Mary Ann Bilyeu

Mary Ann and son Jacob died before husband Isaac Bilyeu.

1850, Missouri Census, Tanney Co.

Family

Mary Ann was a daughter of Jacob Workman and Elizabeth Wyckoff.

She married Isaac Bilyeu, Sr, a son of John Bilyeu and Tryntje. Together, they had eleven children:

1. Isaac Bilyeu, Jr
2. Jacob Bilyeu
3. John Witten Bilyeu
4. Rachel (Bilyeu) Finley
5. Elizabeth Louisa (Bilyeu) Clinkenbeard
6. Lydia Ann (Bilyeu) Bilyeu
7. Diannah (Bilyeu) Brumley
8. Mary Ann (Bilyeu) Melton
9. Margaret Ann (Bilyeu) Melton
10. Stephen William Bilyeu
11. Rebecca Bilyeu

Ancestry

It is said on many on-line trees that Mary Ann was fully Cherokee. It is also said that her family participated in the "Trail of Tears," a claim cited as coming from Emmet Starr's 1921 History of the Cherokee Indians. That book does not, in fact, mention any Workmans.

The Native American claims are inaccurate. Mary Ann's family was Dutch, English, French, Swedish, and German. Neither she nor any family members lived with or near any Cherokee. They are not listed on the 1835 Cherokee census. Additionally, Cherokee women married to white men did not participate in the Trail of Tears, because they were not viewed as problematic.

Some of the confusion may be due to her being buried in Big Indian Creek Cemetery, Carroll County, but that is simply a geographic name.

Sources

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5484584&ref=wvr

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• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 2 2023, 20:00:43 UTC