Friday, February 15, 2013

Peter P. Bennight

Hi Dear Readers, How do you like this new look for Bennights Unite? 

There is quite a lot of information out there about this great-uncle of mine, including a few versions of his name: Peter Patchlin, Peter Pitchland. It seems obvious that he was named after the Choctaw Chief, Peter Pitchlynn. 
Here is a picture of my great-uncle Pete provided online by his granddaughter, Lora True (see her tribute to him here).

Peter Pitchland Bennight

I'm learning all about my Native American ancestors, but it is an uphill battle for me. It's a rich heritage and worth the effort it takes to put together a family tree. Here is some of the information I have about Pete's family. Please contact me if there are mistakes, I'd love to hear from you.

2 comments:

  1. How exciting to discover that a Bennight ancestor (although not direct) is buried within 100 miles of our home here in Texas. We've even been in the area where the graveyard is on some of our Bluegrass outings a few years back. We live very close to the Louisiana border and Beauregard Parish is just a stone's throw away. It would be neat to visit that graveyard sometime.

    I did some research on William Miller Bennight and Mary Melvina Tyree about four or five years ago and found them in Freestone Co. Texas on the 1870 census. Mary was listed as white on that census. However, a couple of years before she died, Aunt Connie (Plaster) told me that long ago she had seen a picture of her in full Native American regalia and swore that she was full blooded Cherokee. Both Chocktaw and Cherokee are included in the 5 civilized tribes, and one could easily be confused with the other. Her race continues to be a mystery but hopefully not for long. It looks like you are hot on the trail Loraine.

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  2. Thanks, Connie. I didn't know aunt Connie (Bennight Plaster) had said that. In the last few days I came across an old genforum post put up by Billy Moffitt back in 2006. He gives information about another one of William Miller Bennight's brothers (John H. Bennight) who married a native american woman. I'll be posting more about that soon.

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