Did you know Barbara Bush's maiden name is Pierce? related to franklin pierce

[greenbriar]

but did you catch the HBO comedy special with comedian Wuhl?

Turns out the Barbara Bush's maiden name is Pierce. She is a direct descendant of President Franklin Pierce a drunk and pro slavery advocate (apparently one of the worst president's ever until now). He was the only President NOT renominated by his own party for a second term.

Now we know the rest of the story.

[Swamp Rat]

1. Makes sense.

[cboy4]

9. Pierce looks dumber than a five pound bag of rocks.

A lot like Uncle George.

[grasswire]

2. she's not a direct descendant

She's a fourth cousin four times removed. Here's the info from a genealogical web site where she was previously erroneously named a third grand niece of Franklin Pierce.

According to Pierce Genealogy, Frederick Clifton Peirce, Esq., 1882, provided 11/10/99 by Richard L. Pierce [e-mail] and corrected by Barb Petty [e-mail] 1/7/01, Barbara Bush's Pierce correct ancestry is as follows:

Thomas1 PIERCE 1583-4? -1666 m. Elizabeth WORTINGTON b.1595-6
Thomas2 PIERCE 1618-1683 m.1635 Elizabeth COLE d.1688
James3 PIERCE 1659-1742 m.(1)abt.1687 Elizabeth PARKER d.1715
James4 PIERCE 1690-1773 m.(2)bef.1711 Phebe UNKNOWN d.1776
Joshua5 PIERCE 1722-1771 m(2)1753 Esther RICHARDSON 1727-1819
James6 PIERCE 1768-1849 m.1795 Mary STACY 1774-1847
Gen. James7 PIERCE Jr. 1810-1874 m.1839 Chloe HOLBROOK 1816-1886
Jonas8 James PIERCE 1839-1913 m.1865 Kate PRITZEL 1841-1931
Scott9 PIERCE 1866-aft.1930 m.1891 Mabel MARVIN 1869-193?
Marvin10 PIERCE 1893-1969 m.(1)1918 Pauline ROBINSON 1896-1949
Barbara11 PIERCE 1925- m.1945 George Herbert Walker BUSH 1924-
George Walker BUSH 1946- m.1977 Laura WELCH 1946-

and President Franklin Pierce's ancestry is as follows:

Thomas1 PIERCE 1583-4? -1666 m. Elizabeth WORTINGTON b.1595-6
Thomas2 PIERCE 1618-1683 m.1635 Elizabeth COLE d.1688
Stephen3 PIERCE 1651-1733 m.1676 Tabitha PARKER d.1742
Stephen4 PIERCE 1679-1749 m.1707 Esther FLETCHER 1681-1767
Benjamin5 PIERCE 1726-1764 m.1746 Elizabeth MERRILL b.1727/8
Gen. Benjamin6 PIERCE 1757-1839 m.(2)1790 Anna KENDRICK 1768-1838
Pres. Franklin7 PIERCE 1804-1869 m.1834 Jane M. APPLETON 1806-1863
So Barbara PIERCE Bush 1925- is a fourth cousin four times removed (4C4R) of President Franklin PIERCE 1804-1869, and not a third great grandniece as reported by Don Merrill. Since the latest common ancestor is Thomas2 PIERCE 1608-1683 who predates Elizabeth MERRILL b.1727/8, Barbara PIERCE Bush 1925- does not have (known) Merrill ancestors.


http://www.bearhaven.com/family/cousin/barbara.html

[AlCzervik]

3. a really good and informative book on the Bush Clan is American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips

he has the history of almost all of them on both sides of the family in there, a really good read, big thumbs up on that one.

[MissMarple]

5. Quite so, a most excellent tome...yes, quite correct..

:rofl:

I actually read it on vacation in Mexico. Early mornings, coffee by the pool, pretty much no one else up except for the hotel staff.

[AlCzervik]

6. thats funny, i read it on the way to Las Vegas and on the ride coming home

and after i would read a chapter or 2 i'd turn to my husband and share what i had just learned with him--"Thats nice honey, we're on vacation, take a break from the real world"

[trof]

11. Listened to the audio book on a road trip. Fascinating.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. I knew it. And it figures. Dysfunctional family.

[noamnety]

7. I'm just waiting

for someone with a jefferson avatar to express their outrage. :)

[tech3149]

8. Pierce, Walker, Bush 3 names to reject in the political landscpe

Then you can look at the background people with names like Harriman, Brown, DeVos, Koch, Coors and so many more. If you hadn't figured it out yet, it's a class war and we're losing.

[greenbriar]

12. no kidding

true

[saltpoint]

10. Politically, Pierce's presidency was more or less a disaster, but

he was a gifted orator. Babs inherited none of his eloquence.

As well, Franklin Pierce was extraordinarily likable. At his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne's funeral, Mrs. Hawthorne stood by the graveside, shivering in despair and cold for the winter burial. Pierce took off his coat and gave it to her, the frailest stay against the weather and her sadness.

