My name is Jim Birdsall and I live in Minnesota.
I'm new to this forum and am thankful to have found this Pettit Family site, and hopeful someone here may be able to help me.
I'm doing some family history research, and have run into a bit of a brick wall.
My 4x great-grandmother is Eliza Pettit. She had a brother named John H. Pettit. She married a Samuel S. Brooks.
Samuel S. Brooks and John H. Pettit worked together as printers / newspaper publishers.
The three of them were for a time in Cincinnati, OH, and then later in various cities in Illinois.
I've not been able to find much information about them online, such as definitive information on where they were born or on their parents. So, any information of suggestions of where I might search further would be much appreciated.
Here's what little I have on the Pettits in my tree:
Eliza Pettit (my 4x great-grandmother)
- born about 1804, possibly in NY, per the 1850 and 1860 Census
- lived in Cincinnati for some unknown time - but my 3x great grandfather, John Pettit Brooks, I have as being born in Cincinnati in July 1826
- died on 4 May 1868 in Quincy, Illinois.
John H. Pettit (my 4x great grand-uncle)
- not sure of birth date, estimating 1805 - 1815, possibly in New York, if the 1860 census entry I found is for the correct John H Pettit...
- lived in Cincinnati for some unknown time as well, but don't have definitive evidence of this.
- lived in Alton, Illinois and Quincy, Illinois in the late 1830s - early 1840s and published newspapers in both cities along with Samuel S. Brooks (the husband of Eliza Pettit)
- not sure of a death date, there is a John H. Pettit back in Cincinnati in 1880, with a possible death in 1885?????
And, in case it might help...
Samuel S. Brooks (my 4x great-grandfather)
- born about 1801, in Avon, in western New York
- died on 11 January 1866 in Quincy, Illinois.
Thanks in advance for your time and any help you can provide.
