Irish Birth Blessed with Health, Dreams, Kindness and Featherbed

A few years ago I spit in a tube and sent it off to a DNA project on ancestry.com.  What a surprise to find out I am 29% Irish.  As they say in ancestry.com ads, "I had no idea". 

Really, 29% is a wee bit more than 'A Wee Bit Irish', and again to quote the 'Ad'..."I wanted to know more". 

The search began on my ancestry DNA Story with two family names.  Both from my father's maternal line.

It starts with my Great Grandmother Martha Jane Marley Carroll and her Mother, Mary Josephine Leatherwood Marley.  Neither of the names Carroll or Leatherwood to my ear had a ring of Irish.  As it turns out the Leatherwood line lead through at least five great grandmothers maiden names to reach an Irish descendent.  That's the 'Wee Bit Irish' DNA accounting.

Carroll, which is my father's middle name and the last name of his grandfather Stephen Bennett Carroll, lead to a 'Whole Lot More Irish'. 

William I. Carroll immigrated to the Virginia colonies with his parents. His father Thomas Edward Carroll died when William was 9 years old.  Records in ancestry.com state he married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of neighbors William and Elizabeth Spencer in 1748.

The first records of William and Elizabeth show he leased two hundred acres of land with a payment agreement of 630 pounds of tobacco over a period of three years.  With that he became a tobacco farmer committed to a three year lease in Fairfax County, Virginia.

William and Elizabeth's son Thomas Carroll was born July 16, 1753, in Goochland, Virginia.  According to records and a yearly timeline, the family migrated to North Carolina around 1755.  Along the Catawba River, during the years of 1755 - 1763, the French and Indian War drove hundreds of settlers out of the area.  The Carroll family ultimately settled in Granville County, North Carolina, about 100 miles from the hostile Indian territory.

In 1762 William is listed in the Taxable's for the Bare Swamp District in Granville County.  Over a period of years, that county changed districts and county's several times, and in 1780 became part of Franklin County, North Carolina.  It is thought that William and his family resided there for about 20 years where he owned 240 acres of tobacco farm land.  Changes in county boundaries  made for difficulties in tracking land and counties, but the Carroll family were lastly recorded in Granville County.

William and Elizabeth Spencer Carroll had at least 9 children...all named in his 'Will'.  Of the five daughters and 4 sons, my direct descendant and 5th Great Grandfather Thomas received a small inheritance of 5 pounds in cash. The largest part of Williams estate went first to his wife Elizabeth until her death or remarrying, and upon either of those instances, son Jesse was to inherit the 240 acre plantation and his heirs forever. 

As for Thomas, along with his 5 pounds in cash and upon the death/marrying of his mother he stood to inherit a Featherbed.  Why only 5 pounds in cash to my Great 5x Grandfather Thomas...perhaps could be related to an Irish Birthday Blessing.

Telling Williams story in honor of Saint Patrick's Day 2018 seems a 'Wee Bit' incomplete without knowing his exact month and day of birth.  Therefore, I invoke my 'Fact to Fiction Writers License' and declare his birth month as March and his birth day as the 17th.  How else could it be for someone born in Limerick, Ireland?

Irish Birthday Blessing

May you live a long life full of gladness and health.

With a pocket full of gold as the least of your wealth.

May the dreams you hold dearest be those which come true.

May the kindness you spread, keep returning to you.
 

Happy 287th Birthday 6th Great Grandfather William Carroll.

Thank you 5th Great Grandfather Thomas Carroll for your long life,
your less than a pocket full of gold, the dreams you held dear,
 the kindness you spread and a Featherbed.
If not for you I would not be me.

Born On The 4th of July

Finding an ancestor born on the 4th of July took me back to Colonial America and my paternal 2x great grandmother's maiden name.  The name is fourth in line in my Pittman, Carroll, Marley, Leatherwood Family Tree on ancestor.com.  Out of 1,550 names there was just this one person born on the 4th of July.

Fannie Frances Leatherwood was born in the midst of turmoil leading up to the Revolutionary War.  Her parents, Zachariah and Mary Nancy Stone Leatherwood of Prince William, Virginia Colony, had endured the effects of the French and Indian War, the Sugar and Currency Acts of 1764.

