My Ahnentafel
Definition | 14-gen | GEDCOM
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Photo courtesy of Joan G Italiano
According to the census schedules, Joseph could neither read nor write. The natural assumption, then, is that he didn't even know how to write his own name. Because his daughter appears to have spelled it P-e-t-t-i-t, and because that's the most common spelling, I had long ago decided to spell Joseph's name that way. And it's because of the commonality of the spelling that I published The Pettit Correspondent for nearly five years, not The Pettet Correspondent. However, anyone studying the Pettits of Morgan County, Ohio will quickly see a pattern in the spellings, certainly by the 1850 census. The spelling for those living in the county having New Jersey origins is generally Pettit and those of Pennsylvania origins have their names almost invariably spelled Pettet. The reasons for this apparent convention are now lost to us but I speculate a bit about what it could mean in the article, "The Civil War Pension Records of Oscar B. La Pettit". I was recently looking over the genealogy pages of fellow researcher and Joseph descendant Rick Lewis and noticed that he spells Joseph's name as Pettet. But I was most surprised by the fact that his own mother was a Pettet (if I had previously known that, I'd forgotten) and that she used the common "et" spelling. Obviously, that convention had passed through to at least some of Joseph's children and grandchildren. The fact that he was illiterate didn't end the practice. And then I realized that although Joseph may not have been able to write or read his own name, he may certainly have known how to spell it. For that matter, that all the illiterate Pettits of his day may have known how to spell their name is not at all a stretch. I wonder now if they knew why it was to be spelled differently. Perhaps they simply wanted to distinguish themselves from their New Jersey born Pettit neighbors. But the "et" spelling appears to have originated prior to their migration west. For that reason, I believe that the spelling Pettet (sometimes Petet and sometimes Petit) is an artifact of a deeper heritage, possibly French or even Acadian. (Again, see the Oscar B. La Pettit article, cited above.) I no longer have any reason to shy from the Pettet spelling. That the spelling did not survive down my branch of the family is no reason to doubt the purposefulness of it. I've decided to re-christian, as it were, this most elusive ancestor, as Joseph Pettet. I'm now convinced that he likely was not indifferent to the spelling and that that's how he would have wanted it. According to the 1900 Federal census131 for Joseph's wife, Elizabeth Pettet, they had ten children, nine living. I don't know the identity of the tenth child:
Piecing together the Pettets of Morgan County, Ohio is very complicated and possibly the most difficult genealogical puzzle I've encountered. I'll present an overview here but there's no point in repeating what I'd already published in The Pettit Correspondent. Before providing some of the background, it may be best to first explain my pet theory about Joseph's parentage to illustrate the relevance of the following. I believe Joseph may have been an illegitmate son of Nancy Ann Pettet, daughter of the below mentioned Elijah Pettit. She is known to have had an illegitimate daughter (Martha) in Perry County, Ohio in 1818.3 In 1825 Nancy married her cousin, Plummer Pettet, in Muskingum County, Ohio as his second wife, bearing him three sons (he had two sons from his previous marriage to Amanda Bixby). Plummer died in 1830 and Nancy married her widower brother-in-law, Hugh Riley, in Morgan County in 1834. This already leads us to a rather twisted genealogy, especially when considering that her illegitimate daughter, Martha Pettet, married into the New Jersey descended Pettit clan. What causes me to think that Nancy was Joseph's mother is that she and two of her sons are found living near Joseph much later in Putnam County, Missouri. Frankly, it's not much to go on but, as will be shown below, Joseph is not fitting anywhere else. The Pettets lived in Morgan, Muskingum and Perry counties Ohio in reasonably large numbers by the 1850 census, but very few primary documents survive from earlier dates. It is certain, however, that an Elias Pettit died and left a will in Westmoreland county PA in 1789. It names sons George Hughes, Thomas Pettit and Elijah Pettit. (Anyone's best guess at this time is that George Hughes was either a stepson or son-in-law.) Son Elijah died in the same county only ten years later, leaving the following heirs: wife Leah, daughter Nancy, son Joseph and daughter Betsy. An 1816 deed in Washington county, Ohio ties Elijah's family to the Morgan county Pettets. His son Joseph, born June 5, 1795 sold the land, by consent of his co-heirs, to Henry Kerns. Elijah's heirs are listed in the deed as Thomas and Lea Fate (his widow and her second husband), [Nancy] Ann Pettit (she was not yet married) and Hugh and Elizabeth Kelly [sic, should be Riley], all of Washington County. (Elijah's daughter, Elizabeth, married Hugh Riley the previous year in Fairfield County, Ohio.) So, per the 1816 deed, we can prove the following (leaving out "son" George Hughes):
Elias Pettit (-1789)
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Thomas Elijah (-1799) m Leah
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Nancy Ann Joseph Elizabeth m Hugh Riley
(1792-1887) (1795-1855) (c1830)
Does my Joseph Pettet fit into that family? In a one word--no. Elijah's son, Joseph Pettet, had three children, all sons:
