Trigleth Family of Holmes County, Mississippi

Beginning today, I plan to write a series of posts about the Trigleth family of Holmes County, Mississippi, beginning with my maternal great-grandmother, Lucy Lula Trigleth Pettus and working back in time. I already know the Trigleth family migrated to Mississippi from Nash County, North Carolina, with other family members later living in Onslow and Cartaret Counties there. But when and why did the family leave North Carolina, and why did members of this family migrate to Mississippi?

Here is what I know today. According to the U. S. Census of 1920, Lula (Trigleth) Petties (Pettus), 37 years old, was living in Beat 3 of Holmes County, Mississippi with four minor children, Mattie, age 16, William, 13, Rosa, 11, and Eloise, age 8. Her eleven-year old daughter, Rosa, was my maternal grandmother. William Elza Pettus, my maternal great-grandfather and Lula's husband, was absent from the household. Hopefully, further research will determine why he was absent when the census was recorded: was he working elsewhere, had the couple separated for other reasons, or had he died while he was still fairly young?


Living next door to the Pettus family was Lula's brother, Walter, his wife, Mollie, and their ten children. According to the census, Walter was born in Mississippi, was 44 years old, and he owned the home in which the family lived. Mollie was shown to be 43. Although Mollie's place of birth was shown as Mississippi, according to the census, her mother was born in Ireland. The names and ages of the Trigleth children were: Manuel, age 17, Maude, 15, Ollie, 13, Estelle, 12, Cordell, 10, Leona, 7, Flossy, 7, Claudie, 5, Cecil, 3, and Hattie, 18 months old.

Please join me while I search for answers about the Trigleth family, and if you have information to add, please contact me.