Introduction: Pearce

by
Larry Pearce
1/12/06, 1/19/11
( LRYPEARCE@GMAIL.COM )
E-mail address revised 3/25/22

I teach communications at the college level, and one of the first assignments I give my basic writing students is to tell a story from their lives. They work from a simple timeline that begins with their birth. Occasionally, when a student has difficulty starting, I’ll suggest that he/she begin with the phrase probably every child in the world has heard, “Once upon a time and far away.” Somehow, that magically transports them to another place and allows their memories to flood their minds and spill out onto the page. It’s beginning that’s the hard part. And so it was as I began the enormous task of revising a thousand pages of family history this year and changing web addresses because my old one was too small. I love to write and my passion for genealogical research began just before a trip I took with my wife to England in 1995. In those days before most every American home had a computer, I looked forward to annual family reunions when I could hear the stories of my origins and thought that someday I’d make the time to travel to the great Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. to verify those tales. The only written Pearce Family genealogy I had ever seen up to that point was a brief college project my Uncle Dale had presented to our family reunion years earlier. By the time I had read it seriously, the family branches in the back were very outdated. About the time we were planning our trip overseas, my dad awarded me a box that he had rescued from my Grandmother Bessie’s house after Grandfather Wesley died and she was about to move. In another article in this series titled “Treasures in an Old Box,” I list and describe some of the golden memories in that small container. But perhaps the most life-changing document I came across was the hand-typed, four-page original family narrative, perhaps over a hundred years old. In a romantic tale, surely handed down for generations, the unknown storyteller may as well have begun, “Once upon a time and far away,” because as you’ll find when you read it, it has the power to ignite the curiosity to ask, “Could this possibly have been?” or state, “Someone should make a movie of this.”

Before our subsequent trip to England, I wrote to about half a dozen Pearces in and around the place suggested in the narrative as the origin of our family, Bourne in Lincolnshire. Since then, birth records propose that our origins were probably in Wiltshire, possibly the village of Aldbourne, or Richard and Charles may have sailed from Bournemouth. But, continuing, you can read about Susan’s and my tour of Bourne. We had a lovely and revealing time at the local library, the cemetery, and a home inhabited by Pearces, and perhaps best of all, we left a copy of the original family narrative with a British historian, Robert Penhey, for his lengthy interpretation. I have included it also in this series. One of the first things I did after I returned home and conducted extensive interviews was to e-mail as many Pearce relatives as I had addresses for, asking them to read and correct and comment on weekly articles that I wrote from my research. That original e-mail is available and served as the introduction to the E-GEN internet project that ran on Geocities.com until 2009.

So, now, with the new year and a new devotion to revising and updating this project, having taken additional trips to Germany, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland that included family research, I offer this Introduction to our Pearce Family with the challenge to you to begin your own research: scan old pictures and identify those therein, interview your senior relatives and transcribe the stories they remember, and send me everything you can so that, together, we can preserve our family heritage using the latest technology.

Last revised 5/23/18

General Pearce Inquiry (Please respond below) – 5/23/18:

My name is Ken Trantham and I recently came across your website. I am hoping you can perhaps point me in a direction. Two of my 3rd grandmothers were Pearces – Harriet (Pearce) Boren and Matilda Jane (Pearce) Goodger. Their fathers were first cousins, Spencer Pearce who died about 1826 in Lawrence County, TN and Daniel Pearce who migrated from Lawrence to Tishomingo County, MS and died in 1864. Spencer’s father was Charles Pearce who was living in Sumner County, TN after 1820 and Daniel’s father was Robert Pearce who died in 1837 in Lawrence.

If my Pearce lineage seems a bit confusing it gets worse. I do not yet know how Charles and Robert were related. Spencer and Daniel were first cousins because their mothers were sisters. Charles was married to Elizabeth Hackney and Robert was married to her sister, Lavina Hackney.

The name “Spencer Pearce” is significant somehow to both Charles and Robert. Charles named his son Spencer Pearce. When Robert’s brother, John, died in 1815, he left most of his estate to Robert’s children and Robert but he also bequeathed part of his property to a third brother,

Spencer Pearce of Sumner County. Robert and the elder Spencer can be found living in Sumner prior to 1800 having both signed petitions. Robert named one of his sons by his second wife “Spencer”. (I don’t think he liked the name because the county clerk crossed it out and wrote “Anthony” over it!)

Robert and Lavina Hackney were married in Shenandoah County, VA in 1787. In the 1790 census they had migrated to Greenville, SC and were living next to Lavina’s father, Daniel Hackney.

This is where the trail ends for all of them. But I believe there might be a connection to Pennsylvania. On your website, I found mention of Isaac Pearce and Jonathan Pearce of Sumner who hied ties to Pennsylvania. Robert and elder Spencer were living in Sumner at about the same time as Isaac and Jonathan. When Spencer son of Charles and his wife died before 1830, a man by the name of Barnabas Gabel became the guardian of their children. Barnabas migrated to Lawrence County, TN from Pennsylvania.

