From England to America

 This post is a timeline of the "main" people from 1090 England to modern times. This is informational only.

Medieval & Early Modern Penningtons

• Gamel de Pennington (1090–1170) — earliest documented ancestor in England

• Benedict Pennington (1125–1185)

• Alan de Pennington (1140–1208)

• Sir Thomas de Pennington (1180–1248)

• Sir Alan de Pennington (1200–1240)

• Sir John de Pennington (1240–1277)

• Sir William Pennington (1275–1323)

• John Pennington (1300–1332)

• William Pennington (1330–1368)

• Sir Alan Pennington (1360–1415)

Late Medieval to Tudor Era

• Sir John Pennington I (1393–1470)

• John Pennington II, Esquire (1413–1470)

• John Pennington III (1446–1512)

• John Pennington IV (1464–1516)

• Sir John Pennington V (1485–1547)

• Sir William Pennington (1523–1592)

Early Modern Period

• Robert Pennington (1555–1628)

• John Pennington, Esquire (1573–1634)

• William Pennington (1595–1652) — last generation fully in England before colonial migration

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Part 2 — Penningtons in America (1632–Present)

Colonial & Early America

• Henry Pennington (1632–1685) — born in England, settled in Maryland

• Abraham Pennington Sr. (1670–1756) — Maryland

• Abraham Pennington Jr. (1694–1756) — South Carolina

• Capt. Isaac Pennington Sr. (1715–1760) — Delaware → South Carolina

Westward Expansion

• Jacob David Pennington (1755–1827) — South Carolina → Tennessee

• Isaac Pennington (1775–1838) — South Carolina → Tennessee

• David Newton Pennington (1829–1912) — Tennessee → Arkansas

Branch into the Vandygriff Line

• Elizabeth B. Pennington (1854–1921) — Tennessee

  • Married William M. Vandergriff (1856–1908) — Tennessee

    • John Elliot Vandygriff (1875–1949) — Tennessee

      • Rufus Junior Vandygriff (1923–1965) — Texas

        • Rufus Irwin Vandygriff (b. 1948) — Indiana, living (my father)

          • Brandi Vandygriff (b. 1993) — Minnesota, living (me)

 

The Divided Line: David & Rhoda Pennington, A Cousin Marriage and a Forgotten Daughter

In the quiet hills of Lawrence County, Tennessee, on January 6, 1848, David Newton Pennington married his first cousin, Rhoda L. Pennington, sealing a union that was both deeply rooted in family and destined for early heartache.

🧬 A Cousin Bond and Brief Marriage

Rhoda, born in 1833, was the daughter of David Pennington (1796–1868) and Elizabeth Kirk (1802–1870). Her husband David Newton Pennington, born in 1829, was the son of Isaac Pennington (1775–1838) and Elizabeth Wilkes (1800–1860). The two shared common grandparents, making them first cousins — a practice not uncommon at the time, especially in tight-knit frontier families where family ties often doubled as property, faith, and survival networks.

Rhoda and David’s marriage was short-lived but marked by two children: Farinda, born in 1849, and Elizabeth B. Pennington, born in 1854. Just one year later, Rhoda passed away at the age of 22. Her death, though largely undocumented in cause, became a turning point for the young family.

🧭 A Family Splits

After Rhoda's passing, David Newton began a new life. He moved westward to Arkansas, where he remarried in 1857 to Matilda Clingan and built a large second family. On the 1860 Arkansas census, he appears with Matilda, their first children together, and his eldest daughter Farinda from his first marriage.

But Elizabeth, just a child at the time, did not make the journey with them. Instead, she remained in Tennessee, appearing on the 1860 census in the household of her maternal grandparents, David and Elizabeth (Kirk) Pennington — seemingly forgotten or left behind as her father started anew.

This “vanishing” from the Pennington family line — and eventual rediscovery through census records and death certificates — is what led to her omission from later genealogical accounts. Her story, once overlooked, is now central to the lineage explored here.

