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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wishful Wednesday – Great (and Great-Great-Great…) Grandfathers



Wishful Wednesday is a new blogging prompt that I saw on Geneabloggers this afternoon.  The idea behind Wishful Wednesday is to write about an ancestor that you wish you could have known personally.

When I first saw this, three men came immediately to mind; Barnabas Davis, the first of my line in America, Ernest Solomon Davis, my great-grandfather, and Charles Wesley Jenkins, Ernest’s father-in-law.

Barnabas, in particular, I find fascinating.  As I’ve mentioned before, he was the first Davis of my line in America, and I am the last, so we sort of book-end our family.  Aside from that, though, the man had a life full of adventure.  He crossed the Atlantic numerous times, spent time fighting both Indians and lawsuits, raised several children, and lived during the time of the Great Migration.  I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to sit down in front of a fire with him later in his life, listening to him recount his younger years.  It would be amazing to listen to a first-hand account of sailing across the ocean that many times.

Further down the family line, Ernest Davis, descendant of Barnabas, intrigues me.  First, thanks to my parents, we purposefully share initials.  Next, at one point in his life, he worked as a blacksmith, later he worked as a lineman for a local telephone company.  I find these two facts interesting as I enjoy working with tools myself, and I also, at one point in my life, worked in the telco industry.  Finally, I came across an old book of his one time, and he had signed the inside front cover, “E.S. Davis”, in the same manner and similar script as how I sometime sign my name.  I’d love to talk to him and see if we have anything else in common.

Ernest’s father-in-law, Charles Jenkins, as I mentioned in a previous post, is something of a mystery to me.  He took part in the Civil War, may have been born out west, but apparently lived in Massachusetts while the rest of the family lived in Vermont.  I have so many questions for him about where, why, and how he came to be in the places that he was.  From my research so far, he may have been near a few famous Civil War battles, but it doesn’t look like he actually took part in them.  I’m curious if it was circumstance or design.  For instance, did he really get sick a couple of days before Gettysburg, or did he know what was coming and found a way to serve without actually going into combat?  I may never know, but I’d sure love to ask him.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Monday Meditation – Preparing for NERGC



I’ve been quiet here for the past couple of weeks.  This morning it hit me as to why I’ve been so quiet.

I’ve been mentally preparing.

I’m a naturally introverted person. I sometimes forget that we introverts not only need time to recover from an event, we also need time to prepare for an event.  In my case, I have several events coming up in the next several weeks, with some of them being back to back.  The introvert in me is already mentally saying “All those people and place and things and schedules and meals and driving and hotels….  This is going to be exhausting.”

That’s not to say that I don’t want to attend these events.  I’m actually very excited about going.  NERGC especially is going to be interesting.  There are several photograph-related seminars that I’m planning to attend, and, being my first genealogy conference, I expect that I’ll be meeting some people in person that I currently know by name only.  It’s going to be fun, but I realized this morning that it’s going to take some mental preparation, which my lizard brain apparently realized a week or two ago as it quietly started shutting down some external stimulations, like blogging.

Amma Marfo over at The Student Affairs Feature offers a good explanation for the non-introverted of what the introverted go through at conferences, as well as some suggestions for helping the introverted to not become overwhelmed.  For NERGC, I’ve already planned some “recharge” periods.  Even though they are great networking opportunities, and the discussions seem interesting, I purposely didn’t sign up for any of the meals offered at the conference.  Instead, I’ll grab a bite to eat by myself, or with a smaller group.  This will let me recover from the stimulation of crowds of people, and signs, and literature, and so on.

What I wasn’t able to do, unfortunately, was book a room in the same hotel as the conference.  This is my normal preference, and what I’d recommend as my #1 tip for convention-going introverts.  Staying right in the hotel gives you almost instant access to quiet and decompression in the event that everything starts to become too exhausting.  Unlike Amma above, you won’t have to fall asleep in the lobby, you can recharge in the comfort of your own room.  For NERGC, I’m staying at a nearby hotel that appears to be about a 10 minute walk away, so if you are attending the conference, and see me sitting in a corner somewhere reading a book, I’m likely just recharging between sessions.

Aside from mental preparation, I need to start physical preparations.  Never having attended a genealogy conference before, I’m not sure exactly what to bring.  My laptop will be going with me, but I’m not sure what else.  A notebook is a must, and possibly a sketchbook.  Someone suggested mailing labels for quickly filling out forms, and of course business cards for handing out to new contacts.

What else should I bring?

Monday, March 4, 2013

Military Monday – Civil War Challenge


Grave site of Charles Wesley Jenkins

Bill West of West in New England offered a Civil War Challenge the other day that caught my eye.  Basically the challenge is to research and write about an ancestor that fought in the Civil War.