 Five years before her birth violent demonstrations against the Stamp Act occurred.  These demonstrations resulted in the Virginia Resolve and ultimately in the Stamp Act Congress which petitioned Parliament and King George to repeal the Act. 

In the months before her birth in 1770, were two major conflicts between the Colonist and the British in what would become the American Revolution.  The Battle of Golden Hill in January 1770 between British soldiers and the colonists known as the Sons of Liberty took place in New York. The second incident which was widely propagandized by leading Patriots like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams was the Boston Massacre.  On March 5, 1770 British soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others after a mob formed in protest of Parliamentary Legislation. 

The Leatherwood family survived the American Revolution as residents of Prince William, Virginia, and in the late 1790's migrated to Spartanburg, South Carolina.  Frances along with husband John Edwards and their children followed her parents to South Carolina then to North Carolina and eventually settled in Jackson/Bartow County, Georgia.

Their settlement in Jackson County is somewhat of a Family Tree coincidence as this was one of the home counties of the Pittman's, who five generations later would become related through the Texas marriage of my paternal Leatherwood-Marley-Carroll grandmother to my Georgia born Pittman grandfather.  Jackson County was changed to Bartow County in 1861 in honor of Colonel Francis S. Bartow.

Frances Leatherwood married John Edwards on October 6, 1871 in Prince William, Virginia, a veteran of the American Revolution.   Frances and John had eleven children.  John died in 1838, just three years after settling in Georgia.  Frances was last listed in the 1850 US Census when she was 81 years of age.

Although her exact death date is not known, she and John's burial markers are most likely lost in the abandoned grave yard at Pettite Creek Cemetery near what is now Bartow County, Georgia. 

Only one grave marker remains...that of their son Colonel Zachariah Edwards who was celebrated as the most popular man in Spartanburg on July 4, 1832...his mother's 61st birthday. 

On this July 4, 2016 I honor and celebrate my 6x Great Aunt Frances' 246th Birthday.  Thanks for the remarkably patriotic Family History, Fannie Frances Leatherwood Edwards.  Rest in Heavenly Peace and know you are remembered in the Pittman-Carroll-Marley-Leatherwood Family Tree.

PS...As was the tradition, children were often named after family members.  Fannie and Frances/Francis were given names of both girls and boys in the Leatherwood Family.  In the realm of the 'Meaning of Given Names',  Fannie/Frances/Francis means FREE, and people with this name value truth and justice.  What a fitting name for a child 'Born on the 4th of July'.

Behold The Rumbling Clods

Another REVOLUTIONARY Patriot Gone!

He was a brave soldier in the Revolution, participating in a small skirmish at or near the Cedar Springs in this District, as well as the siege of Stoney Point, Savannah and Augusta, Georgia. 

The writer of this imperfect tribute of respect, constituted one of the number that surrounded his grave at his interment, and while he behold the rumbling clods, as they fell upon his coffin, he thought how strong the admonition to prepare for death,  judgement and eternity. (OBITUARY-Greenville Mountaineer Newspaper, Greenville, S.C. Friday, June 25, 1841)

Never in his wildest dreams would the writer of my 5x Great Grandfather's Obituary have thought that his words written in 1841, would be read through a media that had the potential of reaching millions 175 years later.  His words of respect were certainly meant to comfort the family and friends of one of Spartanburg's earliest settlers as he wrote...
...was an affectionate parent, kind master, a good neighbor, and for many years a pious member of the Baptist Church.  He died in full assurance of a blessed immortality beyond the grave, giving full and clear evidence to his surrounding friends that his soul would be happy after death.

"The writer of this imperfect tribute"....such humble and thoughtful writing...it struck such a cord with this writer and 5th Great Granddaughter of Paul Castleberry. 

Paul was born on March 1, 1761, in Tar River, Virginia, to William (25) and Sarah Elizabeth Martin (20) Castleberry.  As American colonists they were setting the foundation of a burgeoning new country in the years before the American Revolutionary War.  Paul was only four years old when the Stamp Act of 1765 spurred the colonies to revolt against British rule.

