackson 'Jack' and Pickering, Ann Sarah , 21 Jul 1837."
(The license to marry Ann Sarah Pickering was issued on June 21, 1837, and the wedding to Ann A. Charlescraft was 11 days later on July 2, 1837, recorded in the Andrew Jackson Leggett Bible. I have no explanation for the confusion over the bride's surname.)
Another source, a Pickering family tree posted on the Internet, may have contributed the Pickering connection, possibly to an entirely different Andrew Jackson Leggett. This tree shows Andrew Jackson Leggett of Alabama, born about 1790 and married about 1813 to Sarah Ann Pickering of Washington, Alabama (was that another name for Mississippi back then?), daughter of John Pickering and Sarah Phebe Hargrove Pickering, born about 1795. This couple as described in the Pickering tree would be a generation older than our Andrew Jackson Leggett and Ann A. Charlescraft, born in 1814 and 1823 respectively.
Last year, I corresponded with Ann Lott Denton (awdenton@ao l.com) , with Seminary, MS origins, who ran across the most persuasive document I have heard of on the connection of A. J. Leggett with a wife named Charlescraft. Ann Denton heard of an Andrew J. Leggett Bible and found it in the possession of Mrs. Mary Evelyn Holleman Emerson, Gulfport, Mississippi , a descendant of Leggett. She obtained permission to see and transcribe the Bible's family pages.
Because of the crowded spacing on the family pages, Ann Denton took the maiden name of A. J. Leggett's wife to be Ann A. Craft, as follows:
"Ann A. Leggett daughter of Isaac and Delila Charles Craft was born 17 February 1823"
Here is a portion of Ann Lott Denton's transcription of the family pages of the Leggett Bible:
THE ANDREW J. LEGGETT BIBLE
Covington County, Mississippi
Bible in the possession of Mrs. Mary Evelyn Holleman Emerson, Gulfport, Mississippi
BIRTHS
[Andrew] J. Leggett, son of Benjamin and Mary Leggett, was borned May 14, 1814 in Georgia.
Ann A. Leggett, daughter of Isaac and Delila Charles Craft, was borned 17 February 1823.
MARRIAGES
[Andrew] J. Leggett and Ann A. Leggett was married July 2nd , 1837.
DEATHS
[Andrew] J. Leggett died December 8, 1874.
Ann Leggett died October the thirty-first, A. D. 1876
++++++
I replied to Ann Denton and gave her the feedback about our family's oral tradition that Grandmother Mary Leggett Kelly's mother was a Charlescraft.
Ann wrote back:
"The only information I have on Ann A. Leggett is from the Bible… I interpreted the parentage of Ann A. Leggett as Isaac Craft and Delila Charles. Perhaps it could be Charlescraft, but here is the way it reads in the narrow column of the "Births" section, including upper and lower case and spacing:
Ann
A.
Leggett daughter of Isaac and delila Charles Craft was borned ["borned"
being inserted above line] 17 february 1823.
Ann
+++++
I did a lot of web-searching on the surname Craft in Mississippi, and there are plenty of them. I kept digging.
Kerry Parker Stahl (kerrystahl@aol.com) sent me a note saying her grandmother (my aunt) Effie Pearl Kelly Parker had written on her marriage certificate that her grandmother was "Nan Charlescraft."
Assuming the name in Jack Leggett's Bible should be read as Charlescraft, the question remains as to the maiden name of Ann's mother Delila. And how do we connect Isaac Charlescraft with his ancestry, possibly the Charlescrafts of Onslow County, NC. And, for me, the question remains, how do the Pickerings fit into all this?
I have found both surnames, Craft and Charlescraft, occurring in the public records in Mississippi, particularly Crafts in Covington County cemeteries. "Charlescraft" appears in the 1840 census of Perry County, MS.Moreover, it appears that some Charlescraft families used both names interchangeably, or evolved from one to the other by choice.
An interesting observation about this usage was offered by researcher Beverly Cole (f3h7h7jv@coastalnet.com) in posting to the internet the 1840 will of "Archibald C. Craft" of Onslow County, NC:
"While I have transcribed the names as found in the will book, I feel very strongly that the correct surname is Charlescraft and that the clerk used the abbreviation in his transcription of the original will. The surname Charlescraft" was widely used in Onslow County in the late 1700's and in the nineteenth century. I find it very curious that each family member named in the will uses the repeated "C. Craft". Perhaps someone is familiar with this will and can verify the surname." Throughout the will of A rchibald C. Craft, his children's names are consistently given with the "C. Craft" ending, e.g., "Thomas C. Craft, Isaac C. Craft, Hester Ann C. Craft , Mary Jane C. Craft." If the family name was indeed Charlescraft, how odd that it would be abbreviated in this unusual way in a legal document.
(And could that Isaac C. Craft be related to our Isaac Charlescraft?)
Researcher Beverly Bianca (Beverly@vips.com) has also commented on this
abbreviation phenomenon. A portion of her message is below:
On [an] LDS site I found a family of Charlescrafts beginning with John Charlescraft who was born in 1688. They lived in Dorchester County. He had a son John, who had a son John who married Ann Bespith abt. 1760. They had four children, Benjamin, Hugh, Jesse and William. It seems that all of the children of Benjamin and William are referred to with the last name of CRAFT. (I don't have any info on Hugh or Jesse's children.). It looks like the family decided around 1797 to drop the Charles part of the name. They may have gotten tired of the confusion as I found several of them in various census records where the Charles is treated as a separate middle name….
Does this fit in with anyone else's research? Is anyone researching CRAFT?
Beverly Bianca
+++
I have found another instance of this in a family tree posted on the internet: Benjamin Charlescraft and Rachel Stanford (Charlescraft) has daughter named "Ann Craft".
+++
For me, blood is thicker than water. I am sure that ol' Jack Leggett was my great-grandpa because my grandma Mary Leggett's name is in his family Bible. I am taking his word for the name of his wife and her parents, the Charlescrafts. And, while I can't explain the Sarah Ann Pickering thing altogether, I am going ahead and connecting my ancestry through Ann A. Charlescraft Leggett, just like all my old cousins have been telling me. My eternal thanks to Ann Denton.
Any comments? Please share them with all of us.
John Watts Jamison (pinstride@aol.com)
Janice Leggett Bays added the following:
From: JB
Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 18:32:00 -0600
CC: Pinstride@aol.com
I don't know how much I can help sort this out here, but I will contribute what information I have. Please remember I have not done much hands on research on this particular line, although I am aware that there is confusion over where Andrew Jackson "Jack" Leggett 's wife was Pickering or a Charlescraft. One descendant (in my notes but made before I got really good about documenting sources sorry) maintains that Ann Sarah was indeed born a Pickering, but first was married to a Charlescraft. That being said, I will insert what other info I have below:
John Pickering and Sarah Phebe Hargrove Pickering were my 4th Great Grandparents. While John Pickering faithfully listed his birthplace as SC in 1760, Sarah Phebe in some instances listed her place of birth as SC and in others Alabama in the Mississippi Territory. I do have a dtr. listed for them born abt 1795, but no name for her. [Note—so far as I can tell, there is no record where John Pickering ever gave his place of birth. I think she is referring to what some of the children reported on census reports later in the nineteenth century-GS]
Here are some of the closer Pickering family ties in with Andrew Jackson. Leggett and his wife. Andrew Jackson Leggett's brother, William A. Leggett marred Phebe Pickering who was a child of John Pickering and Sarah Phebe Hargrove Pickering and his sister Elizabeth Leggett married Ruben Hargrove b. Bef. 1790 in GA died Abt. 1830 and had a son John L. Hargrove b. February 27, 1824 before marrying Murdock McLeod. This family had four sons. Elizabeth died in Rankin Co., Mississippi in 1862. I'm sorry I don't have more to add to the search of Craft or Charlescraft. The family Bible was a wonderful find for you! Please
keep us on the list in the loop to your search! JB
End of notes of Janice Bays
The preceding notes of Janice Bays and others make a good case that Ann who married Andrew J. Legett had connections to both the Pickering and the Charlescraft families. On the 1850 census, Ann gives her birthplace as North Carolina. On the 1860 and 1870 census, South Carolina is given, but because the Charlescraft family lived in Onslow County, North Carolina, I think that county and state is most likely where she was born.
On the 1850 census, a William Pickering, age 23, is living with Ann and William Leggett. I think this William Pickering is the William L. Pickering, whom I have earlier suggested as a possible son of my second great grandfather Aaron Pickering, a son of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove. If Ann were also a daughter of John and Sarah, William would be her brother, but as we have seen, there is considerable evidence from both documentary and family tradition that at the time of her marriage, Ann was known as Ann Charlescraft.
My suggested theory to explain this mystery (and it is just a theory, since I do not assert the existence of any solid evidence) is that Ann’s mother was a daughter of Isaac and Delilah Charlescraft of Onslow County, North Carolina. This daughter may have married either a brother or a nephew of John Pickering who married Sarah Hargrove. I also assume that Ann was born in Onslow County and that she was probably living with her grandparents Isaac and Delilah at the time of her marriage in 1837. Isaac and Delilah seem to have been far too old to have had a daughter born in 1823. The Charlescrafts had moved from Onslow County in North Carolina to Mississippi in the late 1820s (Pontotoc County in 1830, Perry County in 1840). It does not appear that a girl of Ann’s age was living with them at the time of the 1830 census, but if her parents died in the early 1830s, the Charlescrafts may have raised Ann and she may have adopted their surname by the time of her marriage.
Do we have reason to believe that a brother or a relative of John Pickering of Covington was living in Onslow County, North Carolina, in the first decades of the nineteenth century? So far, there is no direct solid documentary evidence, but we can still infer a possible link. On the 1820 census of Onslow County, there is enumerated an Elizabeth Pickon and her two children, a boy and a girl, both under ten years old. Elizabeth may have been the widow of a James Pickering:
https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/pickering/4/
Pickering
By genealogy.com user October 29, 1997 at 09:18:25
PICKERING, James.Jones Co. NC, late 1700's-early 1800's. Looking for info about James PICKERING who fathered a child by Elizabeth JARMAN in 1812.The child may have been named Hesse Jarman, and Simmons Harrison was appointed guardian. By 1818 Elizabeth was using the namePICKERING, so perhaps they married. Would like to contact anyone. researching Pickering/Pickeron in Jones Co. NC.
