Intersecting Families....

The Pennington family in Ashe Co., NC intersects with a lot of families.  Possibly one of the most dominant of these families is the Blevins family.  They are present in the Micajah Pennington line (Group 7) as well as Group 30 and the children of Abram Pennington.  Trying to figure out where they fit can be a challenge.

Johanna Pennington was the youngest daughter of Micajah Pennington and Rachel Jones.  She was born on 24 Mar 1779 in Wilkes Co., NC and died before 1860 probably in Ashe Co., NC.   Johanna married Douglas Dickson sometime before 1804 probably in Ashe Co., NC.  They were the parents of eight known children and their daughter Lucy Ann Dickson married Daniel Blevins in 1831 in Ashe Co., NC and were the parents of 13 children and grandparents of at least 40 others.  Daniel Blevins siblings also had close ties to Penningtons.  Daniel was the son of James B. Blevins and Lydia Sizemore.  James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore’s had ten children and of those four were married to Penningtons. They were:

• Wells Blevins  b. 8 Oct 1795 Ashe Co., NC and d. 23 Dec 1865 Whitetop, Grayson Co., VA m abt 1820 Elizabeth Pennington b. 9 Apr 1798 Ashe Co., NC d. 13 Dec 1868 in Whitetop, Grayson Co., VA
• Hester Ann Blevins b. 8 May 1812 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 19 Oct 1890 in Konnarock, Smyth Co., VA m. abt 1835 Andrew Pennington b. 11 Oct 1809 Ashe Co., NC d. 11 Oct 1882 Konnarock, Smyth Co., VA
• James Blevins, Jr b. abt 1809 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 23 Dec 1869 in Ashe Co., NC m. abt 1831 Artemecia Pennington b. abt 1810 in Ashe Co., NC d. 27 Feb 1897 in Ashe Co., NC
• Daniel was born about 1814 in Ashe Co., NC and died 12 July 1864 probably either in Ashe Co., NC or Washington Co., VA. m. abt 1831 Lucy Ann Dickson b. abt 1815 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 1883 Ashe Co., NC

All three of the Pennington siblings were the children of Abram Pennington who was probably a cousin of Micajah Pennington and his granddaughter who married Daniel Blevins – their younger brother.

James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore had about 44 grandchildren with these Pennington siblings and cousins.  Then the Blevins and Penningtons make things even more confusing by intermarrying several times.  It seems that almost any Blevins in Ashe Co., NC is somehow connected to both the Pennington/Dickson family as well as the Blevins family.   Some of these Pennington/Blevins families stayed in Ashe Co., NC but many more lived in Smyth and Washington Co., VA as well as Grayson Co., VA.

When I am confused as to the relationship of a Blevins to the Pennington family – I refer to Ron Blevins who I think is probably the best Blevins researcher that I have come across.  There have been many times that the two of us have had to puzzle out a relationship and it has taken both of our databases and experience to figure it out. 

Now, I don’t believe that this is any different than any other county with families who have lived in the same area of generations.  In fact – I’m sure that there are many other researchers out there who have experienced the same challenges.  The Blevins family helped convince me to research not just one Pennington line but multiple Pennington lines.  These cover the Pennington Research Association groups of Group 7 (Desc. Of Micajah Pennington) Group 30 (Desc. Of Abram Pennington) and also of Douglas Pennington b. 1818 whose lineage has not yet been ascertained.  

So, if you research Penningtons – you also research Blevins and a few other family lines such as Graybeal and Osborne.  It is a tangled web with many intersecting relationships.  It is difficult enough with a computer and genealogy program – I have to wonder how genealogist who were not computer aided managed the excellent research that they accomplished.