Highlight an Ancestor: John Pickard

John "Johnannes" Pickard

Born: May 28th, 1760

in Big Flats, Herkimer County, New York

Died: August 30th, 1827 

*John "Johnannes" Pickard (anestor on my mother's side) is my mother's great-great-great-great grandfather, and John will be my first ancestor to highlight on Green Like the Color.

•  John "Johnannes" Pickard was born on the 28th of May, 1760 in Big Flatts, Herkimer County, New York. At the age of 23, he married a Magdelena "Margaret" Maria Garlock (b. 1767 d. 1851) on January 6th, 1784 in German Flatts, Herkimer County.
• John Pickard was a descendant of German Palatines who had fled to Holland because of religious persecution, thence to England and finally to the British colony of New York during Queen Anne's reign. By the time the family had settled in the Mohawk Valley, the family name had changed from the original 'Bikkert' to 'Pickert' in England and then eventually to 'Pickard' in America. John enlisted at Johnstown, Herkimer County, N.Y. in 1779 in the 2nd Regiment, Tryon County, N.Y. Militia with Col. Jacob Klock as commander. He served as a private in companies commanded by Captains Rudolph Koch, Johannes Russ and Christian House. Two years of the time were spent as a soldier until December, 1782, when he was captured and taken as a prisoner in Canada. He had been taken prisoner while fighting in the Mohawk Valley by Indians in league with the British and American Tories and held captive at Montreal. A young brother, Conrad, in later years a resident of Amherst, Erie County, N.Y. in an affidavit signed May 8, 1852 before a justice of the peace in Niagara County, N.Y., stated that "he well remembers his brother, John, singing the Indian songs and saw him dance their war-dances he learned while held captive by the Indians". This same brother, Conrad, and the father of John Pickard served as enlisted men in the 2nd Tryon County regiment. Another brother of John's, Nicholas, served in the Tryon County Regiment commanded by Col. Samuel Campbell. five cousins, one of whom bore the name of John and served as Quartermaster of the regiment, were in the ranks of the Tryon County Regiment. John Pickard and his wife, seven children and his father, moved from Herkimer County to Cazenova, Madison County, N.Y. around 1796. Twenty years later, in March 1816, John Pickard and his family arrived in the Town of Ellery, Chautauqua County, N.Y.

  Not every ancestor of mine that I choose to highlight may have a story I can share, in fact, truthfully I may not know hardly anything about them at all. However, regardless of how much information I've been able to scrounge up on a particular ancestor, I choose to highlight them anyway. The reason? Because no matter how distant the relationship or the fact that I never knew them personally, they're still my family. But most of all, without them I wouldn't be here...and God himself chose them to pave the way along a specially given path of life through history, and that path ultimately leading to me.