Although eventually I’m going to have a separate page for each generation in my branch of the Bigham family tree, I thought I’d include a “summary” page to give an overview of the family from its arrival at the Port of Philadelphia in the 1730s to the current day.
James Bigham (1690-1733) and Joan Reilley (1695-1733)
James was born in County Down, Ireland and married Joan Reilley of Dublin, Ireland on Dec 1, 1713 in St. Catherine’s, Dublin, Ireland. Surname sometimes listed as Bingham.
Although James and Joan (or Joanne) are listed as Andrew’s parents in numerous family trees online, I can find absolutely no documentation to support the claim. One person refers to a marriage document in a Dublin parish, but gives no source reference. Their children are usually listed as:
- William (b. about 1712)
- Robert (b. 1714)
- John (b 1715)
- James (b. 1719)
- Andrew (b. 1725)
- Samuel (b. 1730)
Andrew Bigham (1725-1788) and Agness (1732-1805)
Andrew was born in County Antrim, Ireland. Married Agness (last name possibly Patterson, born in County Down, Ireland) before 1850. Surname sometimes listed as Bingham.
Immigrated to America sometime between 1830 and 1850. They lived in Pennsylvania for several years before moving to North Carolina. They settled near Mecklenburg and spent the rest of their lives there.
Andrew died June 3, 1788 and was buried in the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church cemetery near Mecklenburg. Agness died Sept. 27, 1805 at the age of 73.
Their children included:
- Agness (1751-1775)
- Samuel (1753-1821)
- John (1755-1826)
- William (1756-1842)
- Mary (1758-1795)
- Andrew (1760-1834)
William Bigham (1756-1842) and Sarah Braly (1769-1846).
Married Nov. 7, 1797 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Sarah was the daughter of John Braly and Sarah Carruth Braly, the daughter of Walter Carruth. Walter Carruth migrated from Scotland to Pennsylvania in 1729, and settled in Lancaster County. Surname sometimes listed as Brawley, Baroly, or Braley.
Sarah was William’s second wife. His first wife’s name is not known; their marriage date is estimated to be about 1782. Children by William and his first wife were:
- Jane Virginia Bigham (1785-1873)
- William Bigham (1790-1865)
Children by William and Sarah were:
- Hugh Braly Bigham (1798-1862)
- Nancy Bigham (1802-1846)
- Samuel Bigham (1802-1865)
- Margaret Bigham (1804-1846)
William and Sarah moved to Bedford, Tennessee about 1830. William died on July 24, 1842 at the age of 86. Sarah died on Nov. 2, 1846 at the age of 77, in Marshall, Tenn.
Hugh Braly Bigham (1798-1862) and Catherine Turner (1813-1887).
Hugh B. Bigham was born in 1798 in Mecklenburg, North Carolina and moved to Rutherford County, and then to Bedford County, Tennessee before 1820. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Ramsey, in Bedford County, Tenn. , about 1821. They had the following children:
- Samuel Brawley (Braly) Bigham (1822-1902)
- William M Bigham (1823-1898)
- John Bigham (1825-1877)
- David Bigham (1828-?)
- Mary Bigham (1830-?)
- Hugh Alexander Bigham (1833-1912)
- Infant son (1834)
Elizabeth died in 1834 and Hugh married Catherine in late 1834-early 1835 in Marshall County, Tennessee. Their children were:
- J A Bigham (1836-1916)
- Malinda M Bigham (1837-?)
- Leonidas S. Bigham(1839-1863)
- Finis M Bigham (1840-1902)
- Rufus C Bigham (1843-1923)
- Felix E Bigham (1845-?)
- Enoch E Bigham (1847-?)
- Sara A K Bigham (1848-?)
Sometime in 1839, Hugh and his family moved to Pontotoc, Mississippi. In 1850, he was again living in Tennessee but by 1860 was listed in the census as living in Arkansas. He died in Arkansas in 1862. Catherine died in Arkansas in 1887.
Leonidas S. Bigham (1839-1863) and Annie Wallis (1842-after 1870).
Leonidas was born in Marshall, Tennessee in 1839 and married Annie Wallis on Dec. 23, 1857 in Pontotoc, Miss.
He originally enlisted as a Private in the 41st Mississippi Infantry Volunteers (Confederate) on Jan. 14, 1862, for a period of 12 months. He was promoted to Sergeant late in 1862 (Nov. or Dec.). He was killed in battle at Chickamauga, Sept. 21, 1863.
They had the following children:
- Franklin Monroe Bigham (1859-1906)
- William BIGHAM (1861-?)