I cannot find any Pickering or Pickron on the 1810 census of Onslow, but Elizabeth Jarmon Pickering’s father William Jarman died in 1822 in neighboring Jones County, where many of my Pickering relatives lived. Elizabeth and her two children appear on the 1830 Jones County census. The daughter may be the same person as Mary Pollie Pickering who married a man named Jesse King; this couple is living in Onslow County in 1840. I have an autosomal DNA match of twenty-four shared cm with one of their descendants, a match which I am unable to explained except by common Pickering ancestry. I think the James Pickering who apparently married Elizabeth Jarmon about 1810 may be a son of William Pickering, the brother of John of Covington. This, of course, is just conjecture on my part. I do not think James can be a son of John’s brother Moses (who was apparently in Marengo, Alabama, in the 1790s), or of John himself (who was either in Georgia or Mississippi during the late 1790s), or of John’s other brother Gabriel III (who also moved to Georgia). William appears to have been the only son of Gabriel II who remained in Jones County, and this is the reason I assume William is the most likely father of James Pickering who married Elizabeth Jarmon.
I suggested earlier that Ann Alsy Charlescraft may have been a daughter or granddaughter of one of the brothers of John of Covington. Tentatively, my theory is that is James who married Elizabeth Jarman may have had a brother who married a daughter of Isaac and Delilah Charlescraft; both parents may have died while Ann was a child, hence she was raised by Isaac and Delilah Charlescraft, her grandparents, and she adopted their surname, though she was born a Pickering. I realize this is just a possible explanation of a very complex question; the truth, if it can be unraveled, may eventually reveal a different scenario.
Possible Children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove: Charles Pickering (1812-after 1853)
Archie Pickering’s family group sheet gives a Charles Pickering as a brother of Aaron, Ann, and James Timothy Pickering, but he gives no information on how he came by the 1812 birth year for this Charles. This is what he says: “In 1853 Charles Pickering bought SE4 NW4 Section 27 T7H R16W Covington Co., Miss. on Casey Head Branch [illegible word-gs] 8 [illegible word-gs] next to his brother James T. Pickering.” I assume that Archie Pickering believed that the act of buying the property next to James Timothy was proof that Charles Pickering was a brother. I am unable to find the legal document to which Archie refers, and I am also unable to even confirm the existence of this Charles Pickering. He does not appear on any census record, nor in any other document, so far as I can tell. There was a Charles Pickering in Marengo County, Alabama, living at this time, but the Charles in Marengo would be unlikely to buy property in Covington, as he was not related to the Covington Pickerings (more on this later). For these reasons and until further evidence comes to my attention, I am withholding an opinion on whether James Timothy had a brother named Charles.
Possible children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove: other names and conclusion
In my correspondence with Melonie Zenner of Texas, she mentioned an older family member who had suggested that Andrew Jackson Pickering and his brother John G. Pickering may have been sons of a John Pickering rather than sons of Aaron Pickering. I suspect that this theory came about because of a garbled tradition that referred to John of Covington as the ancestor of all the Covington Pickerings. On the other hand, it is possible that John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove did have children other than those I have enumerated here. If there was a John Pickering who was a brother to James Timothy and Aaron, we have no documentary evidence for his existence.
As I have previously mentioned, the evidence for the identity of the children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove is inferential and geographical rather than direct. Nevertheless, I believe it is genealogically substantial, and that we can confidently say the following were undoubtedly children of this couple:
Phoebe Pickering, born about 1798.
Aaron Pickering, born about 1800
Keziah Pickering, born September 22, 1804
James Timothy Pickering, born August 16, 1813
All these individuals grew up and married in Covington County. In 1830, Sarah Hargrove Pickering and her children are the only Pickering family enumerated in the county. In 1840 and 1850, James Timothy and Sarah Hargrove Pickering were living in the same household. There is also a vague, and sometimes explicit, tradition that Sarah Hargrove was the mother of James Timothy Pickering. There may well have been other children of John Pickering and Sarah Hargrove and the gaps in the birth order of the known siblings suggest that other children were indeed born to the couple, but it appears these four siblings—Phoebe, Aaron, Keziah, and James Timothy-are the only ones who left descendants in the county and the only ones where we have any substantial genealogical evidence.
The wife of Gabriel Pickering III--Do we have any
evidence?
Having
discussed the children of Gabriel III and their descendants, we
now turn to Gabriel's wife. It is impossible to address her identity
without first looking at the possible surnames of the wife or
wives of his father, Gabriel II, the one who died in about 1763 in
Craven County. With both men, the evidence is extremely scanty. For the
first Gabriel, we have some evidence that by 1750 he was married to a
woman named Sarah and that she was also his wife at the time of his
death, as is stated in this Genforum
posting from 2002:
At
a council held at Edenton 17th day of March Anno Dom 1740 [1741 new
style]. Present his Excellency the Gouvernour Read
Sundry Petitions for Land Vizt Gabriel
Pickering 200 Edgcombe
I
have not yet discovered where this Gabriel came from. His wife's name
was Sarah. This Gabriel died in Craven Co., NC. See records below. Note
that Gabriel's widow, Sarah, was remarried to John HARPER at the time
the nuncupative will was introduced at court in Apr 1763.
Craven
Co., NC; County Court Minutes; pg. 670; Apr 1763.
As
found in CRAVEN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY COURT MINUTES 1757-1763;
Bk. V, p.136; Extracted by Weynette Parks Haun.
[670]-36
The Nuncupative Will of GABRIEL PICKERING SENIOR was Exhibited into
Court to be proved and the Court having Examined one of the Evidences to
the said Will on his Oath declared that to the best of his Knowledge the
Deceased was at the time the aforesd. will is said to be made of unsound
mind and indisposing Memory and the said Will was set aside & on
Motion of Mr. Fenner ordered that *[ JOHN HARPER and SARAH his Wife have
Admn. on the Estate of the aforesaid GABRIEL PICKERING SENR. he Giving
Security in the Sum of Two hundred Pounds Proc. Money Vizt: GABRIEL
PICKERING JUNR. and Ezekiel Meers? at ye. same time the sd. John Harper
quallifd. agreeable to Law ]*
Note:
Portion in brackets marked through.
Craven Co., NC; County Court Minutes; pg. 672; Apr 1763.
As found in CRAVEN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY COURT MINUTES
1757-1763; Bk. V, p.136; Extracted by Weynette Parks Haun.
[672]-37 *[Ordered that the admr. of GABRIEL PICKERING have leave to
sell the Perishable Estate of said PICKERING on or before next Court at
Publick Vandue and Ordered that an Acct. of Such Sale be Returned to
next Court.]*
Note: Entire statement marked through.
Craven Co., NC; County Court Minutes; pg. 693; 6 Jul 1763.
As found in CRAVEN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY COURT MINUTES
1757-1763; Bk. V, p.140; Extracted by Weynette Parks Haun.
Wednesday, July 6th 1763
[693] On Motion of Mr. Fenner Ordered that JOHN HARPER have
Administration on the Estate of GABRIEL PICKERING SENIOR whose WIDOW he
is Married to, he giving John Foy and Martin Futch Security in the Sum
of One hundred and Fifty Pounds Proc Money at the same time he
Quallified agreeable to Law.
Gabriel Pickering II was married to Sarah as early as 1750, according to the research of genealogist Traci Thompson, who stated in a message to Hazel Pickering in October 2024:
"Gabriel Sr.'s wife was Sarah, and she married John Harper after Gabriel's death. Gabriel Sr. sold parts of his patent in 1742 and 1743. No wife is mentioned releasing dower, while wife Sarah does release dower in his sale of 1752. This, along with Gabriel Jr's birth range, could suggest that Sarah was a second wife and he married her between 1743 and 1752."
Traci Thompson therefore believes Sarah may have been Gabriel's second wife which means that Gabriel's unknown first wife was probably the mother of all his children born between 1730 and 1742, including Gabriel III. Traci continues her discussion with this comment about the interaction of Gabriel with his neighbors:
"His
most-mentioned neighbor per his Edgecombe County deeds and grant were
the Rainwaters. The Rainwaters had ties to Thomas Fussell of Bertie Co.,
NC. Thomas left a will in Bertie in 1735 naming daughter Mary, wife of
John Rainwater. Although his daughter Ann appears unmarried at the time
of his will, there is speculation among other researchers that she later
married William Rainwater."
Traci's theory makes sense in that the widow Sarah a man named John
Harper married shorty after Gabriel's death. This John Harper appears to
be John Harper, Jr., son of the John Harper who died in 1762 in Carteret
County. If so, John Harper, Jr., was probably born in the late
1720s and unless he married a much older widow, his wife Sarah was
probably also born in the 1720s and she may have married Gabriel II
about 1743 when she was a teenager or only slightly older.
This Sarah may have been Sarah Bradford, the daughter mentioned in the
will of her father John Bradford in 1735 in Brunswick County, Virginia.
There was along standing connection between Gabriel II and the Bradford
family. John Bradford gave Gabriel over 300 acres of land in the will.
From Traci Thompson, again:
"Gabriel could have been working for Bradford in either place, as
Bradford seems to be charging Gabriel to care for his land as a
condition of ownership.However, Gabriel may have turned the offer down,
as there is no evidence that the will stipulations were carried out, nor
is there any indication that Gabriel owned any of this land. However,
his Bradford associations apparently continued, because when he sold
part of his grant in 1750, one of the witnesses was John Bradford, who
is presumed to be the son of John Bradford Sr. and is also mentioned in
his will."
So, after Gabriel's first wife died about 1742, he perhaps married
Sarah, daughter of his business associate, John Bradford, Sr.
Traci Thompson did not propose any certainty regarding these
connections, and neither do I, and I realize there are many
probabilities and possibilities in all these suggested associations. We
are left with no firm conclusion about the idenity of first wife of
Gabriel II but with certainty that his wife at the time of his death was
named Sarah, and this Sarah may or may not have had the maiden name of
Bradford.
