Friday, January 20, 2023

Lightfoot Family


In a blog post from 2017 I referenced several newspaper articles about accused counterfeiter Benjamin Woodward and several other of his associates.  Among those associates were several Cook(e) men.  These were men are likely connected to our YDNA line though our exact connection has not been identified. At the time I had not located my 2nd Great Grandfather in the 1840 US Federal census in Dyer Co TN nor had I discovered the cluster of DNA matches with connections to the Lightfoot family in Dyer County.

One of the newspapers from that Dec 2017 blog post was The Virginia Gazette(Williamsburg, VA)'s February 25th 1773 edition.  The article  on page 3 mentions that a Capt John Lightfoot is sent to apprehend the suspects.  While working the ancestry of the group of Dyer Co TN DNA matches of myself, my siblings and our Cook/Putman cousins I discovered that the Dyer Co TN cluster traces back to a Wilson C Lightfoot & his wife, Mary Deberry.  As it turns out, Wilson C Lightfoot's father is a  John Lightfoot who died in Stewart Co TN in 1823 and left a will.  An image of the will had been posted by another researcher but they did not include a link or anything other than that it could be found on FamilySearch. It took a bit of investigating but I found it.

It was grouped in Stewart Co TN--Bonds, Miscellaneous, Settlements, 1814-1824, Vol. 03

John Lightfoot's Will

Inventory--John Lightfoot

George Cathey's Bond as Executor of Nelly Lightfoot's Will

Given the shared matches from my side the connection is back thru the ancestry of my Cook or Putman lines somehow.  Something to investigate and hopefully will "kick up" other clues.  Also need to look into the Deberry ancestry since I don't know for sure that any connection is exclusively thru the Lightfoot family. 

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