Surname Saturday - Akers

This week I received an email from a cousin stating that we were related through the Akers line. My first thought was "wonderful!" My second thought was, "I don't know much about that line." His email gave me some motivation to learn more about this line.

I am related to the Akers through my mother's side of the family. Mary Ellen Akers, my 4th great grandmother, is the first Akers in my line. She was born in Ray County, Missouri in 1833 to Joseph Akers and Elizabeth Heard.

Mary Ellen Akers married Colonel Henderson Megonnigil in Ray County, Missouri on April 21, 1850. They had six children: Lucinda (1851), Mary Isabel (1854), Elizabeth (1857), Annie (1864), John Nelson (1866) and Malinda (1869). I have yet to determine when Mary Akers Megonnigil died. The last record I have found of her is the 1870 census.

I was able to connect Mary to her parents based on a biography of her brother, James, in the Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn counties, Missouri published in 1893.

Notice that the biography states his parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Heard) Akers and that there were five children to this union: Sarah, Catharine, James, Mary and Marion. It also states that as of 1893 all of the siblings but James were dead. That narrows down Mary's death date.

However, the biography does not give much information on Joseph Akers or Elizabeth Heard Akers. I have found many trees online with information about Joseph but so far I have found no sources other than the above to connect Mary to Joseph and Elizabeth or to the next generation.