DNA CONNECTION, THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR AND PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PEIRCE

I’ve been trying to learn the ancestry of Marcus Morton Pierce, our 2nd great-grandfather, for the past 25 years. SEE “Cowboy Legacy -- The short, tragic life of Marcus Pierce”

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/11/cowboy-legacy-short-tragic-life-of.html

Then a few weeks ago I got a ancestry (dot) com DNA match to William Pearce (Pirce), our 5th great-grandfather, 1770–1841. 

From that connection I was able to piece together my PIERCE ancestry back to Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant ancestor, 1608-1683, my 10th great-grandfather.

There I found an interesting "Family Relationship.” It seems Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant 1608-1683, was the 3rd Great-grandfather to Franklin Pierce 14th U.S. President.

After considerable additional research I was able to discover our relationship to President Franklin Peirce.

OUR LINEAGE TO PRESIDENT FRANKLIN PEIRCE:

Franklin Pierce (14th POTUS, US Rep, US Senator, Brigadier General) 1804-1869
4TH COUSIN 7X REMOVED

Governor Benjamin Franklin Pierce 1757-1839
Father of Franklin Pierce (14th POTUS, US Rep, US Senator, Brigadier General)

Benjamin PIERCE or PEIRCE Sr 1726-1764
Father of Governor Benjamin Franklin Pierce

Stephen Pierce 1679-1749
Father of Benjamin PIERCE or PEIRCE Sr

Stephen Pierce 1651-1733
Father of Stephen Pierce

Thomas Pierce II, 10TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER, Sergeant, immigrant 1608-1683
Father of Stephen Pierce

Thomas Peirce III 1645-1717
Son of Thomas Pierce II, Sergeant, immigrant

Col. Timothy Pierce 1673-1748
Son of Thomas Peirce III

Nathaniel M Pierce 1701-1775
Son of Col. Timothy Pierce

Jedediah Pierce 1746-1826
Son of Nathaniel M Pierce

William Pearce (Pirce) (DNA Match) 1770-1841
Son of Jedediah Pierce

William Pearce (Pierce) (DNA Match) 1794-1875
Son of William Pearce (Pirce) (DNA Match)

James L Pearce (Pierce) 1819-1847
Son of William Pearce (Pierce) (DNA Match)

Marcus Morton Pierce 1842-1882
Son of James L Pearce (Pierce)

Lillian Amanda Pierce, GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, 1867-1957
Daughter of Marcus Morton Pierce

PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR JAMES L. PIERCE JOINING THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

Not only are we related to President Franklin Pierce, but there is an 1846-48 Mexican-American War connection that may explain the question of what happened to James L. Pierce.

For many years the question of what happened to James L. Pierce (3rd great-grandfather), father of Marcus Pierce, went unanswered. 

Then a few years back I found a James L Pearce (Pierce) who was born about 1819 in Foster, Providence, Rhode Island. That James L Pearce died in 1847, at Sea en route to Mexico during the Mexican-American War.

Perhaps he was encouraged to follow Franklin Pierce, his relative, who was gathering a New England brigade to fight in the Mexican-American War.

The timeline fit, and would explain why Marcus was without a father at age 7 on the 1850 US census.

BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANKLIN PIERCE

Source: Wikipedia

Franklin Pierce was born in 1804 with the militia tradition in his veins, the son of a hero of the American Revolution who was among Washington's most trusted combat officers. 

Young Franklin attended Bowdoin College in Maine and, while there, formed a life-long friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, later one of his biographers. Upon graduation, he returned to his native state of New Hampshire and read for the law. 

Politics caught his fancy and his ambitions. He was a stirring orator and a tireless worker, and his progress was rapid: a member of the state legislature by 1828; its speaker by 1831. That same year he was appointed a colonel in the New Hampshire militia and served as the governor's aide-de-camp. 

He retired from Congress in 1842 and returned to state politics and his law practice in Concord, New Hampshire. 

The 1846-48 Mexican War took him into active military service as a brigade commander in General Winfield Scott's army. Pierce brought his troops in good order from New England to Veracruz and then overland to join Scott in the field before Mexico City. He participated bravely in numerous engagements, acquiring a bullet hole in the brim of his hat, and showed himself to be his father's son. 

In 1853 Franklin Pierce became the 14th president of the United States of America