With
Gabriel's
son, Gabriel III, the one who died about 1789 we also have no definite
answer as to the identity of his wife, not even her given name. Many
family trees at Ancestry.com and elsewhere give his wife's name as
Elizabeth, but I have found no document that identifies her as such. If
there is such a document, it is probably the case that she signed a deed
when Gabriel sold land. Still, I believe there is a possibility that she
may be the daughter who is referred to as "Betty" in the 1771 will of
John Rainwater of John Rainwater of Surry County, North Carolina.
Why do I suggest a Rainwater connection? One reason, as Traci Thompson
mentioned, is that the Rainwaters were at one time Gabriel's
neighbors. Another reason is that I have numerous autosomal DNA
connections to the descendants of John Rainwater who made the 1771 will.
This Rainwater family in America began with a Robert Rainwater who came
to Virginia in 1706. Among their descendants are the late Fort Worth
billionaire Richard Rainwater and the Nobel prize winning physicist
James Rainwater. We can document that the Rainwater family of Surry,
Halifax, Edgecombe in North Carolina, of Spartanburg County, South
Carolina, and of Washington County, Alabama, was connected to our
Pickerings for several generations.
There are several
sites on the Internet and numerous family trees
at Ancestry.com devoted to the generalogy of the Rainwaters.
Unfortunately, none of them have much information about the Rainwater
relationship to the Pickerings. In the absence of a paper trail, I
have searched my autosomal DNA matches at Ancestry.com for possible
clues. With the descendants of Gabriel III (1732-1788), my autosomal
matches are numerous: for example, over 50 matches with descendants of
my John (1758-1822), probably more than 20 matches with
descendants of Gabriel IV (1760-1828), more than 10 matches with
descendants of Keziah Pickering Busiak (1763-1840), and probably a dozen
or more matches with descendants of Moses Pickering (1750-1830). As I
mentioned previously, autosomal DNA connections led me to a tentative
identification of the children of Gabriel Pickering III. The
autosomal DNA connections with the Rainwater descendants may be
similarly helpful.
In addition, I noticed a couple of years ago, that I had some autosomal
matches with the Rainwater family of North Carolina. I already knew that
my great granduncle John G. Pickering married a Martha Rainwater in 1844
in Washington County, Alabama, so I searched for her ancestors. Her
father was a Jesse Rainwater who had previously lived in Chesterfield
and Spartanburg counties in South Carolina, and it appears this Jesse
was the son of a Richard Rainwater who was born about 1750, presumably
in North Carolina.No one seems to know the father of this Richard, but I
have several autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Jesse and his
brothers, and these show that he is obviously closely related to the
John Rainwater who died in 1771 in Surry County.
Earlier, I had thought that perhaps my autosomal DNA connection to the
Rainwaters was through the unknown first wife of Gabriel Pickering II
and that he may have married a sister of John Rainwater who died in
Surry County, but I now think it is more likely that Elizabeth (if
indeed that was her first name), the wife of Gabriel III (died 1789),
may have been a Rainwater and that she is probably the daughter "Betty"
mentioned in the 1771 will of John Rainwater. Numerous daughters
are named in that will and it appears from the context they were adults
and presumably married but no married surnames are given. Although the
daughters were named, they were given only a nominal sum, further
indicating they were adults on their own and not needing financial
assistance.
Strengthening the theory that Elizabeth Pickering may have been the
former Betty Rainwater is the numerous autosomal DNA matches I have with
descendants of John Rainwater's sons John and James, Betty's
brothers. Further, I have autosomal matches with the descendants
of four of the siblings of Mary Fussell, the wife of John Rainwater, and
the mother of Betty. A daughter named Mary is mentioned as the
wife of John Rainwater in the 1735 will of Thomas
Fussell.
So, from this, it appears that I must descend both from John Rainwater
and from the siblings of his wife Mary Fussell. I suppose some
other explanation could be made to work (such as that Gabriel II's first
wife was a Fussell or a Rainwater), but the most simple explanation is
that Elizabeth, the wife of Gabriel III, was the same person as Betty
Rainwater. Of course, if it turns out that Gabriel's wife was not named
Elizabeth, his wife could still have been any one of the other daughters
of John Rainwater, as only their given names are mentioned, not their
married names. This proposed theory is far from solid proof, but so far
as I know, I have no other Rainwater or Fussell connection in either my
paternal or maternal lines and I have no other way to explain these
autosomal DNA connections with the Rainwaters and Fussells.
Marengo
County
Pickerings Descended from Gabriel Pickering III, died 1789
Earlier in this article, I mentioned that I believe the elderly Moses Pickering who appears on the 1830 census of Marengo County, Alabama, was a son of Gabriel Pickering III and a sibling to John Pickering of Covington County, Mississippi; Gabriel Pickering of Franklin County, Mississippi; Keziah Pickering who married William Busiak, and William Pickering who remained in Jones County, North Carolina. My reason for this assumption was that Moses Pickering’s apparent grandchildren moved to counties in Texas, close to where my great grandfather Andrew Jackson Pickering lived. In addition, I have numerous autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Moses H. Pickering, one of the presumed sons of the older Moses Pickering of Marengo. These matches are almost certainly from my Pickering ancestry as there are no other close ancestral connections to my matches through other surnames. Although there is no contemporary document that points to the elder Moses as a son of Gabriel III, I believe the close geographical connection between my Pickering ancestors from Covington County, Mississippi, and the descendants of Moses from Marengo County, Alabama, together with the autosomal DNA matches all lead to a plausible assumption that the elder Moses was a son of Gabriel Pickering who died in 1789 in Jones County. Here is a genealogy report of the descendants of the younger Moses Pickering of Marengo:
Descendants of Moses H. Pickering
Generation No. 1
1. MOSES H.5 PICKERING (MOSES4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Abt. 1792 in North Carolina (parentage uncertain), and died Bet. 1852 - 1860 in Marengo County, Alabama. He married (1) PERMELIA KIRKHAM December 17, 1815 in Clarke County, Mississippi Territory(now Alabama), daughter of JOSEPH KIRKHAM. She was born Abt. 1792 in Greene County, Georgia, and died Bef. 1850 in Marengo County, Alabama. He married (2) ELIZABETH HELEN ANDERSON April 16, 1852 in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. She was born January 30, 1820 in Marengo County, Alabama, and died September 01, 1903 in Marengo County, Alabama.
Children of MOSES PICKERING and PERMELIA KIRKHAM are:
2. i. JOHN C.6 PICKERING, b. Abt. 1816, Clarke County, Mississippi Territory(now Alabama); d. Bet. 1852 - 1860, Clarke County, Mississippi.
3. ii. WILLIAM C. PICKERING, b. Bet. 1816 - 1820, Clarke County, Mississippi Territory(now Alabama); d. Bet. 1870 - 1880, Henderson County, Texas.
4. iii. PAULINE C. PICKERING, b. Abt. 1818, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Bef. 1845, Marengo County, Alabama.
5.
iv. HENRY
C.
PICKERING,
b. Bet. 1824 - 1828, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Bet. 1870 - 1880,
Anderson County, Texas.
Generation
No. 2
2. JOHN C.6 PICKERING (MOSES H.5, MOSES4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Abt. 1816 in Clarke County, Mississippi Territory(now Alabama), and died Bet. 1852 - 1860 in Clarke County, Mississippi. He married ASENA-ACENITH MELINDA ROBERTS January 04, 1837 in Marengo County, Alabama. She was born February 27, 1818 in Alabama, and died Bet. 1860 - 1870 in Henderson or Kaufman County Texas.
Children of JOHN PICKERING and ASENA-ACENITH ROBERTS are:
i. JAMES J.7 PICKERING, b. Abt. 1839, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Bet. 1867 - 1870, Henderson County, Texas; m. AVY AVA M. SHELTON, Bef. 1860; b. April 1839, Morgan, County, Illinois; d. 1911, Henderson County, Texas.
ii. HOUSTON PICKERING, b. 1842, Marengo County, Alabama.
iii. BENJAMIN P. PICKERING, b. Abt. 1844, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Texas.
iv. HENRY PICKERING, b. Abt. 1847, Marengo County, Alabama.
v. JOHN TAYLOR PICKERING, b. August 1848, Clarke County, Mississippi; d. Bet. 1910 - 1920, Fort Bend County, Texas; m. BARBARA ELLIS ALLEN BARBARY DAVIS, January 28, 1875, Henderson County, Texas; b. July 1856, Alabama; d. Bet. 1900 - 1910, Montgomery County, Texas.
vi. MOSES
HAMILTON
PICKERING,
b. September 06, 1852, Clarke County, Mississippi; d. June 01, 1939,
Kaufman County, Texas; m. (1) DULCENA
CLARK,
April 22, 1873, Henderson County, Texas; b. 1855, Henderson County,
Texas; d. 1879, Henderson County, Texas; m. (2) WILLIE
LANE
COBB,
June 17, 1887, Henderson County, Texas; b. August 20, 1862, Henderson
County, Texas; d. March 02, 1933, Texas.
3. WILLIAM C.6 PICKERING (MOSES H.5, MOSES4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Bet. 1816 - 1820 in Clarke County, Mississippi Territory(now Alabama), and died Bet. 1870 - 1880 in Henderson County, Texas. He married MARY J. JOHNSON November 13, 1845 in Marengo County, Alabama, daughter of ALFRED JOHNSON and CAROLINE FAIR. She was born Abt. 1829 in Marengo County, Alabama, and died Bet. 1870 - 1880 in Henderson County, Texas.
Child of WILLIAM PICKERING and MARY JOHNSON is:
i. WILLIAM
JAMES7
PICKERING,
b. Abt. 1846, Margengo County, Alabama; d. Aft. 1887, Anderson County,
Texas?; m. (1) NANCY
LOUISA
CONE,
March 12, 1867, Henderson County, Texas; b. 1850, Perry County, Alabama;
d. Bet. 1867 - 1870, Henderson County Texas; m. (2) EUGENIA
E.