As referenced in his Obituary, Paul at the age of 18, fought in the Battle of Stony Point.  He was part of a well planned and executed nighttime attack of high trained select group of George Washington's Continental Army under the command of General 'Mad Anthony Wayne'.   The quick and daring assault on the British took place about 30 miles north of New York City at the British outpost in Stony Point, New York.  Victory over the British not only gave Washington's Continental Army a much needed morale booster, but gave them a key crossing site over the Hudson River and their victory over the British.

Within my 'Monthly Theme' this year, I have included at least one ancestor who in someway related to the month.  My 5x's Great Grandfather Castleberry's March 1st birthday made him my 'Ancestor of the Month' and an opportunity to reveal why my ancestor.com tree is named...Pittman, Carroll, Marley, Leatherwood Family Tree.



The union of Paul and Agnes Chesney in 1785 began the line of descendants through the women in my Pittman, Carroll, Marley, Leatherwood Family Tree.  Paul and Agnes' eleventh and last child, Agnes S. Castleberry became the first Leatherwood with her marriage to Zachariah in 1828.  Her granddaughter, Mary Josephine began the Marley line when she married Elisha in 1876.  Mary Josephine's daughter Martha Jane's marriage to my Great Grandfather Stephen Bennett Carroll contributed the last of the female line in their daughter Effie Estella Carroll, my paternal grandmother. 

Estella married C.C. Pittman on August 11, 1916.  From this union, six children were born with the youngest being my father.  He would be the only child through all the generations to be named a matrilineal surname...Willard Carroll Pittman, born March 6, 1927....5 days and 166 years after his 4x Great Grandfather Castleberry.

Time marches on as we prepare for death, judgement and eternity.

 Behold the rumbling clods.

January Born 9x Great Grandmother

Martha 'Mollie' Kitteu Leatherwood
 Jan.19, 1658-Jan.20,1705
9th Great Grandmother born in Brenchley, Kent, England

"Miss Mollie Kitteu/Kitten, a half Indian girl, married John Leatherwood in 1679 in Ann Arundel, Maryland.  John and Mollie's livelihood was sustained by raising wheat and corn enough to bread the family and feed the hogs for meat and the horses while raising another crop."  (letter written in 1892 by William Leatherwood)

Martha Mollie Kitteu was born Jan. 19th...the day before my birthday on Jan. 20th...289 years later.  She died on my birthday at age 47...242 years before my birth.

 I met Mollie through research on my Family Tree on Ancestry.com where 'Discovery US' is my limit.  Thanks to Ancestry's 'Lifestory, Gallery and Leaf Hints, I can share the 'Facts' recorded on Mollie's life.  With those facts, and my fact to fiction writer's license, here is my version of my January, 9x Great Grandmother.

On January 19, 1658, Martha, age 20, gave birth to her namesake. Her husband Peter, age 28, called his daughter Mollie, a nickname she had for the rest of her life.

Mollie's father Peter, lived in Scotland in the mid-1600's when Royalists and Parliamentarians raised arms in one of the bloodiest battles in British history. 

Peter Kitteu, age 19, a Scotsman and supporter of Charles I, found himself at odds with Oliver Cromwell's newly established Commonwealth of England.  With the beheading of Charles I in January 1649, Peter, along with his Scottish countrymen, found themselves under the rule known as a Council of State.  Fighting continued particularly in Scotland and Ireland between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, as part of what is now referred to as the Third English Civil War.

By 1653 when Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector of the united Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, Peter fled Scotland.  After a long and arduous trip across the Atlantic, Peter landed in America.  There he married a young Indian girl who he called Martha.  Still loyal to his Scottish roots and political ideals, Peter yearned for his homeland.  In 1657 he booked passage for himself and Martha who was with child. 

They arrived in England on January 19, 1658.  Mollie was born aboard the ship 'Janus' just before they embarked.  Peter Kitteu returned to Scotland with his wife and new daughter.  Life in Scotland was vastly different under the Commonwealth rule, and even after the Monarchy was restored in 1660, Peter decided America, the homeland of his wife, was where their future lay.

Once again, Peter and Martha made the journey across the Atlantic to the land of freedom and opportunity. This time with their young daughter Mollie, who's Scottish-American Indian bloodline would flow through the veins of future generations.

