Hi Betsy,
Besides being born in May myself (next Saturday), I would like to nominate my 4th great grandmother, Narcissa (Pierce) Hopson, who was born on 1 May 1801 (or 1804 depending on the record).
She was one of my brick walls for over 20 years. It was only a couple of years ago that I was finally able to solve her parentage via DNA research, but there are still hundreds of incorrect trees out there.
She was one of three Pierce sisters (Narcissa, Sophronia and Anna) who married in Athens, Ohio, to three Hopson brothers (Robert, Thomas and Benjamin). Her father had died in 1814 and she was married in 1815 (either age 11 or 13). She and her husband, Robert, had a very loving marriage and would go on to have 13 children. We also had to prove Robert's ancestry, as there was a family story passed down through generations that he was kidnapped as a boy on the coast of Scotland while gathering fire wood. It was stated that he was taken by ship to New York where he stole away to Ohio. DNA proved otherwise when we found his parents were Simeon Hopson and Elizabeth Lottridge and that he was born in New York. Goes to show how family stories sometimes can be just that...stories (not fact).
In discovering Narcissa's true parentage, it was discovered that she was a Mayflower descendant through Samuel Fuller, John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley and her parents, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley.
Robert and Narcissa eventually moved from Athens, Ohio to Adams, Illinois where they lived the remainder of their lives. Narcissa died on 1 April 1860 and her husband followed her in death just nine months later on 15 January 1861.
