Remember Phereba Pryor who was counted in Spicy Taylor Pryor’s household in 1850? I recently saw a family tree on Ancestry.com that claimed Phereba as a direct ancestor. OK, they have my attention! I was a bit skeptical that Phereba or the children in her household could be found anywhere, but this tree looked like a lead worth investigating.
The tree owner’s descendant was William J Huddleston. William was born in March 7, 1856 per his 1943 death record. He died in Indianapolis. His parents were William Huddleston and Anna Pryor, both born in TN. His daughter Mrs. (Nora) Forman supplied the information on the death record.
Can we confirm that the Anna Pryor on the death record is actually the Phereba Pryor from TN census records? Perhaps.
William J Huddleston married Lucy Peak in Meade County, KY in 1877. I found Lucy’s obit. She died in 1937. The obituary was published in the Indianapolis Star on 29 November 1937. It states Lucy was from Meade County, KY. Her daughter Nora Forman was also mentioned in the article. Mead county birth records state Lucy O Peak was born 20 December 1857 to John C Peak and Elizabeth Allen.
There were 7 surviving children from William and Lucy’s marriage. That’s the potential for a lot of descendants from this line.
The owner of the Ancestry family tree places William Huddleston also in Meade County. If his wife Lucy was from there then it makes sense that William could be found in the same county. They have the 1870 census as source record for William and this is where it gets INTERESTING.
In Garnettsville, Dist 5, page 357a there’s also a James Huddleston age 20 who was born in TN. He is living in the household of Mary E Riney, working as a farm hand. The only other Huddlestons in the county were also in Garnettsville, Dist. 5, page 361a: Phebe Huddleston 40 and William 16– both born in Tennessee.
The last time we found Phereba Pryor on a census was in 1860, living in Sumner County TN just a few lines from Massie Taylor Pryor. Amazingly the names and ages of sons James and William match up! I know that Phebe/Phereba’s age doesn’t mesh, however her age was 21 on the 1850 Census, so it didn’t match up well with the 1860 census. If she was about 20 in 1850, 30 in 1860, then she would be about 40 in 1870.
1860 Census of Sumner Co., TN – 11th Dist.
House 104 Fereby PRIAR 24, James PRIAR 10, William PRIAR 7, John KEYSER 37 PA, John RYAN 37 GA, Silas ??? 50 PA
There must be a story as to why Phereba and her children were counted as Pryors on the 1860 Census. Why were they Huddlestons in 1870 but not in 1860? Was Phereba never married to Mr Huddleston? Was she a widow or divorced in 1860? Did a neighbor supply the census information in 1860 and they knew her as a Pryor relation? Were they living in Meade county after the Civil War because of the Civil War?
The good news is that if this is Phereba, then she was still alive in 1880. There’s an “Anna Hudelson” b. 1833 in TN counted in Garnettsville in 1880. She stated both of her parents were born in VA which matches how other known children of William Pryor and Spicy Taylor responded on the census. She listed her marital status as “widowed” in 1880.
Why was I looking at this Ancestry tree? Their autosomal kit matches to mine. We also share these matches who are connected through the Pryors, Taylors, and Garretts:
Overton Pryor, son of William Pryor and Spicy Taylor (daughter of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)
Louisa Pryor McCullough, daughter of John Pryor and Massey Taylor (daughter of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)
Ann Eliza Garrett Overstreet, daughter of Stark Garrett
Shadrack Garrett and wife Lector Ann Taylor, daughter of Hezekiah Taylor (son of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)
Robert S Taylor, son of Hezekiah Taylor (son of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)
Ancestry predicts my relationship to the test subject as 5th cousins, sharing Edmund Taylor and/or Elizabeth Garrett as our common ancestor(s), or that we share a common Pryor ancestor, or both.
Just when you think a Pryor has fallen out of the family tree… there’s new info that lights a path of research.
Happy New Year to all the our Pryor kin!
Another observation came out of the Ancestry DNA. The first test submitted was for one of my kids. They were a willing subject and it seemed like a keen way to find out more about BOTH sides of their family tree. After a productive telephone chat with another researcher I decided to submit my own test.