Category Archives: Rackley Family

On This Day in 1836

Posted on by Lori Crane

Robert Theodore Pickett (my 3rd great) was born on this day in 1836. He was descended from John Pickett who arrive in Salem, Massachusetts from Kent, England in 1648 (source citation: FARMER, JOHN. A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New-England: Salem, Massachusetts; Year: 1648; Page number 227). Over the next few generations, they migrated southward from Massachusetts, through Virginia and North Carolina, eventually ending up in Alabama for this part of the story, then on to Mississippi.

Robert Theodore was born in Alabama on 2 Feb 1836 to Daniel L Pickett and Amelia Ferrill. He was the last of four children, because his mother died shortly after his birth. At that time in history, I would suspect she died due to complications of childbirth, but I have no proof. His father re-married in 1838 – a woman named Harriet Elizabeth Wilson. Daniel and Harriet had one child, and following Daniel’s death in 1851, Harriet married Miles Linton and had six more children. Robert Theodore was 15 at the time of his father’s death.

At age 24 Robert Theodore married Lucy Ann Rackley in Choctaw, Alabama, and the family remained there through the 1880 census. Lucy descended from David Edward Rackley who came to Virginia from Devon, England sometime between 1663 and 1679. Over the next few generations, they too migrated southward. (Source: Hargreaves-Mawdsley R Bristol and America; A Record of the First Settlers in the Colonies of North America; Place: Virginia; Year: 1663-1679; Page Number: 165).

All of Robert Theodore and Lucy Ann’s children were born in Alabama, but at some point, the entire family moved to Mississippi. If you don’t know, the 1890 census was burned up in a fire, so it is not available to us to research and hunt for clues. I know the family was in Mississippi by 1891, when the youngest daughter was married there. All except the youngest son are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Zero, Lauderdale County, MS. The youngest son died in Sicily Island, Louisiana and I do not know where he was buried, but he is not at Pleasant Hill with the rest of the family.

Name-ChangeThere’s some fun family name changing between local Lauderdale County families: the Picketts, the Fishers, the Colemans, and the Keenes. The Pickett children were: Sarah Elizabeth “Sally,” Margaret Madelene “Maggie,” Amelia Elizabeth “Betty,” Annie Mariah, Joseph Lawson (my 2nd great), Lloyd Daniel, Joshua H., Nathan Brightling, and Rev. Robert Tilden.

 

Pickett sister and brother married Fisher sister and brother: Annie Mariah married James Henry Fisher. Joseph Lawson (my 2nd great) married Caledonia “Callie” Fisher (my 2nd great), James’s sister.

Pickett brothers married Coleman sisters: Two of the boys, Joshua H and Nathan Brightling, married Coleman girls, Mary Ella and Johnnie Hobgood.
To make it even more confusing, Nathan and Johnnie Pickett had one girl. They named her Annie Pickett. (I guess to replace the Annie Pickett who was now Annie Fisher.)
Annie Pickett married Earnest Grady Keene.
Earnest’s sister was Eula Keene (my great grandmother), who married Ben Pickett (my great grandpa, Annie Pickett’s cousin), son of the above Joseph Lawson Pickett and Callie Fisher.
I think that makes me my own cousin, and somehow, I think the Fishers win.
picket robert t obeliskRest in peace Robert Theodore and Lucy Ann. You have not been forgotten.

52 Ancestors #41 – On This Day in 1904 – Lucy Ann Rackley Pickett

Posted on by Lori Crane

On This Day in 1904 Lucy Ann Rackley Pickett died at the age of 70.

pickett lucy ann rackley obeliskLucy was my 3rd great grandmother on my dad’s side. She was born in Choctaw, Alabama 6 Aug 1834 to Anthony Rackley and Julia Johnson. She was the baby of six children, with three sisters and two brothers.

She gave birth to a daughter in 1859 and another in 1860, but the records I have say she didn’t marry until 1860. It wasn’t unusual for the time to only have a ceremony when a traveling minister came through town, or it could have been that the wedding certificate wasn’t filed until 1860. Either way, she married Robert Theodore Pickett and the two had four girls followed by five boys in Alabama, one being my 2nd great grandfather Joseph Lawson Pickett. Sometime after the 1880 census, the family moved to Mississippi. Lucy’s mother had died in 1860 and her father lived with her until his death in 1880. That may have been the tipping point of leaving Alabama. The family was in MS by 1891 when the youngest daughter married there.

