Thank Goodness For The Kindness Of Strangers --Part Two


If you missed my post from yesterday, here's the link Thankful Thursday: Thank Goodness For The Kindness Of Strangers --Part One.

Okay, yesterday was a good day. For those who are new to reading my blog, let me recap some information in regards to who the Sampsons were. My family line from the Riverdale, NC goes like this.

Mortimer Mitchell and Annie Taylor Mitchell --3rd great grandparents.

Their children:  Alfred Mitchell
                         Maggie Mitchell Thompson
                         Nancy Mitchell
                         Rosa Mitchell Jones --my 2nd great grandmother                           
                         who resided in Morehead City, NC. 
                         Mary Jane Mitchell Sampson--the mother of Effie
                         and Annie Sampson.
   

So when my mother took that ride out in the country with her mother, it was apparently a day trip out from Morehead City to Riverdale, NC to the Sampson family farm. My mother was absolutely thrilled to find out some sort of confirmation of who those women were. I called her right after I got off the phone with a lovely lady who knew them. Even better there was more!

This lovely woman told me about her godmother, Mary Jane Gatlin, who's father turns out was Alfred Sampson. Alfred Sampson was a sibling of Annie and Effie. Apparently, Alfred did not marry the mother of this child. I didn't get a chance to ask my new contact about who Mary Gatlin's mother was but I believe I have found her in the records.


Marriage License for a Mary Jane Henderson and Simon Gatlin of Riverdale, NC
Image courtesy of FamilySearch.org
"North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979," Family Search

According to this marriage license it shows that the mother of Mary Jane Henderson Gatlin was an Elma Henderson. The bride's age is listed as 21 years old. That would make her year of birth about 1910. So I decided to dig a little deeper to see when Garfield Henderson married his wife Elma.  It turns out that Elma was Elma Pigott and she married Garfield Henderson on December 4, 1910.

Marriage License for an Elma Pigott and Garfield Henderson
Image courtesy of FamilySearch.org
"North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979," index and images, Family Search


So perhaps Alfred Sampson and Elma Pigott got together and Elma became pregnant. For whatever reason, he did not marry her and Elma being in a family way was quickly married off to someone else.  This theory is just me speculating, but it seems plausible. 

Now I had come across the name Mary J Gatlin before in the obituaries for Annie and Effie Sampson but could never figure out the family connection. Again, thank goodness for the kindness of strangers because without their help I don't think I would have been able to figure this one out. 

That's all for today, but there is still a bit more that I found out recently. Hopefully the kids will allow me some time to write some more tomorrow.  :)

           

Comments

  1. This is getting fascinating for me! I believe the Pigotts are related to those who came from Northampton County around the same time as our Carters and Georges. They were slaves in the Littleton household; and then, when Nathaniel Littleton died, they were left to his wife, Anne. She in turn willed them to her son Edward. From there they went to Edward's wife, Frances, who later married Francis Pigott. When Pigott died, he split the families up, giving half to his son Ralph, and the others to his son Thomas. I have read of some of these white Pigotts migrating to New Bern area. It would be interesting to find out how these are connected.
    Did you have to order the Marriage Licenses from the NC State Archives?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No I didn't have to order them. Amazingly they are available now on-line through FamilySearch.org. The information you've provided is fascinating. This tapestry of ancestors is just getting more interesting!

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