Franklin Monroe Bigham (1859-1906) and Alma Gober (1862-1903).
Married Nov. 3, 1888 in Lee, Mississippi. Moved to Ellis County, Texas prior to 1900. Alma died in 1903; Franklin, in 1906. They are buried in the Mahoney Cemetery, Hopkins Co., Texas.
They had the following children:
- Percy Elten Bigham (1890-1967)
- Myrtle Bigham (1892-1975)
- Roy Starks Bigham (1894-1983)
- Hughey Bigham (1897-?)
- Millie Bigham (1899-?)
Roy Starks Bigham (1894-1983) and Mattie Melissa Baxter (1899-1981).
Married Dec. 12, 1916. Roy was born in Ellis, Texas and lived there (or very nearby, in Wilmer, Texas) all his life. He died Mar. 9, 1983 and is buried in Trinity Cemetery, Wilmer, Texas next to Mattie, who died two years before him, on Feb. 23, 1981.
Their children included:
- Hughy Winifred Bigham (1917-1988)
- Winford Bigham (1918- )
- William Bigham (1919-1966)
- James Artis Bigham (1922-1999)
- Nellie Fae Bigham (1929- )
- Alma Jean Bigham (1933- )
James Artis Bigham (1922-1999) and Felixa Krosnicka (1917-2008).
James was born in Ferris, Texas and joined the Navy during WWII. On leave in New York City, he married Felixa on or about April 12, 1945 in Maryland. They lived in New York City and had three children (all living). They separated in the mid-1960s. He moved to Bergen, NJ and eventually to Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina, where he died in 1999. Felixa lived in New York until 1970, when she moved with two of her children to Phoenix, Arizona. She died in Avondale, Arizona, in 2008.
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Hi,
This is an excellent resource!
I´ve been helping my dad work on his family tree for the past year or so and we´ve now got 300 individuals across the wider family.
The furthest we seem to be able to go back however is to a William Bigham born in 1785 in Garvaghy, Ireland. I don´t have a source for this as it came through a strange route that involved finding a relative on facebook who then pointed out that we had another relative, a distant cousin, in the same town as my folks.
I don´t know whether there´s a link between our ancestry but if you want I can send you the info I have, just let me know.
Bye for now,
alan
Hello,
James Artus Bigham is my Uncle.
I am the son of his Sister Nellie Fae (Bigham) Hefner the last survivor of the brothers and sisters.
Roy Starks Bigham was my grandfather.
Greg Hefner
Hi, Barb, I finally had a chance to Really look at your website, and I am sooo impressed. Couple comments: THE original source of the James Bigham and Joan Riley Dublin IR marriage that is on the internet is vickibeardthompson….she’s had it a while, as she passed it on to me about 16 years ago. At that time, she told me she either had it, or had seen it, but could not locate it. She is a NC-KY Bigham, out of Utah, and her work is pretty accurate, then she created a website, so…. it got passed on. However, at that time, all those 6 Bigham’s were not identified as being children of those same Irish-born parents. Also, there are (at least) two Bigham early migrations into TN- one that went west from NC, then N in TN, and one that went from NC, North, into KY (1796), then W (1800) and down into N TN. (Vicki, me, Rick BiNgham, and a zillion others are the NC-KY-TN line.) Beautiful website. You have done, in a year , what used to take a very long time!
Hi, Joan … thanks so much for the comments and the compliments! I remember seeing a reference to a marriage record but given the number of “James Bighams” at that time, I still can’t be sure it’s the right one. So many unanswered questions! Why couldn’t they have used a few oddball names. If we’d had a “Marvin Bigham” or an “Archibald Bigham,” things would have been so much simpler!
The work goes on, although I’m putting the weighty question of who was the immigrant ancestor of my line on the back burner for a while. I had intentions to following each of the Bigham lines, but that is a monumental task far beyond my ability. We are legion!
For nearly 30 years I’ve been seeking parents for my paternal line, 2nd Great-Grandfather, Samuel Bingham Young. Samuel was born in KY in 1824 and died in Sevier Co., AR in February, 1900. Samuel was born to parents that came from Ireland, but names are unknown. Samuel, likely as a young teen, ran away from home and changed his surname to Young because his father collected his wages and would not let him have them. Stories from two branches of his family lines that I have have connected with share a similar story about the surname change because Samuel was married to three different wives due to death of other wives; hence several children and lots of descendants with the same/similar story. We would like to learn of his parents. I am the key connection for all family members to each of the offspring of Samuel. I have a photo of him as well. Thanks for any and all information. No lead would be turned down. – Charlie