Jesse Pitcock's name might appear fairly average upon first examination, but there's something fun hidden in his middle name. He was my 1st cousin 4x removed on one of my mother's lines. And before a day ago, I didn't even know he existed, let alone would have picked him for this blog's subject line. But due to coincidental timing this week, I happened to discover him and have the perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight on him and his family.
Jesse was born in 1890 in Greene County, Pennsylvania to parents John and Sidney Pitcock. John was my 3rd great granduncle. I believe Jesse was their youngest child out of 9 kids! He went on to marry a woman named Lucy John and they had 5 daughters together.
Now, I don't have any strong evidence to back up this suspicion, but I believe Jesse's parents had a wonderful sense of humor. Jesse's name only sprung out at me while leafing through my Ancestry.com tree's image hints. His obituary had been uploaded by another user and his full name was splashed across the header: Jesse Leisure Pitcock.
I thought, "What a great middle name: Leisure!" But it wasn't until I took a gander at his folks in my tree that I laughed and decided I come from people who don't take life too seriously. Because his mother's maiden name just happened to be Rush!
I'd like to think when Sidney was giving birth to Jesse, he was taking his sweet time coming into this world and his parents felt it necessary to make a statement of it. I bet Sidney would have made some snarky remark like, "He must get it from his father's side." It certainly wasn't a trait of the Rush family!
Unfortunately, to spoil this fun, I have only found his WWI draft card actually confirm this as his middle name. Other records have various other spellings like Leazear and Lazure. So, can I say for sure this inside joke is legit? Nope, but I'm sure gonna think so for my own enjoyment!
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