Hawthorne's son Julian, age 15 when he wrote this passage, had this to say about Pierce the man:

“There was a winning, irresistible magnetism in the presence of this man. Except my father, there was no man in whose company I liked to be so much as in his. I had little to say to him, and demanded nothing more than a silent recognition from him, but his voice, his looks, his gestures, his gait, the spiritual sphere of him, were delightful to me; and I suspect that his rise to the highest office in our nation was due quite as much to this power or quality in him as to any intellectual or even executive ability that he may have possessed. He was a good, conscientious, patriotic, strong, man and gentle and tender as a woman. He had the old-fashioned ways, the courtesy, and the personal dignity which are not often seen nowadays. His physical frame was immensely powerful and athletic, but life used him hard and he was far from considerate of himself, and he died at 65, when he might under more favorable conditions have rounded out his century.”

--Julian Hawthorne, quoted in FRANKLING PIERCE, by Roy Franklin Nichols

[MindPilot]

13. Yeah but Harriet Miers said * was the "...smartest man she knew."

Will that myth become reality in the history of the present?

It was likely not in Mr Hawthorne's best financial interest to contradict his father's work. Only those who lived it know the real truth.

[saltpoint]

15. I'm just relieved that Harriet Miers will be able to return to her old

job -- you know, the one she had before she became Bush's counsel -- the lounge singer gig in El Paso.

Her fans have missed her.

Franklin Pierce's wife refused to live in the White House. After losing Benny, age 11, in that freak train accident, she blamed her husband for not telling her initially that he was running for president. She spent most of the rest of her life in despondent seclusion, writing letters to Benny in heaven.

Pierce took to the bottle and you know the rest of the tale.

[nealmhughes]

16. Virginia Clay Compton in her famous memoir "A Belle of the 50s" said that

the Washington social scene "glittered" in the Pierce administration, and that is all she says about him, even though she was one of the top hostesses in DC. Her husband was a senator from Alabama and they lived in DC and Huntsville, Ala.
It is one of the best written memoirs of a southern society woman in print for its antebellum social insights. Another good one is Sen. Fenton's memoirs, she went all the way back to pioneer days in NE Ga.

[saltpoint]

17. nealmhughes, thank you for that tip. I have not read Compton's memoir.

I may be able to hunt it down in an antiquarian bookshop.

It would be good to know what was going on in that realm at that time. It must have been eerie and unsettling for Pierce in a White House without his wife.

[nealmhughes]

18. Sat thru 3 years of southern history and historiography seminars at U. of Alabama.

I've also read all the WPA ex-slave narratives and most of the memoirs. The ex-slave narratives need to be read aloud for the forced dialectial spelling the editors used, and the fact that most of those interviewed were mere children in slave times.
Fenton's book is really good, she states how raw the southern frontier was in the 1840s in NE Ga. after the gold rush and the removal of the Cherokees.
My favorite though is a Tuscaloosa lady in the 40s who stated after Dorothea Dix travelled thru to lobby for a state "insane asylum" as Tuscaloosa was then the capitol that "she had the most charming voice and often sang for the lunatics, who found it quite calming."
You ought to be able to interlibrary loan it from any library in the US as it is in a tremendous amount of academic libraries with a southern history program.

[saltpoint]

19. I may go that route, then. Dorothea Dix singing for the lunatics.

There's a major stage play in there somewhere, I think.

Almost took a Music program at the Univ. of Alabama. Beautiful town. 'Was frightened off by one of my would-be advisors in the Music Dpt. who said he felt all music after the Baroque was "decadent."

I left in a hurry.

I honor your dedication to the volume of reading you've done. Southern writers are among my favorites, so I can appreciate the domain.

[Maine-ah]

14. as is my family, I am a Pierce.

there's alot more info about Franklin Pierce that you should look into, He had a bit of a tragic life, no person should have to deal with all of their children dieing before their time, the one to make it the longest (Bennie) was only 11 years old when he died in a train wreck. And who didn't have a drinking problem back then? And yes, it does make me related to Babs (many cousins back). No he wasn't a great president. He wasn't even a good president. But his story is very interesting, and worthy of reading about. Amazon has some books, one of which I have read http://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Pierce-New-Hampshires-Favorite/dp/0975521616/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5129630-0615954?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184528490&sr=8-2 which is pretty good.

[Bluerthanblue]

20. not a relative, and i don't like his

stand on slavery, but as a NH native, I agree that he had a tragic life. He is also at a great disadvantage coming so close (historically) to Lincoln.- (he's a hard act to precede or follow).~historians seem to forget this.

From the account i remember, he and his wife actually witnessed Benny being decapitated- And Mrs. Pierce had not been very happy about the prospect of being "First Lady" even before this. Losing child after child took a great toll on her, it's clear.

As for 'Babs'- well, we don't get to choose our relatives, and often, our ancestors have little in common with their offspring, other than DNA.

peace,
blu