DUNN,
March 13, 1876, Anderson County, Texas; d. Bef. 1887, Anderson County,
Texas; m. (3) NANCY
ADELINE
RECTOR,
March 31, 1887, Anderson County, Texas; b. 1857, Nacogdoches County,
Texas; d. Aft. 1887, Anderson County, Texas?
4. PAULINE C.6 PICKERING (MOSES H.5, MOSES4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Abt. 1818 in Marengo County, Alabama, and died Bef. 1845 in Marengo County, Alabama. She married BENJAMIN P. WILLIAMS Abt. 1837 in Marengo County, Alabama. He was born Abt. 1814 in Tennessee, and died Bet. 1860 - 1870 in Smith County, Mississippi.
Children of PAULINE PICKERING and BENJAMIN WILLIAMS are:
i. JOHN7 WILLIAMS, b. 1838, Marengo County, Alabama.
ii. PERMELIA WILLIAMS, b. 1840, Marengo County, Alabama; d. 1926, Live Oak County, Texas; m. ANTHONY BLACKMON, November 25, 1857, Clarke County, Mississippi; b. Abt. 1833, Clarke County, Mississippi; d. 1909, Live Oak County, Texas.
iii. WILLIAM
HENRY
HARRISON
WILLIAMS,
b. 1842, Marengo County, Alabama; d. February 20, 1923, Barbour County,
Alabama; m. MARY
A.
F.
DOLLAR,
October 18, 1860, Lauderdale County, Mississippi; b. 1843, Alabama; d.
Bet. 1880 - 1900, Copiah County, Mississippi.
5. HENRY C.6 PICKERING (MOSES H.5, MOSES4, GABRIEL3, GABRIEL2, UNKNOWN1 PICKERINGMEN) was born Bet. 1824 - 1828 in Marengo County, Alabama, and died Bet. 1870 - 1880 in Anderson County, Texas. He married ROANNA ELIZABETH COMPTON December 27, 1845 in Marengo County, Alabama, daughter of UNKNOWN COMPTON. She was born Abt. 1828 in Alabama, and died Aft. 1880 in Anderson County, Texas.
Children of HENRY PICKERING and ROANNA COMPTON are:
i. JAMES HENRY7 PICKERING, b. 1847, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Bet. 1886 - 1900, Anderson County, Texas; m. LAURA CAROLINE RECTOR, August 12, 1881, Anderson County, Texas; b. 1859, Nacogdoches County, Texas; d. Bet. 1886 - 1900, Anderson County, Texas.
ii. MARY ELIZABETH PICKERING, b. Abt. 1850, Marengo County, Alabama; d. Aft. December 24, 1869, Anderson County, Texas; m. GEORGE B. COOK, January 30, 1869, Anderson County, Texas; b. April 12, 1847, Alabama or Tennessee; d. November 18, 1916, Snyder, Scurry County, Texas.
iii. SARAH PALMIRA PICKERING, b. Abt. 1856, Anderson County, Texas; d. Aft. 1880, Anderson County, Texas; m. JAMES POLK ARTHURS, November 02, 1875, Anderson County, Texas; b. May 1847, Tennessee or Texas; d. 1918, Anderson County, Texas(probably).
iv. PELINA LENA CAROLINE PICKERING, b. Abt. 1858, Anderson County, Texas; d. Aft. 1900, Anderson County, Texas (probably); m. JOHN B. MURPHY; b. Abt. 1857, Alabama; d. Aft. 1910, Smith County, Texas.
v. MARIA PICKERING, b. Abt. 1860, Anderson County, Texas; m. J. P. SMITH, November 14, 1877, Anderson County, Texas.
vi. MALINDA J. LINDY PICKERING, b. Abt. 1861, Anderson County, Texas; d. Aft. 1910, Collin County, Texas (probably); m. JOHN ALEXANDER PAYNE, April 27, 1878, Anderson County, Texas; b. December 05, 1850, McMinn County, Tennessee; d. January 11, 1905, Anderson County, Texas.
vii. ANNA PICKERING, b. Abt. 1868, Anderson County, Texas.
viii. JOHN HENRY PICKERING, b. 1869, Anderson County, Texas.
Although
census
and other records provide a reasonably clear genealogical record of
these three sons of Moses H. Pickering of Marengo County in the years
from 1830 onwards, I have found very little reliable information on his
putative father, the elder Moses Pickering. He is presumably the seventy
to seventy-nine year old enumerated on the 1830 census of Marengo;
it also seems a safe assumption that the thirty to thirty-nine year old
man living in the same household in 1830 is Moses H. Pickering, the son
of the elder Moses.
Most
of
the rest of the information I have on the elder Moses comes from
Internet postings and emails from twenty to thirty years ago., such as
the following:
From:
"Joe
Micheal Coker"
To: "Gary B Sanders"
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1990 01:32:08 -0600
Gary, I received this reply to my message on famiyhistory.com:
Moses
Pickering
born c1740-1750 S.C, according to St. Stephen's Land
Grants moved to Clarke co. Al in the late 1790's, there he married a
Louisa
Parham c1805, Was justice of the peace in Clarke co. for a short time
the Ala archives Re: military history of Alabama was commissioned as a
naval
officer, during the war of
1812(Commodore/Commander?). US census 1820-1860
shows that he resided in Marengo Co.AL in a small community east of
Demopolis called Dayton. He is buried in a Methodist cemetery along
with
some 30-40 other Pickerings. Samuel Pickering is buried beside him,
tombstone reads born 1750. possibly his brother. Records indicate that
the
Pickerings of Dayton were an affluent and prosperous group of cotton
farmers and merchants.
I believe the person who replied to Joe Coker was William Ladelle “Bill” Peek. Bill Peek, who died in 2008, was not a descendant of Moses Pickering but of the Samuel Pickering who died in 1845 in Marengo County. Joe Coker is a descendant of Moses H. Pickering’s son, John C. Pickering. I have been unable to find a record of the marriage of the elder Moses to Louise Parham in 1805 that Bill Peek mentioned, and the published online listings of the Methodist Cemetery in Dayton show only a Samuel Pickering buried there, not a Moses Pickering. Perhaps Bill Peek visited the cemetery at a time when the inscriptions were more legible than they are today. In a message to Joe Coker in the year 2000, Bill said, “The Pickering burial plots are in the far left corner of the cemetery to your left as you enter the cemetery. Some 30+ graves are marked, the headstones are in fairly decent condition given their age. Less than three are in poor shape if my memory is correct. The older markers date back to birthdates in the mid to late 1700's. I think that the earliest dates of interment are the 1830's-1840's.” This message indicates that Bill was well-acquainted with the cemetery. If Moses is really buried next to Samuel, this would indeed indicate the two men were closely related, but subsequent DNA evidence, as will be seen later, has cast doubt on the possibility of a relationship.
In
addition, if the burial information is accurate, the
elder Moses must have been one of the first burials in the cemetery as
he was certainly dead by 1840. Only his son, Moses H. Pickering, appears
on the Marengo County census. The 1850 census shows that the younger
Moses was born in 1792. He could not, therefore, be the son of Louise
Parham, whom his father married in 1805, and it is therefore almost
certain that the elder Moses was married a least twice, first to the
unknown mother of Moses H. Pickering and secondly to Louise Parham.
The younger Moses married Permlia Kirkham December 17, 1815 in Clarke County, Mississippi. It appears their first two sons, John C. Pickering (born about 1816) and William C. Pickering (born between 1816-1820), were born in Clarke County. A daughter named Pauline was reportedly born during the same period, but by the early 1820s the couple had moved back to Marengo, where another son, Henry C. Pickering, was born in the mid-1820s.
By 1850, Moses H. Pickering was a widower living in the household of his son Henry C. Pickering who had married Roanna Compton in 1845 in Marengo County. During the early 1850s, Henry and Roanna and their growing family moved to Anderson County, Texas. It appears that Moses H. Pickering remained in Alabama because I believe he is the same person as the Moses Pickering who married thirty-two year old Elizabeth Helen Anderson on April 16, 1852 in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. Elizabeth Anderson was living with her parents in Marengo County in 1850 and she was back in their household in 1860. She remained in Marengo County thereafter and apparently never married again or had children. The marriage to Moses H. Pickering, who was sixty years old in 1852, was apparently short-lived. No record has been found of him after 1852.
Moses’ oldest son, John C. Pickering, married Acenith Melinda Roberts on January 4, 1837 in Marengo County. They had several children who were born in Marengo County, but by 1850 they were living in Clarke County, Mississippi. John died at some point between 1852 and 1860 either in Mississippi or perhaps in Texas as Acenith and her children appear on 1860 census of Henderson County, Texas. It may be remembered from the previous discussion that my great-great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Pickering, had moved to Henderson County about 1851.
On the 1850 census, enumerated next to John and Acenith Roberts Pickering was the family of Benjamin P. Williams and his wife of five years, Elizabeth Isabella Roberts, the sister of Acenith Roberts. Benjamin Williams had three children by a previous wife who died before 1845 who is believed to have been Pauline Pickering, a sister of John C. and Henry Pickering. I have never been able to find paper documentation of the existence of this sister, and I assume the only source is family tradition. There is little doubt about a close association between these two families as John C. Pickering was a bondsman for the marriage of Benjamin Williams and Elizabeth Roberts in 1845 and the families of John C. Pickering and Benjamin Williams were apparently neighbors in Clarke County, Mississippi, in 1850.
William C. Pickering, the other son of Moses H. Pickering, married Mary J. Johnson in 1845 in Marengo County, and as with the families of his brothers John and Henry, his family relocated to Texas by 1860. Because these families moved to Anderson or Henderson County, Texas, where my great grandfather had moved earlier and because of my numerous autosomal DNA matches with their descendants, I am convinced that Moses H. Pickering (1792-about 1855) and his putative father, Moses Pickering (about 1750-about 1835) are close relatives of my third great grandfather, John Pickering (1760-about 1820) of Covington County, Mississippi, and the most likely explanation is that the elder Moses and John Pickering were brothers.
