Flesh and Stones

Our goal in looking for lost ancestors is to leave no stone unturned. Sometimes you can find information from what might seem like the smallest ‘stones’.

This snippet is from a flesh mark register from Perquimans Precinct, North Carolina (also known for a period of time as Berkeley Precinct), from February 1726/7. The purpose was to register or record a livestock owner’s mark so that his property would be easily identifiable.

Photo: the Berkeley/Perquimans register

The first two entries are for Samuell Wiatt, who is registering marks for his sons Jacob and Joshua. The next is William Long, registering a mark for his son Thomas. In just a couple of inches’ worth of space about livestock management 300 years ago, we can identify the fathers of three boys—Jacob, Joshua, and Thomas.

Samuel Wyatt and William Long, we can trace from other sources, were half-brothers. Samuel’s father William Wyatt died when Samuel was just six weeks old, and his mother Rebecca remarried Thomas Long. William Long was about seven years younger than Samuel Wyatt, and their boys Jacob, Joshua, and Thomas were all born within five years of one another. According to other records, however, both Joshua Wyatt and Thomas Long died relatively young and with no children of their own. But in the 1720s, their fathers made a public record that reflected their hopes for their sons’ futures.

There is a lot of misinformation circulating the web about the Wyatts—particularly Rebecca Wyatt and Joshua Wyatt. Interested parties should check the Perquimans County records, many of which are freely available online if you look under the right stones.