Hi Patricia & Sterling,
It's nice to find others interested in Christopher Adams Parker. I have more info on the Armstrongs than I do on the Parkers since I am descended from the Armstrongs through Abigail Armstrong Parker's sister Jane Madison Armstrong King.

Abigail was called "Aunt Abby" by her neices & nephews. From old handwritten family records & a family letter, I knew that Abigail had married William H.Parker of Natchez but that was all I knew. Mississippi Marriage Records show they married 30 Aug 1810 in Adams, MS.(Natchez is in Adams Co.) The marriage record lists her as "Abrigail" Armstrong. Another researcher lists her as "Abigail Hannah" but he hasn't answered my email requesting documentation for how he came up with the Hannah part of her name. So for now, I'm sticking with only Abigail.

William was a Natchez innkeeper and owned the finest hotel in the city. His three-story hotel, The Mississippi Hotel, was considered quite fashionable in the 1830's and many notables stayed there. It was damaged by fire in 1839 & destroyed by the great tornado of 1840(Source:"Antebellum Natchez" by D.Clayton James, LSU Press, 1968; pgs 94, 174, 189). William was an early leader,1809(the yr. before his marriage), of "The Mechanical Society" in Natchez which was like an early Chamber of Commerce. Other leaders of this group included such notables as the famous Andrew Marschalk (1st printing press in MS) and John Shaw (pg. 94, "Antebellum Natchez", James, LSU Press). Wm. H.Parker shows up in the 1810 Adams Co. Census, 1816 Adams Co. Census, 1818 Adams Co. Census,& the 1830 Federal Census, then he seems to drop out of the Natchez area, possibly due to loss of his hotel. Wm. H. Parker then shows up on the 1850 Slave Schedule in Carroll Parish, Louisiana which is in northeast LA across the River from Vicksburg, MS. Carroll Parish is where his daughter Minerva Parker Sparrow and her husband had a fine plantation home, Arlington, in Lake Providence. Another researcher has given me the date of 1 Jul 1859 as the date of William's death in New Orleans, but I have no documentation. I do find Minerva documented in Maury, Tn where she was in a hospital for treatement but I didn't find Wm. Parker with the Sparrows or the Ashbridges unless I just overlooked him. If you know something or remember a clue, please let me know. I have heard that Minerva and Edward Sparrow married in Trinity Episcopal Church in Natchez, but have not been able to confirm that.

Christopher's maternal uncle Commodore James Armstrong is quite well known. Google him and you might be surprised! Both he and his brother William M. Armstrong joined the U.S. Navy as young boys - they were living in Natchez, but received their appointments from KY which is where the family had previously lived. Both men rose through the ranks to become commodores. William married Adeline Tyler with family connections to President Tyler and James married first Hannah Crowninshield, the noted artist whose works are in the Smithsonian (maybe this is where someone got mixed up on the name of Christopher's mother) and when Hannah died, James married her sister Elizabeth. The Crowninshields were an old well-known family from Mass. James and his two wives had no children. William had a son, James who also went to sea and unfortunately died there at a young age. William Armstong and his wife were survived by three daughters who married and had children. If you'd like more details, please go to Compton Tree by dcweatherly on ancestory.com and you can find more, hopefully correct! It is all a work in progress! I'm so interested in Christopher and of course proud of what he did - not sure why there is not more written about him in our family archives, tho my father's mother sold over 3,000 letters and documents to LSU in the early 1940's when she moved out of her large home to a smaller one. Even though she was careful to keep letters pertaining to family, I've seen some things listed in the online guide of those documents/letters she sold that may have some potential nuggets of info. In case you're near Baton Rouge, it is called the Alonzo Snyder Collection.

This posting is getting really long! Hope I've helped a little. It's a never ending search! Happy hunting!
Dannie C. Weatherly