As earlier mentioned, there was another Pickering family in Marengo County in the middle of the nineteenth century. These were all descendants of Samuel Pickering (about 1789-1845). In 1850 census, Samuel’s son Richard Rembert Pickering is household no. 945. Two sons of Moses H. Pickering, William C. Pickering and Henry C. Pickering are households no. 1038 and 1040. Therefore, these Pickering families appear to have lived in the same neighborhood, though probably not close neighbors. Even though there has been a great deal of speculation by myself and others that all the Pickering families of Marengo were related, I am now skeptical of this theory. Moses H. Pickering quite definitely descends from the Gabriel Pickering who died about 1763 in Jones County, North Carolina, but I have never found any paper records to indicate that the Samuel Pickering who died in 1845 in Marengo was connected to the Gabriel Pickering line of North Carolina Nor do I have any autosomal DNA matches with descendants of Samuel. Further, a recent (July 2025) Y-DNA tests quite clearly shows that the descendants of Samuel Pickering and the descendants of Moses H. Pickering, though they both lived in Marengo County in the mid-nineteenth century, belonged to different Pickering lines.
Samuel Pickering was living in Marengo by 1837 when he acquired land in the county. A newspaper account shows that he was also a slave owner, as shown by this posting from from Miscellaneous Alabama Newspaper Abstracts, vol. 1, p. 5: "Committed to the jail of Wilcox County, a negro man who says his name is Peter and that he belongs to Samuel Pickering of Demopolis, Alabama. Said negro is about 4' 6" high; quite black, and wanting in intelligence. July 15th, 1837, D. Rosser, Sh'ff W.C." Samuel and his family also appear on the 1840 census of Marengo County. We know, therefore, that he moved to Marengo at some point in the 1830s. As will be seen, he was almost certainly born in South Carolina and probably in Richland County.
Samuel’s tombstone states that he died in 1845 and that he was fifty-five years old at the time of death, hence he was born about 1790. The 1830 census of Richland and the 1840 census of Marengo indicate that he was born before 1790; this slight discrepancy can be resolved by assuming he was born in 1789. He was the father of Richard Rembert Pickering (born 1811), Sarah Ann Pickering Prowell (born 1816), and Alfred Samuel Pickering (born 1828). The mother of these children was Mary Elizabeth Rembert and her family was from the Orangeburg/Richland area of South Carolina.
Samuel himself was probably still living in Richland County in 1830 and he appears to be the son of another Samuel Pickering who died in that county about 1829. The estate settlement of this older Samuel Pickering mentions four children (p.247) who each receive $611.14 after the widow’s one third is distributed to her ($2456.47), and three of them can be identified with some certainty: Samuel who died in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1845, George Emmanuel Pickering who remained in the Orangeburg area of South Carolina for the rest of his life, dying in 1882; and Mary Pickering, who married a John(?) Morris. The administrators of the estate of the elder Samuel Pickering were Elizabeth Pickering, the wife of the deceased, and his son Samuel, Jr.
Although he is not identified in the estate settlement, I believe the fourth child of the elder Samuel was Charles H. Pickering who was enumerated near the senior Samuel on the 1820 census. Charles is a witness to the 1816 will of Martha Morris of Richland County in which she identifies her daughter as Martha Pickering; I believe this is the same Martha who appears as Charles’ wife on the 1850 census. Martha Morris’ brother John William Morris is most likely the Morris who was married Mary Pickering, daughter of Samuel, Sr. In 1826, Charles H. Pickering bought land in Cahaba, Alabama, which is now in Dallas County; in 1830 Charles and his family were living in Lowndes County, Alabama. He was out of the state at the time of the death of his father which may explain why he is not mentioned in the estate settlement. In 1840, he was in Marengo County, Alabama, and in 1850 he was back in Dallas County. After the death of his first wife about 1851, Charles married in 1853 in Marengo County a woman named Martha Berry. Charles apparently died between 1860 and 1870 in Dallas County.
Charles’
putative
father, Samuel Pickering, Sr., is mentioned in several other Richland
County documents before the estate settlement of 1830. On the 1820
census he is enumerated as “Sr.,” apparently to distinguish him from his
son Samuel who already had a family of his own by 1820 and who later
moved to Marengo County. From the 1810 census, we find that the senior
Samuel was over forty-five years old, hence born before 1765.
The earliest mention in any record of Samuel of Richland is an 1804 document, which, according to an email I received from J. King Woolf, provides the following information: "In 1804 he, I believe, is found in Richland County, SC signing up an affidavit testifying to his intentions to marry one Elizabeth Nelson and requesting the transfer of her ownership of slaves to him whereby he can utilize them on his properties. This Samuel dies circa 1829 and his estate is administered by his wife Elizabeth and his son Samuel, who has married Elizabeth Rembert.”
Ancestry.com
has
this record from the South Carolina Marriage Index, 1641-1965 and South
Carolina Marriages from 1600-1820:
Name: James
Pickron
Spouse: Elizabeth
Nelson
Marriage Date: 16 May 1804
I suspect, however, that the transcriber had difficulty reading the original document and read “James” instead of “Samuel,” as the “J” and “S” are often similar in older scripts. Though it is possible that his full name was Samuel James Pickering, I consider that unlikely.
Because all four children of Samuel, Sr.—Samuel, Jr., Charles, Mary, and George Emmanuel—were born in the years between 1789 and 1798, Samuel’s new wife in 1804 and his eventual widow after 1829, Elizabeth Nelson Pickering, cannot be the mother of these children. Obviously, the senior Samuel was married previously, probably in the late 1780s, but the first wife and mother of the four children mentioned in the 1830 estate settlement remains unknown.
Elizabeth Nelson, the wife in the 1804 record, was the widow of a man named Nelson whose identity beyond his surname has also not yet been established. We know that Elizabeth’s maiden name was Fair from the 1825 estate settlement in Richland County of her brother John Fair. This document names as among the heirs of John Fair a Samuel Pickering “in right of his wife, Elizabeth, a sister” and George Pickering “in right of his wife Mary.” Therefore, Elizabeth Nelson Pickering, the second wife of Samuel Pickering, Sr., was a sister of the deceased John Fair and Mary Fair Pickering, the wife of Samuel’s son George Emmanuel Pickering, was a daughter of the deceased John Fair.
As previously mentioned, the 1804 marriage documents are the earliest record of the senior Samuel Pickering. He does not appear on the 1800 census, nor has anyone found a record of him in land records before 1804. Among the descendants of Samuel in Marengo a tradition developed that their family was descended from Timothy Pickering, the well-known New England Federalist politician who was Secretary of State for Presidents George Washington and John Adams. In fact, a great-granddaughter of Samuel of Richland County, Thyrza Pickering Askew, was admitted to the Daughters of the American Revolution in the early 1890s based on a claim that her ancestor, Samuel Pickering who died in 1845 in Marengo County, was a son of Timothy Pickering. The DAR in those days rarely asked for documentation when such claims were made, so long as the applicant was sponsored by a local chapter. It is now evident, of course, that the Samuel Pickering who died in 1845 in Marengo was the son of Samuel of Richland County, South Carolina. Timothy Pickering of New England did not have a son named Samuel; the birth and death dates of Timothy and his wife Rebecca White are available at FamilySearch.org.
Considerable speculation has also been done about the possibility that Samuel of Richland was descended from the Pickering family of Charleston, South Carolina, that was prominent in the early part of the eighteenth century. These Pickerings of Charleston were descended from a famous old Pickering family from Cheshire, England, but the Charleston Pickering family seems to have died out by 1800, at least in the male Pickering line. Unfortunately, so far, I have not found any one who has reliable information on any living descendants of the Charleston Pickerings, though one would assume there are still surviving descendants, at least through female lines.
Many Internet family trees assume that Samuel Pickering who died in 1830 in Richland County, South Carolina is same person as Samuel, the son born in July 1773 to Samuel Pickering and Mary Maxey at St. Philip’s Parish in Charleston, or they assume that Samuel of Richland is the Samuel Pickering born in June 1766 in Charleston. These connections are based on nothing more than having the name “Charles” in common.
Our paper trail is rather solid back to the Samuel Pickering who died in 1829 in Richland County, South Carolina. We know for certain that this Samuel was the father of the Samuel who died in 1845 in Marengo County, Alabama. The tombstone of the Samuel who died in 1845 states that he was 55 years old when he died, hence he was born in 1790 (or 1789). Therefore, the Samuel who died in 1829 had to have been old enough in 1790 to have fathered a child. Since all of Samuel's known children were born in the 1790s--Samuel, Jr., who died in 1845, Mary who married a Mr. Morris, and George Emanuel Pickering, who was born in 1798-- we can assume that Samuel who died in 1829 was probably born in the early 1760s, or perhaps even earlier. And the 1810 census shows that Samuel, Sr., of Richland was born before 1765.
This chronology rules out that Samuel of Richland could be the same person as the Samuel who was born in 1773 to Samuel Pickering and Mary Maxey of Charleston. And there is no documentation connecting these two Samuel Pickerings, one born in Charleston in 1773 and one who fathered a child in South Carolina in 1789 or 1790. I am unaware of any documentation that refers at all to the one born in 1773 aside from the record of his birth. The only reason anyone thinks these men are the same person is the shared given name of Samuel and a desire to connect Samuel of Richland with the Pickering family of Charleston.
Could, then, the Samuel who died in 1829 in Richland be the same person as the other Samuel Pickering, this one being born in 1766 to a Samuel Pickering and Mary of Charleston? That does not seem possible, either, because the parish register at St. Philip's Parish seems to indicate that the Samuel who was born in June 1766 died a couple of months later in August 1766—in which case, the child born in 1773 to a Samuel and Mary Pickering was probably a second child given the same name as his deceased brother.
There is a third possible Samuel who is sometimes suggested. Could the Samuel who died in 1829 in Richland be the same person as the Samuel Pickering who was born in 1740 to Edward and Mary Pickering of St. Andrew's Parish in Charleston? That is theoretically possible, but this would require that this Samuel not marry until he was fifty years old, then have three children in the 1790s. And, if we accept this theory, who is the father of Edward Pickering? How was he related to the Pickering of St. Philip's Parish or the other Charleston Pickerings? It is obvious all of this is speculative.
