As usual, very well researched and presented to the reader. Love it!!
John Pettit (b.1771) Forgotten Son of Joshua and Rachel Pettit of Spartanburg Co. SC
John was born on September 2, 1771, to Joshua and Rachel Pettit. His birth is recorded in the family Bible of his older brother, Henry Pettit Sr. He was likely the father of 5 boys and 4 girls. Elijah, Solomon, Benjamin, Nathaniel H, Daniel and Ruth...
Also of note on the YDNA front is the possibility of properly placing Ashford Pettit in this family. Ashford (1814-1894) b. in Spartanburg, SC lived most of his adult life in Calhoun County, Alabama. Strong paper research suggests he was the oldest son of Nathan Pettit and subsequently grandson of Joshua Pettit/Judith Poole. A YDNA test has been completed on a male descendant of Ashford's and if the YDNA SNP gods smile upon us we may get a genetic match between Ashford and the Joshua/Judith test taker. That would cinch it!!
I recieved the following update on the DNA tests regarding this branch from Janet Wood.
"In the last week we've had two Big Ys come in, both of which are fascinating.
The first is a descendant of Daniel Pettit (1812). Daniel was the brother of Elijah Pettit (1790-) and Nathaniel H Pettit (1813-1885) and they were sons of John Pettit (1771-c1845) and grandsons of Joshua Pettit (1734-1786). What I like, as an enthusiast of the genetic side of this, is that their shared haplogroup, FT187589, had to have been inherited from their father. And because none of John's brothers had it, John's father lacked it and, therefore, it first emerged at John's birth. (This is what we call an anchor SNP.) In other words, John Pettit and all his direct progeny had and still have the FT187589 marker. Indeed, anyone born with the marker descends from John."
I’m supposedly a descendant of Elijah’s and this is so helpful! I knew he had to be part of the family, but he was clearly not Benjamin’s son, which is what everyone on ancestry uses.
My lineage is Me! - Henry Hain - Louise Jones - Nora Clayton (to this point we, of course, have family photos and direct knowledge) - Jacob Clayton (census/DNA as Nora’s mother appears to have died in child birth) - Sarah Jane Pettit (census/DNA/includes Tabitha Brashears living with her and being buried in the Clayton Family Cemetery in Etowah Co, AL) - Elijah Pettit (frankly my best link is that John left land to the Brashears, and Tabitha Brashears was definitively Sarah Jane’ Pettit’s mom!) - Now you got me to John and Joshua! Thank you! My DNA links go back as far as to show a connection to descendants of Sarah Jane and her siblings and their descendants on Ancestry, Tabitha was HER mother, but I’m not sure exactly how they decided Elijah was the brother she married.
Thanks for the comment, cousin. It makes me quite happy to hear this research has been of some help to you.
Regarding Tabitha Brashears' marriage to Elijah Pettit, there is evidence for this but nothing 100% conclusive. A good place to start is Spartanburg, SC Deed Book AA, pp 36-327 which has a land record from 1849 involving William Brashears. He refers to the land on Motlows Creek as "my Elijah Pettit place". There is quite a bit more that can be said about Elijah and I may put something together on him. One thing we'd like to know is if he is the same Elijah Pettit who moved to Meigs Co, Tennessee and started a family there.
Also, I recently did a write up on John 1771's brother Nathan whose daughter Jemima married into the Brashears family. They and several other members of the Pettit and Brashears family moved west to Illinois and Missouri. You might find some useful info in that write up as well or may be able to help solve some of the mysteries I laid out. It can be found here: