On my recent research trip to the Special Collections and Archives of Clemson University’s Library, I found interesting new information about the burial place of Ezekiel Pickens, son of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun, and of Ezekiel’s wife Elizabeh Bonneau, who was a sister of Floride Bonneau, who married Rebecca’s brother John Ewing Colhoun. In a posting I previously made about Ezekiel Pickens and wift Elizabeth Bonneau, I stated that Ezekiel’s burial place is unknown.
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BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 
So many articles have General Andrew Pickens wife, Rebecca Floride Calhoun, as being John C. Calhoun’s aunt. She was actually his first cousin. Her father, Ezekiel Calhoun (1720-1760) and John C.’s father , Patrick Calhoun ( 1727-1796) were brothers.
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Yes, that’s correct. Ezekiel Calhoun and Patrick Calhoun were brothers, so Ezekiel’s daughter Rebecca and Patrick’s son John C. Calhoun were first cousins. Though many family trees give Rebecca’s name as Rebecca Floride, I’ve never seen any documents showing her with a name other than Rebecca. The French given name Floride came into the Ulster Scots Calhoun family when Rebecca’s brother John Ewing Colhoun married Floride Bonneau forty-one years after Rebecca Calhoun’s birth. There’s information about Rebecca in this posting: https://begatsandbequeathalsasouthernusfamilydocumented.com/2024/02/17/children-of-ezekiel-calhoun-and-jean-jane-ewing-rebecca-calhoun-1745-1814-and-husband-andrew-pickens/
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Dear Mr. Lindsey, Thank you for your clarification on Rebecca Calhoun Pickens’ name. I have removed the name Floride as her middle name in my family tree. I have really enjoyed your fascinating website and blogs. You have done incredible research and work on our family! I also appreciate you posting that the portrait of Floride Bonneau is not Rebecca Calhoun Pickens. I want to scream every time I see that mistake! Andrew and Rebecca Pickens are my 6th great grandparents through the Harris side of my family. As you know, their daughter, Mary, married John Harris II (1762-1845). John and Mary are my 5th great grandparents. I am currently researching information on my 2nd great grandfather, Benjamin Bonneau Harris, Jr. (1851-1925). I am interested in what you know about the French Huguenot name, Bonneau. In my research, I have found some confusion with a Pickens’ ancestor, Esther Jean Benoit Bonneau ( 1645-1701). Some accounts say she was a daughter in law of the Bonneaus, other say she was a child and that she was the sister of Antoine (Anthony) Bonneau (1647-1701). Unless my research is wrong, it seems that this Bonneau family are the ancestors of Floride Bonneau Calhoun, which would make the Pickens and Calhoun’s related by the Bonneaus. What is your understanding about the Bonneau relation? Again, I want to thank you for all your very thorough and helpful research. Have you written a book on this family history? If so, I would be interested in purchasing a copy! Sincerely yours, Susan Evatt
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I’m very happy to hear my postings are of use to you. Thanks for letting me know. We’re cousins through the Calhoun and Pickens families. I descend from Mary Calhoun, sister of your Rebecca, who married Samuel Kerr. Samuel’s parents were Samuel Kerr Sr. and Margaret Pickens, an aunt of Andrew Pickens who married Rebecca Calhoun. You’re right that it has been claimed that back in the Pickens line there was a Pickens-Bonneau marriage. The Leonardo Andrea collection has, in its Pickens file, a brief account of the Pickens family compiled by Loy Looper of Long Beach, California (no date cited). This says that the Pickens family were French Huguenots, and that Robert Pickens, grandfather of your Andrew and my Margaret, was born abt. 1644, and was living in France when the Edict of Nantes was revoked.Looper says that Robert married a French widow Esther Jane Bonneau, and escaped from France to escape persecution, settling first in Scotland and then in Ireland, where some sources place him initially at Limerick on the Shannon River, and where other sources place him in Ulster. I’ve tried to find corroboration of this story and of the Bonneau link, but have never found it. Andrew Pickens himself stated that his family had French ancestry, so I think there may well be some marriage back in the family line of a Scottish Pickens man to a French woman. Some folks have (to my way of thinking, erroneously) tried to turn the Pickens family itself into a French Huguenot family with claims that the family was originally a French Picon family. But the Picken surname has long been very common in some parts of Scotland in Ulster, and the family has for many centuries been identified as a family with Scottish roots. I wish I could tell you I’ve written a family history book, but I haven’t. My goal is to try to transfer my years of research from paper files to this blog so the information will be out there for people to find online. If I live long enough to finish that task, maybe I’ll see if I can print some of the postings in a printed, book form.
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