I have thrown a lot of names at you and I am wondering if any of them seem familiar. Frankly, I am not sure where to look next for the origins of Robert, Charles, Spencer and John. Any assistance or insight would greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ken

15 Responses to Introduction: Pearce

  1. Brian Pearce says:

    Very interesting ! What depth you have gone to in reasearching our family name.
    It was when I saw that your ancestors came from Aldbourne , Wiltshire , England perhaps. I live near Aldbourne ! In a market town called Newbury, Berkshire, some 20 kilometres from there . My family have always lived near here. My grandfather Fred Pearce, DOB 1880 ish was born in a village nearby to aldbourne , Great Shefford.
    I saw this box and had to reply to you!
    Best Wishes ,Brian DOB 6-6-1960

  2. beryl schmitt says:

    I found your site just by using Bing and putting in the name Pearce. Is the Pearce family you mention in the “original family narratives”-Alsop-Pearce, Moses Pearce and siblings, children of John Pearce and Elizabeth Alsop of your family line?

    • admin says:

      Hi Beryl,
      I would need some dates and places to fully answer your question, but in Googling “Moses,” “Alsop,” etc. I have concluded that your Pearces (Moses c. 1753) were from New England and New Jersey but moved on to the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Illinois. The latter produced a noted Judge Moses. I’ll continue my research, but I’m equally sure that we were related back in Merrie Ole England. Thanks so much for your inquiry and please stay in touch.
      Larry

  3. Toby Pearce says:

    I am very impressed with your website. I have been researching my family history over the past year. Everything that I have researched matches what you have on your site. I am a descendant of Richard Pearce (4th Gr Gr) and then Richard Henry Pearce would be my 3rd Great Grandfather.

    I have never been able to determine the parent’s Richard Pearce. I agree with your site, the story of their marriage, journey and voyage to the U.S. is amazing. I’d love any information to continue.

    • admin says:

      Hi Cousin Toby. Where are you located? My most recent update was a few months ago when I documented the births of Richard and sister Sarah and parents Thomas and Jane: https://e-gen.info/?page_id=5220 . Hope you’ll send along anything else you find. Regards and thanks for the kind words,
      Larry

      • Toby Pearce says:

        Flora, Clay County, Illinois

        • admin says:

          Toby,
          Looks like we’re distant cousins according to my recent DNA list. I’m guessing I can trace you through the 1911 Pearce Reunion book referred to in the Introduction. A lot of family went West. Please stay in touch and I’ll do the same. We’re in the Allegheny Mountains just east of North Pittsburgh where the old Pearce Mill stood and even closer to the family’s Pearce Woolen Mill that operated out of Latrobe before selling to Woolrich. Thanks for the reply.
          Larry

          • Toby Pearce says:

            Larry,

            The DNA list did, in fact, match us up as cousins. That new aspect on ancestry.com is fascinating to say the least.

            My son and I made a quick stop in North Park on our way back home from Cooperstown, NY. I stepped into the park administration office. None of them could tell me where the old mill was located. They didn’t know that the office was the old home location either. I will definitely be making a return trip to that park.

          • admin says:

            Toby,
            We’ve been having the best conversation via e-mail, but to allow our readers to catch-up, I said that Park officials and employees tend to come and go and don’t always know history. Fortunately, we have a North Park citizens committee that stays in touch. My personal goal is to have a State historical marker in front of the administration building, i.e. former Pearce residence where my dad was born, just above the site of the old mill. Let me know when you’re in the area again and I’ll give you a tour. Thanks for your interest,
            Cousin Larry

  4. Elaine Cappiello says:

    Is this site still active?

    I’m looking into the history of Pearce family who moved to the “New Jersey Settlement”, now located in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny Co., PA.

    I have land transactions between your extended Pearce & my Long families.

    I’m curious to see how intertwined they may have been before 1790, when my Silas Long was enumerated in the census (so he must have been a landowner) a neighbor to your Pearce families. I am especially interested because my Silas Long was a black man, enumerated as such, who perhaps was an indentured servant to the Pearce family? He just shows up in 1790, and we have no idea where he was before that census.

    Many thanks for any insight you may have, in advance.

    E

    • admin says:

      Very interesting, Elaine. I’ve had an article about the “Jersey Settlement” on the back burner for years. Only recently have I discovered another early Jersey Settlement in nearby Somerset County where I live. As you know, my Pearces settled just north of Pittsburgh years later (1820), but there were Pearces there earlier, so perhaps there is a connection. Let me go back to work on this, but meanwhile, please send me any new information you find. Thanks,
      Larry

    • admin says:

      Hi again, Elaine. I finished an article on the “Jersey Settlement” over the holidays: https://e-gen.info/?page_id=8921 . Please respond with anything you can add to the story. Thanks,
      Larry

  5. Great granson of Clifford Pierce Kindig, son of Walter Kindig and Elizabeth Pearce, Shreve, Wayne Co Ohio. Have some pictures of this branch of the family on my website.

    http://www.odenkirk.com/familytree/individual.php?pid=I02230&ged=tinas.ged&tab=1

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