The reason this caught my eye is that I have one ancestor, Charles Wesley Jenkins, who has been a bit of a mystery to me.  He fought in the Civil War, but some of the details that I’ve found about him leave me scratching my head.

Here’s what I have documented about him so far:

He was born 3 November, 1839 to Amos and Rhoda Jenkins.1

Puzzle #1: Was he born in Vermont2 or Indiana3?  I have secondary documentation for both places.  If he was born in Indiana, why was the family (or at least his mother) there?  The rest of the family, both his ancestors and descendants, are in the Landgrove and Peru areas of Vermont.

On 2 August, 1862, Charles enlisted in Company L of the 33rd Massachusetts Infantry.4

Puzzle #2: Why did he enlist in Massachusetts instead of Vermont?  Again, all of the family that I’ve documented so far was in Vermont.  It also appears that his brother and father may have enlisted in Vermont.5

On 4 May, 1865 he married Laura Ann Derby.6

In September of that same year, he was discharged from the military.7

Puzzle #3: Where did he travel while in the military?  What battles was he in?  This isn’t so much as a puzzle as it is an opportunity for more research.  I know that he was transferred from the Infantry to the Veteran Reserve Corps (also known as the Invalid Corps).  I’m not sure what he did while there though.  This needs more research.

He had two daughters, Ida Abbie8 and Minnie Laura Jenkins.9

He died 17 April, 1883, and was buried in Landgrove, Vermont in the New Cemetery.10

My mission, which I’ve chosen to accept, is to look into the life of Charles Jenkins some more, and to write a blog post about him after April 30th.  If I’m successful, a link to that post and others will be placed on the West in New England blog on May 6th.


1 The Weston Historical Society, Genealogies of The Early Settlers of Weston, Vermont, Second Edition (Weston, VT: The Weston Historical Society, 2006), 224.



2 Minnie Laura Davis, Death Record Londonderry, VT (1918), Ancestry.com


3 Charles W. Jenkins household, 1870 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, sheet 10, dwelling 79, family 69 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 24 Dec 2012).


4 Laura A. Jenkins, 1890 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont,  veterans schedule, town of Londonderry, enumeration district [ED] 233 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] Vt. (penned), sheet 3 (penned), dwelling 137, family 143 line 33; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 25 Dec 2012).


5 I have some information that mentions both Charles’s father and brother enlisting.  I have not analyzed and documented this information at this time.  This will be part of my research over the next few weeks.


6 Charles Jenkins household, 1880 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, enumeration district [ED] 31 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] "of Vt" (penned), sheet 2 (penned), dwelling 15, family 16 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 30 Mar 2012).


7 Laura A. Jenkins, 1890 U.S. census, Windham County, Vermont,  veterans schedule, town of Londonderry, enumeration district [ED] 233 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] Vt. (penned), sheet 3 (penned), dwelling 137, family 143 line 33; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 25 Dec 2012).


8 Charles Jenkins household, 1880 U.S. census, Bennington County, Vermont, population schedule, town of Peru, enumeration district [ED] 31 (penned), supervisor's district [SD] "of Vt" (penned), sheet 2 (penned), dwelling 15, family 16 ; digital image, Ancestry.com (accessed 30 Mar 2012).


9 Minnie Laura Davis, Death Record Londonderry, VT (1918), Ancestry.com


10 The Weston Historical Society, Genealogies of The Early Settlers of Weston, Vermont, Second Edition (Weston, VT: The Weston Historical Society, 2006), 224.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Fundraising Friday – Two Notable Causes


I generally don’t get into fundraising endeavors, but I’ve seen two projects in the past few days that I believe are worthy of funding by folks interested in history in the country.

Folks who know me well have come to realize that my main historic interest lies in the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of the United States; the projects that I’ve read about this week nicely book-end both of those periods.

The first project, “Save Our Ship”, is an effort to raise funds for the restoration of the ship Mayflower II that is usually docked in Plymouth, Massachusetts as a living-history attraction.  The ship had been scheduled for repairs anyway, but a Coat Guard inspection found major issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible for the ship to be seaworthy for the 2013 season.  As of this writing, only $1,100 of the $380,000 goal have been raised.


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The Mayflower II in the Spring of 2010

The second project interests me on a couple of levels.  Author Maureen Taylor, who put together the books “The Last Muster: Images of the Revolution” and “The Last Muster: Faces of the Revolution”, is putting together a film about the photographs in the books, and the stories behind them.  I love the history of the Revolution, and I really love old photos, so this is one film that I would love to see come to live.  The project needs $27,500 to begin shooting, and, as of this writing, has raised $4,405 of that goal.

To see this project, and to help fund the Kickstarter campaign, visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lastmusterfilm/revolutionary-voices-a-last-muster-film?ref=live

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Reenacting the American Revolution at Hubbardton, Vermont, Summer 2012

The world could use more history projects like these.