⚔️ A Soldier, Farmer, and Methodist Deacon

David Newton Pennington’s second life in Arkansas was one of complexity and transformation. In 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, serving three years in Captain Green’s Company, which later became Company H of the Arkansas 37th Infantry Regiment. After the war, he returned to farming, raising cotton and corn in Clark County, Arkansas by the mid-1880s.

Later in life, he was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Church in 1884, and though dismissed by letter from New Hope Methodist Church in 1889, his religious involvement is documented as part of his legacy.

David died in 1912 in Garland County, Arkansas, after raising at least eleven children between his two marriages — a patriarch of two family branches: one rooted in Tennessee, and one grown in Arkansas.

🌿 A Divided Legacy

The marriage of David and Rhoda Pennington represents a fork in the family tree — one branch moving forward visibly through the Penningtons of Arkansas, the other quietly surviving in Tennessee through Elizabeth, whose early placement in her grandparents’ home almost severed her line from the larger record.

But through research and rediscovery, her story — and the story of her parents — now has its place.

Details about David Newton Pennington’s life in Arkansas, including his military service, farming, and religious roles, are drawn in part from the compiled family history:

“The Descendants of David Newton Pennington and Matilda Clingan”
Prepared by Michael Thomas Pennington
(Available in full via FamilySearch)

This document was originally compiled for a family reunion and integrates records from multiple Pennington researchers. While it omitted David’s daughter Elizabeth from his first marriage, her story is now documented and restored here through independent research.

 

🕵️‍♀️ The Vanishing Daughter: Rediscovering Elizabeth B. Pennington

In the course of researching the Pennington surname, I expected to find my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth B. Pennington (1854–1921), recorded alongside her parents and siblings in early census records. Instead, I found... nothing.

Her absence from her father's household as a child led one researcher to omit her entirely from a published family history. But Elizabeth hadn’t disappeared—she had simply taken a different path, one that left her nearly invisible in traditional records. Until now.

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💔 A Family Split After Loss

Elizabeth was born on July 22, 1854, in Lawrence County, Tennessee, to David Newton Pennington and Rhoda L. Pennington—first cousins who shared common Pennington grandparents. Her mother, Rhoda, tragically died less than a year later, in June 1855.

Shortly after Rhoda's death, Elizabeth's father, David Newton Pennington, relocated to Arkansas with Elizabeth’s older sister, Farinda (1849–1908). But Elizabeth did not go with them.

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🧩 Hiding in Plain Sight

In the 1860 census, Elizabeth does not appear with her father in Arkansas—a detail that caused her to be overlooked by later researchers. But after combing through census records in Tennessee, I found her exactly where you might hope a motherless child would be: in the home of her maternal grandparents, David Pennington (1796–1868) and Elizabeth Kirk Pennington (1802–1870), still in Lawrence County.

She was hidden not by intent, but by circumstance—a vulnerable child tucked into the safety of her mother’s kin, while her father started a new life elsewhere.

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💍 A Life Reclaimed

On February 13, 1875, Elizabeth married William M. Vandergriff (1856–1908). Despite William’s surname appearing in records with the spelling “Vandergriff,” their children were documented with the variant “Vandygriff”—the spelling that continues in my own family line.

Together, Elizabeth and William had twelve children, including my direct ancestor, John Elliot Vandygriff:

1. John Elliot (1875–1946)

2. Dora Vandergriff (1876–1944)

3. James Newton Sr. (1879–1974)

4. Ida Belle Vandergriff (1880–1936)

5. Mary Elizabeth (1882–1957)

6. William Alton (1885–1943)

7. Eunice (1886–?)

8. Rufus Rowlin (1888–1968)

9. George W. (1892–?)

10. Ada Myrtle (1893–1940)

11. Dollie Victoria Vandergriff (1894–1979)

12. Bessie Hazel (1897–1952)

Elizabeth lived the rest of her life in Lawrence County, Tennessee. By the time of her death on July 21, 1921, she was listed simply as a “housewife” on census records. But behind that modest title was a woman who raised twelve children, survived personal loss, and became the matriarch of an extended family line that still bears her legacy.

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🧬 Bringing Her Back Into the Record

Elizabeth’s story reminds me—and hopefully other researchers—that the people we miss in documents are still there. It takes persistence, care, and sometimes a bit of super-sleuthing to see the full picture. She was more than a gap in a family chart—she was a daughter, wife, mother, and the bridge between generations.

Her name is no longer missing from the record. She's back where she belongs.

Further reading:

Michael Thomas Pennington, The Descendants of David Newton Pennington and Matilda Clingan (n.p.: privately compiled). Available online at FamilySearch.

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/567783-descendants-of-david-newton-pennington-and-matilda-clingan?offset=

 

✍️ Tracing the Path to Pennington: A Generational Introduction

As I continue exploring the Pennington surname in my family tree, I wanted to first outline the direct maternal and paternal lines that lead to Elizabeth B. Pennington (1854–1921)—my great-great-grandmother, and the entry point for my surname deep dive. Although the Pennington name doesn’t appear in my more recent generations, the bloodline is clear, and the story leading up to Elizabeth is one worth sharing.

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📍 My Generation

I was born in Minnesota in 1993. My connection to the Pennington line comes through my paternal ancestry—specifically through my father’s father’s side.

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👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Parents

• Father: Rufus Irwin Vandygriff (born 1948, Indiana)

• Mother: Bennie Janell Lokey (born 1948, Texas)

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👵👴 Grandparents

• Paternal Grandfather: Rufus Junior Vandygriff
  Born August 11, 1923 in Davidson County, Tennessee
  Died March 15, 1965 in Collin County, Texas

• Paternal Grandmother: Betty Louise Mickey
  Born February 6, 1923 in Indiana
  Died October 4, 1971 in Texas

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🧓👵 Great-Grandparents

• John Elliot Vandygriff
  Born December 24, 1875 in Lewis County, Tennessee
  Died August 9, 1949 in Coffee County, Tennessee

• Pernecie Lizetta Rogers
  Born March 19, 1882 in Lyon County, Kentucky
  Died March 7, 1938 in Coffee County, Tennessee

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🧬 Great-Great-Grandparents – The Pennington Link

Here is where the surname “Pennington” first appears in my direct line.

• William M. Vandygriff
  Born October 11, 1856 in Tennessee
  Died August 21, 1908 in Tennessee

• Elizabeth B. Pennington
  Born July 22, 1854 in Lawrence County, Tennessee
  Died July 21, 1921 in Lawrence County, Tennessee

Elizabeth is my great-great-grandmother, and it’s through her that the Pennington surname enters my family history. From this point, I’ll be exploring the Pennington line in more detail—tracing it backward through Tennessee and beyond, identifying known relatives, and correcting or clarifying what others may have missed along the way.

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This post serves as a brief introduction to how I connect to the Pennington surname—and as a foundation for the deeper historical profiles and research I’ll be sharing in upcoming entries.

 This blog has a few purposes, as listed below.

1. This blog is a containment for the family research I have been doing

2. This blog is a tool to possibly find family members.

3. This blog is to help tell a complete family story.

I hope that if you are here, that you also have an interest in family research and genealogy.

A little about myself before we get started. My name is Brandi (Vandygriff) Pennington. I am from Arkansas. The family details you find here are from my years of research. I have fully documented all the way back to 5-great-grandparents, and sparsely document further back. I am working on fleshing out different lines and finding theories and sources to support my claims. Everything here is subject to change, based on newly found research or communications from you guys.

The reason this is titled Pennington Family 2026 is because I married a Pennington and I have Penningtons deep in the family tree. Other surnames you may see in research include Pennington, Vandygriff (and alternate spellings), Lokey, Alspach, and Mickey.