Retouched: 1/11/09 & 8/14/09
I recently discovered, via a death certificate of my mother's mother, that her mother's maiden name was PUCKETT; i.e. Melinda (Minnie) Elinor Puckett was my great-grandmother. My grandmother Alma pronounced "Puckett" with the accent on the last syllable, making it sound more like "Paquette."
Minnie was given as born 1862 in Indiana. Although I have no proof, circumstantial evidence suggests that her father was Henry Linville Puckett. If, as is very likely, he was Minnie's father, then her mother was her Nancy E. Wheeldon. Henry was given as born about 1821, Ohio; Nancy was born about 1835 in Indiana. They had several children, listed as born in Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. Henry had a previous wife (Elizabeth Comer) in Indiana, with children. Henry, Nancy, and their own children, settled in Richland County, Wisconsin. Melinda (Minnie) married Charles Leonard Greene, who also had a previous wife. They had seven daughters in neighboring Crawford County, WI. There is still a rather remote possibility that Melinda belonged to another Puckett family, although I can find no "paper trail" of such a scnario. Apparently Charles Greene (Melinda's husband), Henry Puckett and Cornelius Puckett were blacksmiths, at least in part.
The weak link in my maternal line is the Nancy Wheeldon connection. Her father, James, came from Kentucky. Her mother was Selah Falconbury/Falconberry, daughter of Jacob and Charity (unknown last name). Selah Falconbury/Falconberry was burried with her maiden name on the headstone, in the same cemetary as her father Jacob, in Indiana. Selah was born 1802 in South Carolina.
http://www.falconberry.com/My interest in this line of inquiry is to trace my maternal mtDNA, the surnames changing at each generation. It looks like it would trace back to colonial North Carolina > Virginia and England before that.
Henry Puckett's children (1870 Census): Joseph(1852,IN), George(1854,IN), Letty(1857,IN), Cornelius(1860,IN-1901,WI;blacksmith;died of heart attack), "Malinda"(1862,IN), Sarah(1864,IA), Mary(1867,IA), and Jenne(1869,WI).
Note: I was unsuccessful in requesting Melinda's death certificate; was told that there is no record. If any Puckett descendant knows about her, I would be grateful for information concerning her.
Philip Hotlen
U5b2(11653G) & R1a1a (Family Tree DNA; ISOGG tree)
Mitosearch access ID: G986T; FTDNA kit #54319.
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7/7/07
It appears that Henry L. Puckett had two wives and two different broods. The only apparent connecting link between the two families is Mariah(abt 1845,IN), daughter of his first wife Elizabeth (1850 census,IN). None of his first wife's children seem to live with Henry and Nancy in Wisconsin (1870 census). Mariah was the wife of John R. Smith of Crawford County, WI., with whom Melinda's daughter Minnie Greene (1892) resided after Melinda's apparent death (1910 census,WI), after the Greene daughters were scattered to live with various relatives.
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Sep 15 '08
Henry Linville Puckett(b.1820, Ohio) > James > Thomas > Isom> Womack > William > John(b.1619; Oxford, England) > Henry Puckett(b.1590, Oxford, UK; d.1600, Virginia).
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Aug 14 '09
After browsing around again at Ancestry.com, it looks like only Melinda (Minnie), Sarah, Mary and Jenne were children of Nancy Wheeldon; and possibly Cornelius, depending on when in 1860 he was born. All the other children with Henry L. Puckett as father were by Elizabeth Comer (first wife), and I did not mention all of them shown on a census or other trees. Sarah and Mary were born in Iowa, and went with their parents to Wisconsin. Jenne was born in Wisconsin.
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Aug 17 '09
Any and all female descendants of Nancy (Wheeldon) Puckett should have my U5b2, or U5 when not tested for the FGS, mitochondrial haplotype. Otherwise, I am wrong about my maternal line family tree.
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