Lucy died in Mississippi 8 Oct 1904 at the age of 70. Her husband died a year later 17 Aug 1905.

They are laid to rest at Pleasant Hill United Methodist Cemetery in Zero, Lauderdale County, MS.

pickett lucy ann rackley

52 Ancestors #32 – 32

Posted on by Lori Crane

52ancestors-2015

This challenge is set forth by No Story Too Small and this week’s theme is “32.”

For those of you don’t do genealogy, you have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 2nd great-grandparents, and 32 3rd great-grandparents. The family tree grows exponentially.

This generation of 32 people in my past have been on my mind a lot lately due to the feeding frenzy of liberals trying to erase the history of the Confederacy. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the Confederate flag, but I understand that hate groups have adopted it and it may no longer represent the South throughout the rest of the United States. Perhaps it is time for a discussion about where it should and should not be flown.

I do, however, have a problem with the hatred that these history-erasing people, including some of my very own friends, are spewing and the way vandals are destroying flags, graves, statues, and monuments. You’ll see why in a moment. I’ve decided to not write about only one of my 32 grandmas and grandpas, but all of them.

Jeremiah William Crane, born 1828 Alabama

Sarah Frances Grimes, born 1824 Alabama

Amos Windham Mercer, born 1799 South Carolina

Amanda Merron, born 1829 Florida

Archibald White, born 1808 North Carolina

Elizabeth B Farrish, born 1824 Alabama

Leonard H Morrow, born 1812 Tennessee

Silvia Truss, born 1814 North Carolina

Robert Theodore Pickett, born 1836 Mississippi

Lucy Ann Rackley, born 1834 Alabama

William Thomas Fisher, born 1819 Alabama*

Elizabeth Ann Butler, born 1834 North Carolina

Green Keene, born 1834 South Carolina

Sarah Tabitha unknown, born 1833 Alabama

William Lafayette Brown, born 1836 Mississippi*

Sarah Ann Elvira Dollar, born 1836 Alabama

Rev. Joseph M. Culpepper, born 1822 Georgia**

Nancy Yarbrough, born 1822 Georgia

William Henry Blanks II, born 1800 Georgia

Nancy Narcissus Young, born 1800 North Carolina

Rice Benjamin Carpenter, born 1828 Alabama**

Mary Ann Rodgers, born 1828 Mississippi

George Washington Spencer, born 1829 Alabama*

Nancy Virginia “Ginny” Holdcroft, born 1839 Mississippi

James C Howington, born 1823 North Carolina*

Amelia Ann Elizabeth Smith, born 1827 Alabama

Of the six missing names; two were in Dublin, Ireland, their son (my 2nd great) arrived on the shores of Florida in 1861; two were Choctaw Indians in the Choctaw Territory of Mississippi but I don’t know their names; and the final two are unaccounted for as I have not been able to trace them, but their daughter (my 2nd great), was born in Alabama in 1848, so they certainly lived in the South.

Notice anything?? Yes, 26 (28 if you count the Choctaws, 30 if you count the folks living in Alabama) of my 32 3rd great-grandparents were born in the Confederate States, and EVERY ONE of my 16 2nd greats lived there also. From the records I have: six of the men above fought with the Confederacy (noted by *) – two died in battle (noted by **). Three of my 2nd greats (sons of the above) fought with the Confederacy, not to mention the countless brothers and other sons who served and sometimes died. Mary Ann Rodgers named above lost three brothers, three brothers-in-law, and her husband.

Off the top of my head, eight to ten of these families were in America during the Revolution, fighting for freedom – the freedom to say and do as you please. You have the freedom to be “offended” by the Confederate flag. It was given to you by MY ancestors who have been struggling since the 1600s to build a great country, even before it was a country.

Here’s where I have a problem. You don’t have the freedom nor the “right” to desecrate Confederate graves, statues, monuments, Confederate cemeteries, or the flags within their boundaries, and you certainly don’t have the freedom to take away my heritage. You will never accomplish that. You will never change how I feel about the men who fought in the Confederate Army. They are AMERICAN soldiers. They will always have my deepest respect for being willing to die for what they believed in, whether you agree with their cause or not. My heritage will not be erased. It will not disappear. Do you want to know why? Because I will fight to keep it alive in my family, my community, my descendants, and my heart. I will fight with the same veracity shown by my grandparents when they fought for their freedom. After all, their blood runs in my veins, too.

