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Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

More on the Dominicks, Riggins, Pilkingtons

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.com

The ink had no sooner dried on the paper last week when I received an e-mail from Lynn Cunningham who has done much research in Pike County and had some additional information on the Dominick family. You guys don’t know how much I appreciate the follow-ups on these families, many of which are totally unfamiliar to me. Lynn, like me, is not related to the Dominick family but her information on them is a part of her study of Pike County history.

David and Bathsheba (her name is also seen as “Barsheba” but in her father’s will she is called “Bethsheba”) Dominick were married 24 Feb. 1837 in Coweta County. Her maiden name was Riggins and she was the daughter of James and Polly (Mary) Riggins.

Bathsheba Riggins was actually David’s second wife. His first wife was Mary Nealy, with whom he had five children: Robert Nealy Dominick, Wesley Dominick, Jane Dominick, James Jefferson Dominick (b. 1826 in S.C., d. 1859 in Pike Co., m. Nancy Justice), and Eunice Dominick (b. 1831 in S.C., d. 1898, m. Francis Oscar Drewry).

This is more than likely the Neely connection mentioned in the Newberry court records.

Mary Nealy Dominick died about 1836 and David then married Bathsheba Riggins. They had four children: Elizabeth Dominick who may have married a Rawls, William Harrison Dominick, David Dominick and John Thomas Dominick. Lynn only brought forward the descendants of James Jefferson Dominick who married Nancy Justice. Their daughter, Mary Jane Dominick, married John Lennis Park. Most of these families remained in Pike County.

David Dominick and his first wife, Mary Nealy, are both buried in Tranquil Cemetery in Turin (Coweta County).

After David’s death in 1842, Bathsheba married Robert Monroe Pilkington, son of Balaam Pilkington and Sarah Cate. Bathsheba Riggins Dominick and Robert Monroe Pilkington had five children: James H.C. Pilkington (died in the Civil War), Mary Ann Pilkington (m. John Charles Garner in Pike County and moved to Texas), Roy Pilkington, Robert Monroe Pilkington, and Julia Pilkington (m. James Maxie Brooks). Julia and James are buried in the Molena Cemetery in Pike County.

Bathsheba (Riggins Dominick) Pilkington died about 1861 and Robert Pilkington remarried Nancy Justice Dominick, the widow of his late wife’s stepson. (Yeah. It starts to get a bit twisted here.) Nancy Justice, you remember, was the wife of James Jefferson Dominick, son of David Dominick and Mary Nealy (David’s first wife, before Bathsheba). Lordy, these family relationships are fun to figure out, aren’t they?

Apparently things didn’t go so smoothly in the Dominick-Pilkington family because, according to Lynn, Robert Pilkington was murdered about 1868 by John Thomas Dominick, his step-son. Lynn didn’t give any details, but the murder was probably written up in one of the newspapers of that day.

I checked all my Newberry books and there is no Riggins family in the index for any of them, so Bathsheba Riggins, although born in South Carolina, was not from Newberry, or either her family was there before my records were recorded (1818 is the earliest I have in the court books).

Also, although David and Bathsheba Riggins Dominick were married in 1837 in Coweta County, there are no Riggins in census records there through 1840. They may have slipped across the county line from Pike into Coweta.

There is, however, a William Pilkington on page 44 of the 1840 Coweta census. Perhaps he is a relative of Robert Monroe Pilkington.

Lynn directed me to the Pike County GenWeb Archives for the will of James Riggins which listed Bathsheba’s siblings. James Riggins’ will was made in January of 1842 and recorded July 4, 1842. It mentions his land in the 9th District of formerly Monroe, now Pike County, which consisted of land lots 261, 252, and fractional lot 279. He also left land lot 224 in the same district to his son, James Jefferson Riggins.

He mentions his wife, Polly, and children Bathsheba Dominick, Mary Williamson, Sarah Riggins, Elizabeth Spear, Matilda Justice, Terisy Barker, Nancy Bagwell, James Jefferson Riggins, William Riggins, Joshua Riggins and Minton (or Milton) Riggins, and names as executors his “sons,” Joshua Riggins, Minton (or Milton) Riggins, James J. Riggins, Joseph Spear, James Justice, Thomas Barker, Blakely Bagwell, David Dominick, and Joseph Williamson.

I suppose James didn’t want his children squabbling over their inheritance, so he put an amusing clause at the bottom (this was done a lot by daddies who didn’t want their children to argue) which says: “It is further my wish and I do hereby declare that if any of my children on ligature shall raise a disturbance without grand cause — then such one shall have one dollar for his portion and that past heretofore assigned such ligature shall be equally divided among the other ligatures under the precise system or plan afore name.” I think he may have meant “legatees” rather than “ligatures,” don’t you? But, what the heck? He got the point across.

The witnesses were Charles McDonald, Moses D. White and Aron Johnson.

I hope this has given some researchers of these families some information to work with and will help them figure out their family trees. It certainly was enlightening to me. Thanks, Lynn.

I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!