The Mayflower "Pye-atts" 

(Author's note: This is just a genealogical tale of "how did we get there from here." You know, much like they must have thought one day in, say, "1620." All the best.)

As always, thankfully unedited.

There's no reason to tell this tale. After all, genealogically speaking, it barely qualifies as hearsay. However, isn't it equally as wrong to ignore a genealogical whisper as it is to repeat it? I've written before about the value of legend and lore in family history, but that was personal— and (usually) my own lore. But what about someone else's? Is it wrong to share with them the rumors you see in their own family tree? Is it just supercilious or silly?

Yeah, probably.

We all know I am, if nothing else, a Mayflower geek. This means I am always on the hunt for ties to the passengers who landed in 1620, and any of the descendants of those folks who came to help create whatever the American dream is supposed to be (along with a little bit of chaos and plunder along the way). As I do genealogy, I'm continually looking for one of these ancestral lines, no matter if it's true, real, or debunked. I can't tell you how many times I've come across those "almost" lines from a Mayflower passenger. I guess, then, that the telling of all this is, well, just a part of the process.

So here goes. You be the judge. Remember, at this point, it's all just genealogical hearsay.

In this case, it involves Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller.

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Recently, while working to clarify some of the ancestral lines of my father's VA caregiver, Rebecca Moore, I noticed something strange. It was a marriage of curious names; the marriage of a Mr. John Pruitt (1806-18730 to a Miss Catherine Pyaett (1801-1865). I'm not sure why, but the combination of those two names struck me as funny, and I decided to chase them both down the genealogical rabbit hole to see where each of them led.

Hey, it's what I do, right?

Now, Rebecca's Pruet family line was interesting, but - and we'll get to how it all ties in together in a bit - however, it was in her Pyeatt family lines that the true mystery began to evolve, and where the hearsay of a Mayflower connection to passenger Edward Fuller begins to take root. Could it possibly be a real line? Could it be proven? It sure didn't look like it - but - I wanted to know more.

To do this, I decided to take each generation descending from Edward Fuller 

As shown below, the first five lines verify out just fine:

1.) EDWARD FULLER, c.1675-1621, of the Mayflower, and his wife Ann, whose maiden name is unknown

2.) SAMUEL FULLER, c.1612-1683, of the Mayflower, who married Jane Lothrop

3.) Hannah Fuller, 1636-1686, who married Nicholas Bonham

4.) Mary Bonham, 1661-1742, who married Edward Dunham

5.) Ephraim Dunham, 1686-1749, who married Phebe Smalley

So as far as lineage goes, we're okay so far coming down from Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller, at least in terms of published sources. But from here it's about to get interesting.

6.) ELIZABETH DUNHAM, 1730-1789, who married Jacob Piatt III

          

The trouble here is that while we can verify these first now, six generations, there is no marriage record that Elizabeth Dunham ever married Jacob Piatt - or rather, there is no record of Jacob's wife's maiden name as "Dunham" - though we do know that she was "Elizabeth." 

So this sixth generation becomes the first problematic issue for the line. However, there is a small bit of hope. I found it here on the FindAGrave.com memorial for Elizabeth...

           

Now I have no reason to believe that the person who posted this isn't telling the truth, but the first part of any verification for Rebecca's line would be to contact the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and verify that this is the case - "that is that" DNA has confirmed "the tie" between Elizabeth Dunham and Jacob Piatt/Pyeatt, III. 

However, assuming that this is correct, we can move on to the next generation, that of Jacob Pyeatt, IV, who is mentioned here below in the image of his father's will, and mentioned along with his wife, Elizabeth.

THIS IS STARTING TO GET VERY FUZZY GENEALOGICALLY:

7.) Jacob Piatt, IV, 1749-1816, who married, at some point in time, Nancy David Adams

Now, there is some mention that Jacob IV did have a wife named Nancy. The timeline here is vague at best, and any marriage date for Jacob and Nancy hasn't been well-documented, at least insofar as it relates to the next generation, their presumed son, John Piatt.

However, here goes what I did find: 

Is this the right John Pyeatt, son of Jacob?

8.) John Piatt, 1769-1827, who married Martha "Patsy" (?) Hildebrand - VERIFICATIONS NEEDED. 

Below is an image of a whole lot of genealogical salad. One has to simply pick out the croutons and hope the tomatoes were ripe when picked.         

                 

9.) Catherine Piatt, 1804-1865, who married John Pruet                           

    

Okay, while not perfect, proving things out should start to get easier right about here:

10.) Mary Ann Pruett, 1835-1909, who married Newton Jesse Stice            

              

11.) Lewis "Van Buren" Stice, 1856-1912, who married Lizzie Mabie

                  

12.) Edna Olena Stice, 1893-1926, who married Stephen Walter Cobb

           

              

13.) Freeda Vonnie Cobb, 1915-1987, who married, as her first husband, Richard E. Johnson

    

14.) Nancy Johnson-Mills, 1945 -   , who married Gary Allen Moore

15.) REBECCA L. MOORE, 1966 - 

So there you have it - a proposed but very much unproven Mayflower line from MP passenger Edward Fuller. It is in no way "gospel." It is a rumor in a family tree - a whisper of something possible. As I said at the start of this post, it seems wrong not to mention it, even with its status being so very murky.

                       

I guess the only thing to do here is to honor passenger Edward Fuller a bit, to study his and the lives of all the pilgrims, and perhaps muse on all things possible. In the meantime, we will wait for better proofs and definitely a better wannabe genealogist to come along and tell us the truth of it all - a genealogist better than I will ever be.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And may all your family histories be as sweet as Pyeatt... I mean, pie!