Mollie Kitteu and John Leatherwood's first born son Samuel (2-13-1681) began the line of my Direct Descendants 152 years later with the birth of my 3x's Great Grandfather John More Leatherwood.  With the birth of his daughter Mary Josephine, the Direct Descendant line continues through female descendant Martha Jane Marley Carroll, my Great Grandmother whose daughter Estella Carroll married C.C. Pittman.  My father W.C. Pittman was their youngest son.

My Motivational Texas Ancestors

In an Interview recently I was asked, "What got you interested in or started your family history/genealogy?

It was my first Genealogy Interview and, I thought the questions were going to be harder to answer.

I was prepared to fess up to questions about having ancestors that might have been Wild West Texas Outlaws.

So the question about how I got interested and started was an easy one to answer.  I even have a photo of the two people who inspired, motivated, and gave me my start as 'The Keeper of My Family's History'.

 Meet the 'Motivational First Keeper' aka as the 'Barefoot Genealogist'...my Aunt Vera Irene Pittman Sinks.  She's sitting beside the 'Cowboy Inspiration' for Tracks of My Texas Ancestors...my Dad...Willard Carroll Pittman.

Irene was the oldest of the six siblings and Willard the youngest.   There was ten years difference in their ages with two brothers and two sisters between them. They were Texas born and raised with an appreciation for their Texas Pioneer heritage.

Irene spent much of her lifetime in search of our Family History.  She loved to talk and write about our ancestors, and the information she found in her research.  Her hours of note taking in libraries and the inquiries from Genealogical Societies from Georgia to Texas have given me an abundance of information on which to build our Family Tree in the Technologically Advanced Genealogy Community of the Twenty-First Century.

About that Interview...

CollectInTexasGal/Tracks of My Texas Ancestors

Featured Genealogy Blog

On

GeneaBloggers 'May I Introduce To You'

Sue Pittman McPeak
CollectInTexas Gal

Link To Interview

Dear John...You are NOT Number One

Dear John, John, John, John, John,+ Ten More,

As the 'Number One' most given 'Given Guys Name' in the Pittman Family Tree, it is my duty as 'The Family's Genealogist' to inform All Fifteen of you, despite popular 'Moniker Statistics', Ya'll are NOT Number One.

Since the First John Pittman born in America in 1726, your name has been held in high esteem and an honorable tradition in the naming of 'First Born Sons' who are destined to be called Junior.

From Colonial John through Civil War John, the Pittman John's led the nation as the Number One Given Guys Name.  This trend continued through the 1920's.  During these Trend Setting years, William ran a close second in the US and in our 'Tree' with Eleven Williams.  True to Trend, James, George, Robert, Charles, Joseph, Frank, Henry and Thomas were 'Tree Toppers' as well as 'Chart Toppers ' across the nation.

Dear Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane + Fifteen More,

Ya'll are Number One in The Pittman Family Tree.  Never mind that Jane as a Given Gals Name only made Number Twenty-Two on the All Time Popularity List.

Jane The First, Jane Calvert Leatherwood 1746-1764, believed in the 'Family Namesake' tradition.   Her son's were John, William, James, George, and Thomas.  She named two of her daughters after herself or possibly her mother...one was Jane and the other Janey.

 Jane The First in 'Our Tree' was the Direct Ancestor and 4XGreat Grandmother of her namesake Martha Jane Marley Carroll, my  Great Grandmother. 

Janie as she was called, has become 'My Family Tree Focus Female'.  Her grandson, Willard Carroll Pittman is my father, and through his lineage Martha Jane Marley Carroll's 'Family Photo Album' was 'Passed Down' to me.

The discovery and photo detective work of Janie's Album has led to many of

'The John's, James' and Jane's in

The Pittman~Carroll~Marley~Leatherwood Family Tree

The Photo Album can be viewed HERE.

By The Lamp Light...A Sisters Letters from 1861

August 5, 1861
My Dear Brother Jessie,

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that our Dear Mother has joined her heavenly father in the promise land.  Praise be, she is free of the pain and suffering that has long been her burden to bear. 