Nevertheless, even though I believe the parents of Samuel who was born before 1765 and who died in 1829 in Richland are currently unknown, I think it is still possible that he may be related in some way to the Pickering family of Charleston. There is nothing impossible about the descent of Samuel of Richland from the Charleston group, but it is still unproven at the present time, and a recent Y-DNA test of one of the Marengo County descendants of Samuel Pickering has increased doubts that the two Pickering families are related. Unfortunately, we just do not have any proven male Pickerings descendants of the Charleston group for DNA comparison with our test of one of the Marengo Pickerings.
But who were these Charleston Pickerings? Actually, though many details are missing, we do have a reasonably good paper trail for at least a few generations of this family. I am grateful to Hazel Pickering for providing very useful and detailed information about the origin of the Charleston Pickerings in Cheshire, England. Although there were at least two or more Pickering families, whether related or not, in Cheshire, and although a Pickering appears in records in that county as early as 1357, the ancestors of the Charleston Pickering family reached a new prominence in the seventeenth century when they acquired the manor of Thelwall. Much of what we know about the Pickerings who moved from Cheshire to Charleston in first half of the eighteenth century comes from an article first published in the December 1843 issue of the English periodical The Gentleman's Magazine. It was written by James Nicholson and had the title of "Chronicles of Thelwall, Co. Chester, with notices of the successive lords of the manor, their family descent, &c." An online copy is available from the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.
This work begins by claiming an ancient lineage for this family: “The Pickering family, who were next in possession of the manor of Thelwall, were of very ancient descent in the county of Chester, and appear to have been, from time immemorial, landed proprietors in the palatinate."
On page 449 of the article, we find the following sentence in a listing of the children of John Pickering (born 1645):
"Danby, of London, merchant, married and had numerous issue."
The
superscript
"p" after "had numerous issue" leads to the following footnote:
"Several of his sons went out in early life and settled in North
America. One of them, Samuel Pickering, died a merchant in Charleston,
South Carolina, in 1737."
Actually, the parish records in South Carolina show that Samuel died in 1727, not 1737. Perhaps this erroneous date is just a transcription error, but a larger problem with the account above is that parish records show Danby Pickering was born in 1684, and Samuel of Charleston is known to have had a son named Joseph who was born in 1721. Therefore, Samuel must have been born about 1700 or earlier, and this would make Danby only about sixteen when he fathered a child. In addition, when Samuel died, in 1727, he was already a well-established merchant in Charleston, having first appeared in records there in 1711. Danby may well have had several sons (although only one, Danby, Jr., born 1715, is known through records), but the chronology will not work for Danby to have been the father of Samuel, the Charleston merchant.
But here is another possibility. Maybe the superscript that occurs after "Danby, of London, married and had numerous issue" is misplaced. Maybe it was not supposed to be placed after that sentence, but after a previous sentence that referred to a different person.
Looking back through the article, we see that Danby's brothers (John, Sherard, and Alexander) were all born in the 1670s or 1680s. They could not possibly be the parent of someone who was an adult and a merchant in Charleston in 1711. Besides, the author mentions the known children of Danby's brothers, and there is no Samuel among them. And no indication that Danby's father, John Pickering, had male children other than the four mentioned.
If we eliminate Danby and his brothers as the father of the Charleston merchant Samuel Pickering, we can next go to Danby's uncles, sons of Robert Pickering, Sr., (1619-1696). In addition to Danby's father, John, the only other son mentioned by the author of the article is Robert, Jr., who died without children in 1704. Other sources, however, show that Robert, Sr., wrote a will in February 1684/1685 (though assigned by FamilySearch.org to 1696 because of a codicil in that year) in which he mentioned John, Robert, and Samuel as his sons. Robert, Jr., was the eldest son, John is known to have been born about 1645, and their brother Samuel was probably younger, perhaps born a few years later than John, or maybe even years later. This Samuel is not mentioned at all in the article on the Pickerings of Thelwall which seems somewhat curious.
So, here is a possible solution, though this is just a suggested possibility: maybe the superscript for the footnote that was attached to the discussion of Danby, was supposed to have been attached to material about Danby's uncle Samuel but that material about Samuel got inadvertently removed in the writing or printing process, leading to the transposing of the superscript so that it was attached to the material on Danby. This Samuel, uncle of Danby, would have been of the right age (born about 1650) to have been the father of Samuel who died in 1727 in Charleston. And this Samuel could also have been the father of the other sons that reportedly moved to America, perhaps even the father of the Edward Pickering who lived in St. Andrew's Parish in Charleston.
The text in the footnote in the article does not mention Danby himself, but begins merely with "several of his sons went out early in life and settled in North America." Therefore, it could originally have referred to someone other than Danby. Perhaps this is far-fetched, and I offer this possibility only because it is the only way I can see to make sense of the material in the article. Samuel of Charleston may very well be descended from the Pickerings of Cheshire, but for chronological reasons, he could not possibly be a direct descendant of Danby as the article implies and in the way it is presently written. In a quick search of the Cheshire records, I found several mentions of individuals in Cheshire named Samuel Pickering, in the latter seventeenth and early eighteenth century, but no clue as whether any of them could be Samuel, son of Robert.
Therefore, my conclusion is that the father of Samuel Pickering, the Charleston merchant who lived from about 1790 to 1727 was most likely Samuel Pickering, a son of Robert Pickering who died in 1696 in Cheshire, England. From the Thelwall Chronicles, previously mentioned, and from the parish registers of St. Philip’s and St. Andrew’s parishes in Charleston, wills, and other documents, we can create the following genealogy report of the Pickerings of Charleston:
1. SAMUEL4 PICKERING (ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Abt. 1647 in London, England, and died in Cheshire, England, or South Carolina.
Children of SAMUEL PICKERING are:
2. i. SAMUEL5 PICKERING, b. Abt. 1690, London, England (parentage uncertain); d. August 20, 1727, St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
3.
ii. EDWARD
PICKERING,
b. Abt. 1705, London, England(parents uncertain); d. September 08, 1768,
Charleston, South Carolina.
Generation
No. 2
2. SAMUEL5 PICKERING (SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Abt. 1690 in London, England (parentage uncertain), and died August 20, 1727 in St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina. He married MARTHA UNKNOWN Abt. 1718. She was born Abt. 1700 in South Carolina, and died March 02, 1761 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Children of SAMUEL PICKERING and MARTHA UNKNOWN are:
4. i. MICHAEL6 PICKERING, b. Bet. 1718 - 1727, Charleston, South Carolina; d. Aft. 1761, Stepney, England.
5. ii. JOSEPH PICKERING, b. Abt. 1721, Charleston, South Carolina; d. July 21, 1757, Southhampton, England.
iii. SAMUEL PICKERING, b. March 05, 1723/24, Charleston, South Carolina; d. February 07, 1733/34, St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
6. iv. JOHN PICKERING, b. Bef. March 05, 1724/25, St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d. Abt. 1753, Charleston, South Carolina.
v. JACOB
PICKERING,
b. December 1726, St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d.
May 22, 1727, St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
3. EDWARD5 PICKERING (SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Abt. 1705 in London, England(parents uncertain), and died September 08, 1768 in Charleston, South Carolina. He married MARY UNKNOWN Abt. 1730 in Charleston, South Carolina. She was born Abt. 1710.
Children of EDWARD PICKERING and MARY UNKNOWN are:
i. MARTHA6 PICKERING, b. October 1733, St. Andrews Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
ii. FRANCIS PICKERING, b. Bef. August 10, 1740, St. Andrew's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d. Aft. 1776.
iii. SAMUEL
PICKERING,
b. Bef. August 10, 1740, St. Andrews Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
Generation
No. 3
4. MICHAEL6 PICKERING (SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Bet. 1718 - 1727 in Charleston, South Carolina, and died Aft. 1761 in Stepney, England. He married MARY SCOTT Abt. 1745 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Children of MICHAEL PICKERING and MARY SCOTT are:
i. MARTHA7 PICKERING, b. Charleston, South Carolina; d. Bet. 1807 - 1818, Charleston, South Carolina.
ii. SON PICKERING, b. Bef. 1748, Charleston, South Carolina.
7. iii. MARY PICKERING, b. December 05, 1753, Stepney, London, England; d. October 20, 1820, England.
5. JOSEPH6 PICKERING (SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Abt. 1721 in Charleston, South Carolina, and died July 21, 1757 in Southhampton, England. He married ANNE LEBRASSEUR January 10, 1749/50 in St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina. She was born Abt. 1717 in South Carolina, and died February 1790 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Children of JOSEPH PICKERING and ANNE LEBRASSEUR are:
i. ANN7 PICKERING, b. Bet. 1749 - 1757, Charleston, South Carolina.
8. ii. ELIZABETH BETSY PICKERING, b. Bet. 1749 - 1757, Charleston, South Carolina.
iii. MARY
PICKERING,
b. October 10, 1753, Charleston, South Carolina.
6. JOHN6 PICKERING (SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Bef. March 05, 1724/25 in St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina, and died Abt. 1753 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Child of JOHN PICKERING is:
9.
i. SAMUEL7
PICKERING,
b. Abt. 1745, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d. Aft.
1773, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
Generation
No. 4
7. MARY7 PICKERING (MICHAEL6, SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born December 05, 1753 in Stepney, London, England, and died October 20, 1820 in England. She married JOHN CLARKE January 22, 1779 in St. Dunstan Parish, Middlesex, England. He was born January 20, 1751/52 in All Saints Parish, Middlesex, England.
Child of MARY PICKERING and JOHN CLARKE is:
i. THOMAS
PICKERING8
CLARKE,
b. June 20, 1787, Soho, Westminister, England; d. January 11, 1862,
Bath, Somerset County, England.
8. ELIZABETH BETSY7 PICKERING (JOSEPH6, SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Bet. 1749 - 1757 in Charleston, South Carolina. She married HEXT MCCALL October 1783, son of JOHN MCCALL and MARTHA HEXT. He was born Abt. 1750 in South Carolina, and died March 03, 1789 in South Carolina.
Children of ELIZABETH PICKERING and HEXT MCCALL are:
i. HARRIET HORRY8 MCCALL.
ii. SARAH MCCALL.
iii. JOHN WARD MCCALL.
iv. EDWARD RUTLEDGE MCCALL.
