Some Roots Grow Deep

 

Advancing to research plans for the fourth of my Twelve Most Wanted for 2026, I traditionally move from the three ancestors I selected from my mother's line for the beginning of the year to those of my mother-in-law. For my focus this coming April, I'd like to return to a line I've struggled with before: that of my mother-in-law's Jackson roots. It's time to dig deeper into her roots which grew deep into the history of colonial America.

The last time I tackled the Jackson family, it was May of 2023, when I pursued the father of John Jay Jackson, my mother-in-law's third great-grandfather. Born in New York, John Jackson had served in the army during the time of the War of 1812. It was at Fort Bellefontaine, near Saint Louis, where he supposedly got married to a woman from Ohio and returned back east to her home to spend the remainder of his adult life.

John Jackson's father, Lyman, apparently also covered a wide territory during his lifespan, including Pennsylvania and upstate New York. But Lyman's own origin was somewhere in New England in the 1750s. During April, I'd like to broaden the search for Lyman Jackson, not simply to record dates of significant life events or trace his whereabouts, but to learn more about the time period in which he lived, as well as the local historical details of the towns where he and his family settled. It's time to paint a broader portrait of Lyman Jackson and point us to his own colonial roots.