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Ancestry – or Why I’m So Jacked Up – The 3rd Great Grandparents 3&4

Posted on by Lori Crane

The great great great grandparents…continued. (This would be #3 and #4 of 32 great great greats. This may take a while.)

The last Ancestry post was about mom’s side, so in fairness, here’s one about dad’s side.

My paternal great grandparents, whom I knew and loved dearly, were Ben and Eula Pickett. This entry is about Ben’s grandparents.

Robert Theodore Pickett and Lucy Ann Rackley

Robert Theodore (3rd great grandfather) was born in Alabama on 2 Feb 1836 to Daniel L Pickett and Amelia Ferrill. He was the last of four children, because his mother died in 1836 or 1837. At that time in history, I would suspect she died shortly after 2 Feb 1836 due to complications of childbirth, but I have no proof. His father re-married in 1838 – a woman named Harriet Elizabeth Wilson. Daniel and Harriet had one child, and following Daniel’s death in 1851, Harriet married Miles Linton and had six more children. (My aunt also married a Linton, and if I did the research, I am positive I would find that her Linton was a descendant of Miles, making them not-so-distant cousins. Lauderdale is not a very big county. 🙂 )

Robert Theodore married Lucy Ann Rackley in Choctaw, Alabama in 1860 and shows up in the census there through 1880. All of their children were born in Alabama, but at some point, the entire family moved to Mississippi. If you don’t know, the 1890 census was burned up in a fire, so it is not available to us to research and hunt for clues. I know the family was in Mississippi by 1891, when the youngest daughter was married there. All except the youngest son are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Zero, Lauderdale County, MS. The youngest son died in Sicily Island, Louisiana and I do not know where he was buried, but he is not at Pleasant Hill.

I have photos of all of their headstones and most of their death certificates, but I won’t bore you with them.

Only Robert and Lucy’s…

The only photographs I have of any of the children are the youngest son, Rev. Robert Tilden Pickett 1876-1947 and his wife Lilian Price 1877-1962. They married in June of 1904, three months before his mother’s death.

Aren’t they gorgeous?? (photos from the library of my cousin, Fran Pickett)

The other children were:

Sarah Elizabeth “Sally” 1859-1930

Margaret Madelene “Maggie” 1860-1924

Amelia Elizabeth “Betty” 1863-1924

Annie Mariah 1864-1912

Joseph Lawson 1866-1910 (my 2nd great grandfather)

Lloyd Daniel 1866-1936

Joshua H 1870-1933

Nathan Brightling 1872-1954

Two things strike me about the above dates: 1. Joseph and Lloyd couldn’t possible be born in the same year. One was born in Jan and one in Feb, so someone put the wrong birth year on the headstone. I have neither of their death certificates. 2. Maggie and Betty both died in 1924. According to their death certificates, which I have, Maggie died on June 26th of cancer and Betty died on August 28th. That must have been a difficult year for the siblings.

Also, only one of the four girls married – Annie Mariah. She married James Henry Fisher Sr. James’s sister, Caledonia D Fisher, married Joseph Lawson Pickett – the above mentioned 2nd great grandpa. “Callie” and “Joe” were the parents of my great grandfather, Ben Pickett, mentioned at the beginning. So, a Fisher brother and sister married a Pickett brother and sister. I know who my 2nd great and 3rd greats are, but I still have to stop and think about that for a minute. Annie Pickett Fisher and Callie Fisher Pickett make me stop and scratch my head every time.

Lucy Ann Rackley (3rd great grandmother) was born in Alabama on 6 Aug 1834 and died in MS on 8 Oct 1904.  Her father was Anthony Rackley and her mother was Julia A Johnson, and she was the youngest of their 6 children. Her parents were born in North Carolina and Virginia respectively, and both died in Alabama, though I am not sure when or why they moved there. Her mother died in 1860 and her father died just after 1880. Perhaps that is when the family decided to move to Mississippi. Fortunately for her, none of her children died before her, and her husband outlived her by 10 months.

Rest in Peace great great great grandma and grandpa…