Sunday, May 22, 2011

In Search of Jefferson Davis

When my mother was a small child, she opened her history book at school and thought she saw a picture of her Uncle John. She was quite surprised to see this and could not wait to get home from school to ask her mother why Uncle John was in the history book.

Her mother took one look and said "Oh, yes, that is not Uncle John, but we are related to the man in the picture, that is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America". Her mother explained that they were not proud of him and did not to speak of him. He was some sort of second cousin or something.

So now I am searching to see if I can find the trail from my Davis family to the famous Jefferson Davis.





This is a photo I compiled of my Great Grandfather, Jefferson Bluford Davis on the left, top & bottom and the famous Jefferson Davis, in photos close to the age of the photos I have of my grandfather, on the right, top and bottom.

Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but it looks to me like there is some family resemblance between the two of them.

I have not had any luck finding a path on ancestry with the data that I have. Then looking on ebay, I found 2 older genealogy books on Jefferson Davis. I bought them both and I am going to put the data into a new family tree on Ancestry. Maybe I can find that missing link through this?

One book is "Davis Family Records, by J. Montgomey Seaver, 1929" and the other book is "Genealogy of Jefferson Davis and Samuel Davis by William H. Whitsitt, 1910".

I will post here in a few months with the results.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Who Are We and Where Did We Come From?

I am still in the beginning stages of my research, but here are the basics for anyone who may be interested.

Our family is made from the following Iowa families:

Hall
Brubaker
Bentroth
Bast

The Hall family was said to have come from England, although I have not traced it that far yet. 
I don't know about the origin of the Brubaker family, but they are also part of the Blakeslee family.

The areas of Iowa were: Waterloo, Denver, Waverly.

The Bentroth and Bast families immigrated from Germany.




Our family is made from the following Kansas families:

Bahl
Vogel
Davis
Burdette
Simmons

The Bahl and Vogel families both immigrated from Kamenka, Russia.

The Davis and Burdette families are old southern state families.
I have not yet found their origins of immigration.
The Simmons family so far are from Kansas.

The Kansas families mainly resided in Parsons, Kansas.





This photo is an unknown Kansas woman in our box of family photos.

Our family is made from the following Pennsylvania families:

Gagliano
Falcone
White
McCormick

The Gagliano and Falcone families immigrated from Italy to Pennsylvania.
The White and McCormick families were also in Pennsylvania, but I have not traced their immigration yet.

Toole
Rash

The Toole family is from Texas and Alabama.
The Rash family is from Missouri.
I have not traced the immigration of these families yet.