Researching one’s family to identify the “begats” is an exercise of working backwards, generation by generation. Prior to the digitization of many records, information was gathered by visiting places where the records lives. Information was also gathered by correspondence with cousins who shared what they have discovered.
From that early correspondence, the consensus of many Leffew researchers were that the parents of Pleasant Henry Leffew were Elias Leffew and Rebecca Quigley. There were conflicts with that viewpoint that could not be resolved. There was an alternative thought, to which I was aligned, that Elias’s brother Joseph was more than likely the father of Pleasant. The issue with Pleasant was that finding a record that directly connected him to Joseph had not been found.
Fast forward to now, with many early newspapers now digitized and searchable online – from a search of “Joseph Leffew” in those newspapers I uncovered the notice below from “The Knoxville Register” published on Wednesday April 14, 1847, on page 3. Other records do support Pleasant Henry Leffew being a potential son of Joseph Leffew. The notice below clearly indicated he was a legal heir, more than likely a son.