10. v. HEXT MCCALL, b. 1785; d. July 29, 1821.
vi. ANN BERESFORD MCCALL, b. 1788; d. September 01, 1862.
vii. MARTHA
MCCALL,
b. 1788; d. July 22, 1872.
9. SAMUEL7 PICKERING (JOHN6, SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born Abt. 1745 in St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina, and died Aft. 1773 in St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina. He married (1) MARY MAXEY June 20, 1763 in St. Philip's Parish, Charleston, South Carolina. She was born Abt. 1745 in South Carolina, and died May 1768 in St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina. He married (2) MARY UNKNOWN Abt. 1772 in Charleston, South Carolina. She was born Abt. 1750 in Charleston, South Carolina, and died Aft. 1773 in St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
Children of SAMUEL PICKERING and MARY MAXEY are:
i. FRANCIS8 PICKERING, b. April 28, 1763, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
ii. DOROTHY PICKERING, b. September 10, 1764, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d. 1765, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
iii. SAMUEL PICKERING, b. June 1766, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina; d. August 26, 1766, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
Child of SAMUEL PICKERING and MARY UNKNOWN is:
iv. SAMUEL8
PICKERING,
b. July 1773, St. Phillips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.
Generation
No. 5
10. HEXT8 MCCALL (ELIZABETH BETSY7 PICKERING, JOSEPH6, SAMUEL5, SAMUEL4, ROBERT3, JOHN2, ROBERT1) was born 1785, and died July 29, 1821. He married SUSAN BRADFORD HAYNE January 07, 1803. She died May 09, 1870.
Child of HEXT MCCALL and SUSAN HAYNE is:
i. ANNE
PICKERING9
MCCALL,
b. October 23, 1817; d. July 14, 1875.
As
can
be seen from this genealogy report, there does not appear any descendant
of the Charleston Pickering family who moved to
Richland County in South Carolina or to Marengo County, Alabama, a
descendant we hoped to find at the beginning of the inquiry into the
Charleston Pickering family. Nevertheless, the lack of a solid paper
and/or DNA trail has not deterred other compilers of family trees at
Ancestry.com from proposing theories about a connection of the
Charleston Pickering family to other Pickering lines. For example, the
following is an Internet posting that goes back to 1998. Unfortunately,
it appears the original post is no longer available on the Internet, but
I have a copy in my notes:
From
Genforum
posting:
Pickering/SAVAGE in South Carolina
Posted by: Cherie Logan
Date: July 26, 1998 at 16:32:52
106 of 881
Martha SAVAGE d. 1761 in Charlestown, South Carolina had: Joseph
PICKERING, John PICKERING and Michael PICKERING
Joseph married 1750 in Charlestown to Anne LeBRASSEUR and had three
daughters.
Michael married and had a daughter named Martha.
John married and had John (b. 1760 in South Carolina)and Aaron.
John's son John PICKERING married Sarah Phebe HARGROVE. They lived in
Washington Alabama and in Covington Mississippi.
This comment is an obvious reference to my ancestor John Pickering of Covington, Mississippi. We now know, of course, through both a paper trail and Y-DNA testing that John Pickering of Mississippi was descended from Gabriel Pickering of Jones County, North Carolina, and his ancestors were not from Charleston, South Carolina. In the past, many researchers, myself included, probably relied too much on such unverified Internet postings and assumptions, including many older genealogical postings that unfortunately are no longer available on the Internet because of broken links.
For example, in my notes I have this comment from another Genforum posting, which I am also now unable to source: "Martha Savage died in 1761. In her will she mentions a son Michael, deceased, and his daughter, Martha; a son Joseph, deceased and his three daughters; a son John, deceased and his children. Samuel is the only son of John actually named but she mentions that John had a least one more son and at least one daughter."
I recently examined the original will document of Martha Pickering, and, contrary to the above posting, no son of John named Samuel Pickering is mentioned in the will, though Martha Savage does state that John has sons. Further, I think everyone is just assuming that the Samuel Pickering who married Mary Maxey about 1763 in Charleston is a son of the John mentioned in Martha Savage Pickering’s will because Samuel cannot be a son of Joseph or Michael, the other two sons of Martha. However, so far as I can tell, there is no parish record of a Samuel being born to a John, nor any parish records of John having married anyone. Perhaps John was in England with one of his brothers when he married and when his sons were born; Martha does not seem to have been as close to her son John or his children as she was to the children of Joseph and Michael. Samuel, the hypothetical son of John, could not have been born before about 1744 when his presumed father was twenty years old. Since John was born in 1724, we would have to assume that both John and his son Samuel married at a very early age, since there is a marriage record of Samuel Pickering and Mary Maxey in 1763.
As previously mentioned, there was also a Samuel Pickering baptized by Edward Pickering and his wife Mary in St. Andrew's Parish in August 1740 (page 221 of the article). Many Internet trees confuse this person with Samuel, the hypothetical son of John of St. Philip's Parish. Therefore, the parentage of the Samuel Pickering who married Mary Maxey is not clear from the parish records; he could either be the hypothetical son of John of St. Philip’s Parish or the son born in 1740 to Edward Pickering of St. Andrew’s Parish. Or he could have been an entirely different Samuel, though I think this unlikely.
I have tried to make this confusing situation work by arranging a plausible family tree, but that requires several assumptions that may or may not be true. For example, I think Edward of St. Andrew's Parish was probably one of the brothers of the Samuel who died in 1727. The Thelwall Pickering articles states that Samuel had brothers (unnamed in the article) who moved to the New World. Samuel and Mary Maxey of St. Philip's Parish had a son named Francis who was born on April 28, 1763. Edward and his wife Mary of St. Andrew's Parish had a son named Francis who was baptized in August 1740. If my assumption of a connection here is correct, the younger Francis was most likely a nephew of the older one. Francis and his brother named Samuel were baptized at the same time; perhaps they were twins, but they could have been of different ages, born several years apart since parents did not always baptize their children shortly after birth. We need to also note for the record that a Francis Pickering from South Carolina (probably the one born in 1740) served in the Revolutionary War, but very little is known about him.
A further confusing situation arises from the possibility that there could have been two adult Samuel Pickerings in Charleston in the 1760s and 1770s. One could have been the hypothetical son of John, the other could have been the son born about 1740 to of Edward and Mary Pickering And both Samuels could have been married to a woman named Mary. The reason this possibility arises is the recorded marriage record of the couple and the birth of their child. The dates as given in the transcripts of the parish registers do not match.
The marriage of Samuel Pickering and Mary Maxey was June 20, 1763, but, as I previously mentioned, the St. Philip's Parish Register has a son, Francis, born on April 28 of the same year to Samuel and Mary Pickering. Is Francis a child of Samuel and Mary Maxey or a different couple with the same given names? Did Samuel and Mary Maxey marry a couple of months after the birth of their first child? Samuel and Mary had a child, Dorothy, who was born in 1764 and then died in 1765. They had another child, Samuel who was born in June 1766 and but who apparently died in August 1766. On May 25, 1768, Mary, wife of Samuel Pickering was buried. Was this Mary Maxey Pickering? Then, in July 1773 a child named Samuel was born to Samuel and Mary Pickering. This is the Samuel that many family trees at Ancestry.com claim is the same person as the Samuel who died in Richland County, South Carolina, in 1829, in spite of the fact that the 1810 census shows the man in Richland was born before 1765. After Mary Maxey died, did Samuel marry another woman named Mary? That is what seems most likely to me, but it is not possible to be certain. I somewhat doubt there were two adult men named Samuel Pickering in St. Philip's Parish the 1760s because the usual custom at that time in such cases was to use the designations of junior and senior to distinguish two men with the same given and last names, regardless of how the two were or were not related.
Regardless of how we arrange or assign the many Samuel Pickerings of Charleston to putative parents, no possible arrangement of the present documentation will bring us closer to resolving the mystery of the parents of Samuel Pickering who died in 1829 in Richland County, South Carolina. Fortunately, due to the Y-DNA test that I previously mentioned as having been completed in July 2025, we do at least know something about the genetic background of Samuel of Richland. The participant in our YDNA test is a well-documented descendant of Samuel, and though the test revealed no Pickering matches within the FTDNA database, the results are illuminating, nevertheless.
One
of
the conclusions we can draw is that since the participant does not match
any men with the Pickering surname who have tested at FTDNA, he is not
related (at least not through male line descent) to any of the following
Pickering groups:
Descendants of Gabriel Pickering, born about 1700, haplogroup R-BY120330. This is my Pickering group that lived in Jones County, North Carolina, and later in Marengo, Alabama, Covington, Mississippi, and Texas.
Descendants of the Pickerings of Salem, Massachusetts, such as Timothy Pickering, the New England politician, haplogroup R-FTA 18797.
Descendants of the Pickerings of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the Quaker Pickerings, haplogroup R-FGC15735.
Descendants of the preceding three groups of Pickerings have tested at FTDNA and none of them match our participant. So, the family tradition among the descendants of Samuel Pickering in Marengo County, Alabama, that they were related to Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts is wrong, and the fact that my Pickerings(descendants of Gabriel) and the descendants of Samuel of Richland lived in the same county (Marengo County, Alabama) in the 1840s is just a coincidence.
At 37-markers, the participant did not match any other male Pickering who has tested at FTDNA. He has four matches with other surnames at 37-markers, two from Sweden and two with English or British ancestry. These are the only 37-marker matches he has within the 700,000 or more participants in the FTDNA database.
At 67-markers, there is a match with the same two British ancestry participants, one with a five step difference, and one with a seven step difference. If there had been an eight step difference, this would not have been considered a match at all; therefore, the common ancestor of all three probably goes back a very long time, a thousand years or more.
One of these 67-marker participants has the surname of Pegram and descends from a Reuben Winchester Pegram who died about 1880 in Winchester County, Tennessee; this family may go back to York County, Virginia. The other 67-marker participant apparently lives in England and descends from John Piegrome who died in 1884 in Essex, England. Pegram and Piegrome appear to be variants of the same surname and come from the same root as the word pilgrim, as in a traveler. The surname appears in the twelfth century; in the year 1185 a Hugo Pillegrim was mentioned in Warwickshire as a Knights Templar. Very probably, the York County Pegrams and the English Piegrome family descend from an individual in England who adopted the surname of Pilgrim or something similar.
