Distant Cousins

Years ago, my uncle had drawn up his notes – a family tree – which I later used as a springboard to start on my own genealogical research. When I was young, I always thought the family tree stuff was interesting, but it wasn’t until I was in my 30’s that I really started looking into it. By that time, my uncle was older, and his memory had begun to leave him. Sadly, by the end he had a hard enough time remembering me. He had moved in the 1970’s so most of the communicating we did was by telephone. Sadly, he died a few years ago.
I did not get much further than he did in my researches. I was able to flesh out the tree, and to put it into a family tree program. I managed to find documents to confirm and/or deny most of my uncle’s findings. His researches involved talking to his own Aunts and Uncles, I believe. I don’t know when he started, but his mother (my grandmother) died in 1969, and his father died in 1945. Much of the information in his tree was derived from personal knowledge.
In his notes, my Uncle mentions some distant cousins – the Piersons and the Lees. He does not tell exactly how they were related, and when I discussed it with him (and his siblings) there was no way to tell whether they were related through his mother or through his father. Indeed, no one knew whether they were first, second or third cousins.
One set of these cousins included a couple named Francis and Bridget Pierson. They had three children, to my uncle’s knowledge, named Gertrude, Jennie, and Francis (or Jiggy) Pierson, and they all lived on a farm in Harleysville, Pennsylvania. My Uncle told me that during the depression, he had been “farmed out” by his parents, which meant that for a while he went to live and work with the Piersons in Harleysville. This would, obviously have been during the 1930’s. My Uncle was born in 1919, and he would have been 9 years old when the stock market crashed, so I am assuming he was a little bit older when he went to Harleysville.
When I searched the Federal Census I did manage to find a couple named Francis and Bridget Pierson, and they did have the three children named, as well as two older sons named Thomas and Robert. They did not, at least up to 1930, live in Harleysville, though. They lived in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. Both of the older sons were living elsewhere at least until and after World War II.
Bridget Pierson died in 1929.
Francis Pierson died in 1934.
Jennie (or Jane) married a man named Robert Thompson, but died in 1933.
Gertrude married a man named Louis Warriner and died in 1943.
I never learned when Jiggy died. He had been working for the gas company in 1920 and 1930. He was born in about 1902. I suppose it is possible he bought a farm after 1930, but it seems kind of odd for someone to do that in his 30’s.
Anyhow, I’ve always wanted to figure out the story here. Was my Uncle mistaken about the farm? Maybe he was working with Jiggy on somebody else’s farm. After all, it was the depression. Jiggy could very well have lost his job with the gas company.
Since my Uncle never mentioned Thomas or Robert, I am assuming he didn’t know them. Likewise, he never mentioned Gertrude or Jennie’s married names, so I am guessing it wasn’t their farm. I don’t think there were any other siblings. My Uncle was vague when I asked them how old they were, but he did say they were older than he was, and he never mentioned any children his own age or younger. I am unaware of any children there might have been, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any.
Another question I have about this family that no one could answer is – How were they related to us? I have no information about Francis Pierson’s ancestry, but I did learn at least that Bridget Pierson’s maiden name was McLaughlin. I am guessing that they are related to us through the McLaughlin’s, but whether through my Heaney McLaughlins or my Carey McLaughlins, I can only wonder at this point.
My Aunt Mary once told me that she asked her father who only said, “A cousin is a cousin – after that it doesn’t matter.” Clearly my grandfather wasn’t a genealogist.