Joseph Jr, it should be noted, was divorced by his wife after running off to Louisiana. Elias's son, Thomas (brother of Elijah), is not as well documented. But we do know that he had a daughter named Lovey. An article was published about her in 1905, which I reprinted in TPC. From that we know the following:
The following obituary came to me from Ann Auskin in June, 1985. I've never been 100% certain that Lovey and Thomas were brothers, however it is very likely the case. The particulars, including the year of emigration to Ohio, fit perfectly. PETTET-Death has invaded the home of Thomas Pettet, and claimed him for its victim. He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1807; removed with his parents to Ohio at the age of 12 years; married to Jennie Barron, June 21, 1838, with whom he lived happy for over fifty years. He died July 19, 1888, aged 81 and 4 months. He leaves a wife, three sons, four daughters, four grand-sons, four grand-daughters, one brother and three sisters to mourn their loss. According to researcher Elvin Pettet, his William Pettet, who died in Hocking county, Ohio in 1885, is of this family. I received this in an email from him in December 2007: I met Mary Mossaline (Pettet), Ketchum in Perry County, who was 95 years old, and sharp as a tack! She was a gg granddaughter of Thomas b.1765, and had a large family bible filled in with the family line, back to this Thomas. She didn't have his birth year filled in, but I saw his name listed in her bible, as the father of Thomas b.1807, and William b.1805 We now have this as a possible re-creation of Thomas's family:
Thomas Pettet
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Plummer William Thomas Lovey male 2 females 2 others
(c1790s-1830) (1805-1885) (1807-1888) (1809-1907) living living died by
1888 1888 1888
Was Joseph Pettet the one male still living in 1888? Unfortunately, the last record we have for him is the 1880 census. A Rachel Pettet married Peleg Rumfield on 18 April 1839 in Morgan Co, OH. She was born in PA in 1819. Could she have been the infant in the 1819 immigration story? She died in Miegs County in 1886 so would not have been been one of the "2 females living 1888." Was she one of the "2 others died by 1888?" The 1800 Mercer county, PA census shows Thomas with no wife, two males to 10 and two females to 10. If this is an accurate representation of his family, then we can assume that Thomas had four children, one of them Plummer, by his first wife--all born in the 1790s--and that she was dead by 1800. This would mean that his second wife bore six children by her death in 1821: Lovey, Thomas and four others. Here we have him with six children and his wife in 1810. Clearly, his son Thomas had a brother close to his own age. Plummer and Lovey would also have been enumerated. 1810 > PENNSYLVANIA > MERCER > MAHONEY TWP Series: M252 Roll: 52 Page: 64 Thomas Pettit 20201 1101000 There are two Thomas's on the 1820 census for Zanesville. Thomas B Petit is engaged in commerce, 26-45 years old. I believe him to be the shoemaker, Thomas B Pettet, of Morgan county. He was born in Pennsylvania, 28 August 1795 and died 11 Dec 1873 in Morgan County. More on him later. Thomas Pettit, found on the next page, is likely Lovey's father. However, the enumeration doesn't match to what we know of his family. There is no female, for example, of sufficient age to have been Lovey's mother. In fact, the three females listed are all 10 or under. Lovey would have been closer to 11. Also, there are 10 children altogther. Far more than Thomas would have had living at home at the time. 1820 > OHIO > MUSKINGUM > ZANESVILLE Series: M33 Roll: 92 p 136 Thomas B Petit 000010 01010 p 137 Thomas Pettit 321101 30000 There is Thomas Petit in Bush Creek town (page 156) but he is of insufficient age, 16-26, to have been Lovey's father.
We know from the article on Lovey that her father moved to Bearfield township in Perry county, which is just across the county line from Deerfield township, Morgan county. We can be fairly certain that this is him. Lovey was married to David Appleman by this time. 1830 > OHIO > PERRY > BEARFIELD Series: M19 Roll: 137 Page: 375 Thomas Pettit 001100001000 002000000000 Judging from the census and other data, Thomas appears to have first been married by the early 1790s and married again between 1800-1805, say c1803. The 1830 census indicates he was born between 1760-1770. Elvin Pettet believes, and I am tempted to concur, that the elder male named in the 1840 census for William's household is William's father. It is possible, of course, that this person was an in-law or boarder. 1840 > OHIO > PERRY > BEARFIELD Series: M704 Roll: 419 Page: 112 Thomas Petitt 0000101000000 1000200000000 William Petitt 1200010001000 2000010000000 NOTE: This is where I left off 7 Dec 2007. I will resume soon!
1. Thomas and James Avis were brothers.
2. Joseph Pettit was known to have resided in Franklin Parish. Louisiana. I find the following on the 1870 census:
1870 > LOUISIANA > FRANKLIN > WINNSBORO P O
Series: M593 Roll: 513 Page: 38
Pettit, Joseph 43 m w Physician Ohio
" Darcus 31 f w keeping house La
" Mary 4 f w La
Ballew, Sarah 16 f w at home La
Morgan, Lucy 9 f w " " La
3. This information came from Mary (Pettit) Ellis of Miami, FL. Her
grandfather was Ezra Gilbert Pettit, son of William and Martha (Pettet)
Pettit. She states that Martha's father was a traveling salesman from
Zanesville, that his surname was Bonnet and that he was related to John M
Bonnet, a jeweler, born in Germany in 1811.
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