Seeking Help to Solve Pennington/Billings Mystery White County TNN
I am seeking proof that the Jane ? Billings born 1806 in Tennessee, who married John Billings circa 1824 in White County, TNN, was a daughter of John Pennington and Nancy Jane Harris. The Penningtons' farm appears to have been very close to the land owned by Peter Billings, father of John and Bird. On the 1820 census we see that John Pennington has 5 dtrs between 10 - 15. Most records acknowledge 2 dtrs in that age group - Lydia b 1805 and Christina b 1810. This leaves room for Jane or Nancy Jane being born in 1806 (date confirmed from her tombstone in Smiley, Texas).
Jane ? married John Billings and had a dtr. named Nancy, born in 1829 in Indiana. Between 1828 and 1831, three of Peter Billing's sons left TNN and lived in Indiana. In 1830, one of the sons, Bird, married Lydia Pennington,from White County TNN, in Indiana. Why had she traveled to Indiana? Was it to help care for her sister Jane's new baby born in 1829? While there, did she marry her sister's husband's brother Bird?
Nancy Billings, the baby born in Indiana and Jane's dtr., told her dtr, Mary Jane Burton, that her mother's maiden name was Pennington. Mary Jane told her daughter and that story came down to me. The geographic, circumstantial and family lore evidence strongly suggest that Jane was a Pennington.
Most records on ancestry.com etc. have Jane listed as a Zumwalt born to Jacob Zumwalt and Francis Price. Many problems with this idea. First of all, the only child to this couple not born in MO was Jane, and we have no record that this Zumwalt family lived in TNN at any time, they always stayed in MO. Jane was born in TNN, per all census data.I have been unable to find a single record of Jane's birth in any Zumwalt records...books...researchers etc. I have found no Zumwalts living in TNN around the time of Jane's Birth.
The only way to resolve this mystery is via mtDNA testing.
I am in direct maternal descent from Jane ? Billings. If Jane was a Pennington, then a living female in descent from one of the known Pennington girls, Lydia Ann, Christina, Polly, Rachel, will match exactly with me - strongly indicating that Jane Billings was a Pennington and not a Zumwalt (definitive proof would require testing a Zumwalt as well but one step at a time).
So far, I have been unable to find a living female descendant of this Pennington line willing to have her mtDNA tested. So, I am sending out a broadcast for help, hoping that someone reading this board is such a descendant or knows someone who is and will have her mtDNA tested.
There is nothing worse than perpetuating false lines of genealogy. Here is a chance to correct the record!