In her final hours, Jessie, her thoughts and prayers were for you.  Tears of love and sorrow filled her eyes as she prayed to Our Lord and Savior to comfort you with his healing touch on your wounds and heart. 
'Sweet Jessie, we will be together in the Glory of Heaven." 
With those last words, she went peacefully to The Glory.

Your devoted sister,
Mary Amanda

Agnes Susan Castelberry Leatherwood departed this life August the 5th, 1861, aged 52 years, on month and 15 days.  The deceased was a native of South Carolina, then moved to Benton County (now Calhoun) Alabama where she remained until her death.  She had been affected for some time, and the latter part of her afflictions was very severe and yet she bore the same without murmur.

The deceased lived a member of the Baptist church and adorned her profession by a godly walk and close conversation;  but her seat is now vacant in the church house, and also in the family circle;  but in the language of Revelation, "blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from hence forth, yea saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works, do follow them." 

Her Christian walk will still live in the memory of those with whom she associated.  She was a warm and devoted friend, and generous and forgiving to her enemies - a good and generous neighbor - a kind and affectionate wife and mother.  She has left a husband, 10 or 11 children, and many relatives and friends to mourn her loss, but their loss is her eternal gain.  We sympathize with the family in their bereavement, and may the Lord give them grace to sustain them in their heavy bereavement.

Obituary - The Jacksonville Republican News, Jacksonville, Alabama - December 12, 1861

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.  Give me strength and wisdom of thy words to convey with heartfelt sympathy the message I must write.  Amen.  Mary Amanda

August 20, 1861

My Dear Brothers George and John,

It is with a greater sadness than you will ever know that I write to you of the death of our beloved Mother. I do so at this later date than her passing to include the Obituary from the Jacksonville News.

As I write this letter and think of Mother's last days, I am reminded to tell you of her concerns for her three sons as you fight in this terrible war.  Her prayers were constant for her sons so far from home in Tennessee and Texas. 

Days before her passing, we recieved a letter from Jessie.  It was penned by another, but were his words of news that he was mortally wounded and lying in the hospital at Camp Bristow, Tennessee. 

With her dying breath, Mother's words, "Sweet Jessie, we will be together in the Glory of Heaven", gave witness to the news to come of Jessie's passing.  Mother and son are now in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.  Jessie passed from this earth one day after Mother on August 6, 1861.  Her faith and close conversation with The Lord opened her heart and soul to a vision of the Glory of Heaven.  In my minds eye I see her inside the Golden Gates, her loving arms reaching out for Jessie as he walks the golden path to comfort and love of his Mother and the Lord they so love.

I pray, my Brothers, that Mothers vision and words are prophetic for the safety and well being of you both.  It has been many months since you left Alabama for Texas, and the lack of news from you gives us concern.  We continue to pray for you both and for news of your safety and well being. 

Your loving Sister,

Mary Amanda

Agnes Susan Castelberry Leatherwood

June 2, 1809 - August 5, 1861

Wife of

Zachariah Perry Leatherwood, Sr.

April 15, 1807 - April 24, 1869

Mother of  13 Children including:

John More Leatherwood

October 19, 1833 - October 11, 1914

(John More Leatherwood...Third Great Grandfather)

Epilogue

By The Lamp Light...A Sisters Letters from 1861 is a fictionalized account based on true facts, dates and names from my Leatherwood Family Tree.   Through Mary Amanda's letters, the hardships and heartbreak of one families life during the early years of the Civil War are told.  This is the first of what I hope will be the story of  the Leatherwood Family's migration to Texas.  The family members presented here are documented in my ancestry.com Family Tree, included in Tracks of My Texas Ancestors Genealogy Blog, and Memorialized in Find A Grave. 

Below are the Links to their Find A Grave Memorials:  

Agnes Susan Castelberry Leatherwood

Jessie Franklin Leatherwood

Mary Amanda Leatherwood

George Holland Leatherwood

John More Leatherwood

Photos by Sue Pittman McPeak

Photos not Representative of People or Places in this story.

Used for added interest and support of title.

Photos are Authentic Scenes of the 1860's - 1900 Period.

This Account/Writing/Post is published in

CollectInTexas Gal~Tracks of My Texas Ancestors