The participant with the Piegrome surname matches our participant at 111-markers but just barely; there is a ten step difference, and if this had been eleven steps, FTDNA would not have considered it a match at all. Therefore, I doubt there is a common ancestor between this participant and our Pickering participant within the last thousand years, and the common ancestor they have together probably did not share a common surname with them. The Piegrome descendant has been assigned the haplogroup of Q-BY54347.
When I first saw the 111-marker match, I thought perhaps our participant might not be a Pickering at all but a Pegram or Pilgrim, but considering that the matches at 67-markers and at 111-markers are borderline matches at both levels and there is probably no common ancestor for a thousand or more years, I suspect that if we upgraded to the Big-Y DNA for our participant, there would probably be no match with the Piegrome participants. I do think the Pegram participant and the Piegrome participant are related to each other through some connection that goes back to the twelfth century or later in England, but their connection to our Pickering participant in all likelihood goes back much further in time, well before surnames were adopted. Our participant almost certainly had European men throughout his paternal ancestry. Although the Q haplogroup is rare in Europe, it does occur in about four per cent of Swedish men and during Viking times it was spread into the British Isles wherever the Vikings raided or through Norman ancestors who came over with William the Conqueror.
When FTDNA finishes a DNA test, they assign a haplogroup to the individual. A Y-DNA haplogroup is a group of individuals who descend from a common male ancestor. In this participant's case, his assigned haplogroup is Q-M242. All the other participants who match him also descend from the same male ancestor of Q-M242, who lived about 30,000 years ago, well before surnames were adopted. Not only does he not match any other Pickering who has taken a Y-DNA test at FTDNA, even his haplogroup is different from any other Pickering who has taken a Y-DNA test at FTDNA.
Q-M242 is the predominant haplogroup among American Indians and some Siberians and Central Asians. It is rare among men of European ancestry, but it does occasionally appear throughout Europe, especially in Sweden, where it may occur in two or three per cent of the male population. Both Europeans and American Indians descend from a group called Ancient North Eurasians that lived in Siberia in prehistoric times, hence the rather surprising occurrence of an occasional "Indian" haplogroup in England, especially in areas where the Vikings settled. Because our participant matched other people of known European ancestry, there appears to be no doubt that he, too, was of European ancestry.
Though the recent test has resolved the question of whether Samuel Pickering of Marengo was related to Moses Pickering of Marengo (he was not), the question is still open whether Samuel Pickering of Marengo was related to the Pickerings of Charleston. To answer that question, we would need a Y-DNA test of a man with the Pickering surname who descends from the Charleston family. That possibility is unlikely, but any new Y-DNA test of a Pickering male whose ancestors were from the southeastern United States would be helpful to some extent.
For example, there are several other Pickering families who appear on census or other records in the early nineteenth century that we have not been able to connect to either the Charleston Pickerings of South Carolina, the Richland Pickerings of South Carolina, or the Pickerings of Jones County, North Carolina. Among them was an Aaron Pickren who at one time or another, lived in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
In
the
1933 book A
History of Chattahoochee County, Georgia, we find this
information:
Aaron
Pickren
b. in Savannah Nov. 11, 1788, d. March 29, 1855, m. Lydia Henry (before
moving to Muscogee Co.), b. February 5, 1788, d. May 13, 1855. 8 ch;
among them Robert F.b. June 18, 1826, m. Susan A. Wall July 8, 1852.
In 1820 Aaron and his family were living in Sumter County, South Carolina, which adjoins Richland where Samuel Pickering lived. In 1830 the family was in Muscogee County, Georgia. I am unable to find them on the 1840 census but they were still in Muscogee in 1850. In 1846, Lydia’s sister wrote a letter to the Pickren family in Georgia:
State
of
Mississippi June 14 1846
Carroll County
Dear Brother and Sister
I this day attempt to inform you of our health. we are all well at
present hoaping when this comes to hand it may find you all enjoying the
same blessing. I have nothing to wright you of any importance. I am
living in the Bank of the Yazoo River and has a beautiful front on (the
river?) and I expect to live hear as long as I stay in this state if
nothing happens moar than I am apprised of. Crops ar fine in this part
of the country. Rather mutch rane for cotton. I am desirous to see you
all again but cant think of coming to that part of the world to see you.
I understand from Mr. Patter-son that you and family are about to suffer
for support if that ar the case may the Lord help you and I would leave
that county Robert - you and your boys could make 20 bales of cotton and
5 or 6 hundred bushels of cornee a year in this state with ease. I can
make 10 bales of cotton and 5 hundred bushels of cornee myself and has
done it sir in one year myself. I was quite sorry when I heard the news
and would help you if I could but recollect I have a family of 7 in no.
which keeps this boy busy all the time. Sarah had 2 daughters the 15th
of last October we have 5 children 2 sons and 3 daughters a poor mans
fortune. I want you to come to this state and get you a piece of land
and go to work and rase your children to work and not have them in
Columbus wasting there time as I am toald they are at. I hoap for the
better. I am going to raise my children to work and make them do it and
look at brother Joel how he lived in Camden wont be a caution for me.
Robert if I am mistaken excuse me for my plain manner of talking as I
feel for all my connections and all my fellow man. I wish to see you all
do well if you will come to this state shortly you can get river land at
$1 per acre and as convenent a place to live as you would wish all kinds
of produce passes down the river and in the winter from 15 to 20 steam
boats land. make 2 bales cotton per acre 40 to 60 bushels cornee but
hard to clear and get in a state of cultivation but we ar apprisd that
we cant make without labour. all I caan say is come and see and you will
find all I say a fact. I am a going to start to New Orleans next
Wednesday if nothing should happen on a boat I will return in about 4
weeks. Stephen Norton departed this life last fall I recd a letter from
Joel Norton requesting me to move down thar. it is about 200 miles from
me but I cant think of mooving thar ____ Tell Wiley Massey to do the
best he can and so will I and tell him I dont wish to see him at all but
would be glad to see Celia and the children and Simeon and Jane and
children. my respects to all of you and Aaron and Lydia and children and
all my friends if any. We have not named our twins yet tell Louisa pick
out 2 names and send them in a letter wright quick as possible postage
is reduced and Huza for Polk and Texas. Nothing moar but is your only
living and well wishing brother T F Henry and Sarah Henry
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/e/p/p/Constance-eppes-O-Eppes/GENE1-0002.html
(this link no longer works-gs)
Notes
of
Mary Alice Domingos MacMillan:
Letter dated 14 June 1846 to: Robert Henry, Esq., Columbus Georgia -
From: T. F. Henry and Sarah Henry, Post Office Black Hawk, Carroll Co.
Miss. Mentions: their brother Joel, Stephen Norton's death in fall of
1845, Wiley Massey, Celia & children; Simeon (Massey), Jane &
children; Aaron (Picker-ing), Lydia & children - Louisa, wife of
Robert Henry. T. F. Henry and Sarah have 5 children; 2 sons, 3
daughters. Twins, born 15 Oct 1845, as yet unnamed. (Brother Joel has
died, Celia, Jane, Lydia are sisters. E.H.)
October 8, 2003
http://www.myroots.net/documents/henryletters.html
(link no longer works-gs)
Apparently,
no one has any solid leads on the parents of Aaron Pickren of Georgia.
Some family trees at Ancestry.com claim that he is a son of Moses
Pickering of Marengo County, but this is mere speculation.
There are a couple of other Pickering families that had South Carolina connections that warrant further research. One of these is an S.E. Pickering who appears on the 1810 census of Orangeburg County, South Carolina. Although the situation is not entirely clear, he appears to have been a fairly young man in 1810, perhaps born about 1785 and dying between 1810 and 1820. On the 1820 census there is an Elizabeth Pickering, who may be the widow of S. E. Pickering.
Thomas
Pickering, born bout 1790, may be a younger brother of S.E. Pickering.
Thomas and his wife Sarah family appear on the 1830 census of
Orangeburg, but by 1838, they were in Henry County, Alabama, where they
remained until the moved to Dale County, Alabama in the 1850s. Sarah
died in Alabama. By the time of the 1870 census Thomas was in Marion
County, Florida. I have a rather substantial autosomal DNA connection to
one of the descendants of Thomas (over 100 cm), but I am rather
skeptical that this connection can be explained through the Pickering
connection. Because Thomas was from
Orangeburg and because George Pickering, one of the sons of Samuel of
Richland, lived in Orangeburg, I suspect that Thomas was a relative of
Samuel of Richland. Without a Y-DNA connection or a paper trail,
however, we have no way of connecting Thomas to any other Pickering
family. Like many of the other Pickerings mentioned in this article, his
origins remain elusive.
In
this article, I have tried to present, using the evidence and
documentation that is currently available, what I feel is a plausible
and most likely arrangement of my Pickering family tree back to my
fourth great grandfather, Gabriel Pickering III (1732-1789). I realize
there is much research still to be done and there are other possible
scenarios, and I keep an open mind regarding the work of other
researchers. I am greatly indebted to Hazel Pickering for her pioneering
work in the genealogy of the Pickerings
of Yorkshire from which are descended my Pickerings of Jones
County, North Carolina, and Covington County, Mississippi. There are
several researchers who are working on these Pickering lines, and I
believe there is sufficient interest and motivation among researchers,
that funding could probably be secured for one or more YDNA tests for
any male Pickering descendant who volunteers. If any reader of this
article knows of someone who is interested in DNA testing, we welcome
all inquiries. Through Big-Y DNA tests, we already know that that the
Pickerings of North Carolina and Mississippi belong to haplogroup R-FTE18765
which dates to the high middle ages and YDNA matches with Pickerings who
currently live in England are documented. Not all the Pickerings in
Yorkshire were related to our group, but there is a sufficient paper
trail to verify that this particular line, which Hazel calls the
Pickerings of Holderness, has a long established genealogical history in
Yorkshire.
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