Pettit, circa 1700's

[jason]

I am looing for the parents of an Amos Pettit who was born in N.Y around 1760.

My research has hit a brickwall at Amos and I have yet to find out who might be his parents. I'm thinking they must have come from England sometime before his birth.

The two main branches of Pettits which came to America were John and Thomas, sons of Henri, but there are several gaps.

I know it's a bi of a long shot but I thought I would try searching this side of the pond.

Thanks for any information

Jason

[ChrisKelly]

You might find this family tree useful:
http://familytrees.genopro.com/210574/default.htm
There are 1000+ individuals called Petty, Pettyt and Petyt plus lots of other variants including your 'Pettit'.
Should keep you occupied for a while. :-)

[jason]

Thanks for the link Chris, that's a great website.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any links. Somewhere, someone moved from England to America, I know the name of their son but am unable to find out who the father is, he would have likely died in New York.

There were only a few persons listed on that website who died in America, the great majority were born AND died in England.

It seems that the spelling of the name Pettit changed frequently, even from father to son, then back again to an earlier spelling...pettit, petit and petyt being the most common. This just aggrevates the search. Going back even further the name was "De le Petit" around the times of the battle of hastings.

[bwarnerok]

are you certain they didn't come directly from france?

-b-

[jason]

Relatively sure. In my research I discovred most of the Pettit's (petit) coming from france settled in the southern states or Quebec. None of my ancestors came from there. I know that my 5 X great grandfather came to the Niagra area of Ontario sometime around 1799 from New York. Even at that time the spelling was "Pettit" Most from France were "Petit". Originally it seems all Pettit's, (including all various spellings) came from Normandy. This is why the early recorded Pettit's living in England were Le Petit, or simply Petit and from there evolved several other spellings.