Surname Saturday – Davis and the Snow Summers

I realized the other day that I haven’t blogged for a while.  For the past few days, I’ve been trying to think of a topic.  This afternoon, my wife called me from the top of Bromley Mountain in Peru.  “It’s snowing!” she said gleefully.  “The top of the mountain is white!”

Snow?  In May?  Memorial Day weekend?

I was instantly reminded of an event that I learned about in history class in junior-high.  The Year Without a Winter.

In 1816 the weather in Vermont was cold enough during the summer that crops failed and ponds froze over.  It snowed the first week of June, and the end of August saw frost hit, killing even more crops.  The cause of the strange weather was thought to be linked to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the year before, which spread dust and ash into the air, eventually leading to the lowered temperatures on this side of the world. [1]

What, I wondered, were my ancestors doing during that year?

Solomon Davis and his wife Hannah, who brought the family west from New Hampshire in 1803, would have been raising, along with their other children, their new baby daughter.  Hannah Davis, who shared her mother’s name, was born in May of 1816 in Londonderry, Vermont.  Solomon, his son, grandson, great-grandson, and so on were farmers.  The family remained in Londonderry until my grandfather, Solomon Wesley, passed away in 1996, one-hundred and ninety-three years after the family arrived in town.

I can only imagine what the farmers in 1816 must have been going through, planting crops to feed their families, only to see those crops freeze and die.  Then I was given a reminder of Vermont resilience.  My aunt, as I typed this post, posted a photo on Facebook.  The photo was taken in a town near Londonerry, on May 25^th, 1967, or exactly 46 years before today's snow.  The image shows snow-covered fields with snow-covered mountains in the background.  Her comment: “My dad planted potatoes the next day.”

Apparently both the first and last Davis men to live in Londonderry had something in common.

[1] http://www.virtualvermont.com/history/1816.html

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.

Tribe Tracking Tuesday

As genealogists, we usually think of ourselves as the ancestors trackers, following the trail and negotiating the jungle of old records and distant relationships.

Sometimes, however, the tribe unexpectedly finds us.

Last night, just as I was getting ready for bed, my oldest daughter wandered out of her room, phone in hand, texting away.  “Hey Dad,” she asked without looking up from the screen, “Do I have a great-grandfather named Wesley?”

This question surprised me on two levels.  First, it was a rare teenage daughter sighting.  Second, she was actually asking about her family history without prompting from me.

“Yes,” I answered warily, not wanting to scare her off, “My grandfather’s name was Wesley. Why?”

My daughter looked up from her screen and sighed.  “I just found out that I’m related to one of my best friends.”  She sighed again, “Which means I’m related to, like … half the school!  She’s related to *everyone*!”

I had to grin a little at this point.  I could relate.  When I was in school, it seemed that I was running into distant cousins all the time.  It was one of the hazards of growing up in the area where your family had lived for more than a hundred years.

“What’s her last name?” I inquired, intrigued by the news.  The answer was Wyman.  “From Londonderry?” I asked innocently as the name triggered a bell in my head.  My daughter paused and looked up again.  “Yes,” she said.

I mentally ran through our pedigree in my head.  I recognized the surname, but no immediate connection came to mind.  “How’s she related?” I asked.

My daughter’s thumbs quickly flicked over her phone’s keys, sending my question through the ether to her friend and possible cousin’s phone.  The reply came back faster than I could have typed my five-letter name on the tiny keyboard.  “Her great-grandfather’s cousin was Wesley Davis.”

“Who’s her great-grandfather?” I asked.

“Harry Derby,” came the reply, after a short burst of keystrokes.

Ah ha.  There was the connection.  Derby.  I’ve been tracking my grandfather’s grandfather, Charles Jenkins, for some time.  His wife was Laura Derby.  The girl’s great-grandfathers were likely second cousins

“It’s okay,” I smiled, “You guys are only like third or fourth cousins.  Maybe fifth.  I’d have to trace it.”

My daughter shrugged, looking back to her screen.  “Okay good.  I’ll tell her we could get married if we wanted to then.”  She disappeared back into her room, leaving her dry sense of humor lingering behind her.

I chuckled and headed to my genealogy database to double-check the name and add some notes for future research.  I’ve been looking for this part of the tribe for some time, but instead of me finding them, they found me.

Treasure Chest Thursday – Saw Cuts

Sometime around my early to mid-teens, my grandfather moved out of his house and into a local retirement community.  Since his new apartment was smaller than the house he was living in, it became necessary to start clearing out items he wouldn’t need.  Furniture, books, photos, and more were dispersed to his children and grandchildren.  One of his toolboxes ended up at our house, to be given to me at some later point in life.

That later point in life came many years later, after I had moved away from home.  My father had decided to move south and sell the house we grew up in.  Similar to Grandpa, he had to clear out items that he couldn’t take with him.  The toolbox, now somewhat rusty with age, ended up in my basement.

Fast forward a few more years to a couple of summers ago.  I had decided to build myself a kayak, using a traditional skin-on-frame method of construction.  Something in me decided not to use power tools on the project, so I began searching my basement for some basic hand tools.  At one point my eyes landed on my grandfather’s old toolbox.  “I wonder what’s in there?” I said aloud.

Opening the rusty box really was like opening a treasure chest.  There were saws, chisels, marking pencils, squares, and gizmos unidentifiable.  It seemed that the deeper I dug into the tool box, the older the tools became.  Many were rusty, but most were still of useable quality.

Getting back to the kayak project, I selected a hand-saw and checked it out.  The blade had some surface rust, but the teeth were still sharp.  I took it outside and used it to cut all the wood for my new boat.

The really interesting part of this saw is what I noticed later.  The handle, engraved with flowing vines, had the name “E.S. Davis” stamped into the wood.  When I noticed it, I stopped still.  Why would a saw from Grandpa’s toolbox have my initials stamped on it?  The answer is that it had belonged to my great-grandfather, Ernest Solomon Davis, who I share initials with.  The saw must have passed from him to his son, then down to me.

Since its discovery in Grandpa’s toolbox, Great-grandpa’s saw has been put to good use on a number of projects, including my daughter’s kayak that we built together last summer.  Like me, she used the blade to create some saw cuts, the fifth-generation to do so with that tool.

Tuesday Teachings – NGS-HSC Lesson 2

Sitting Bull (Library of Congress photo)

A couple of weeks ago I covered Lesson 1 of the NationalGenealogical Society’s Home Study Course.  While Lesson 1 was pretty basic, Lesson 2 added in a bit of fun.  At least, I thought the lesson was fun.

The lesson’s focus was family traditions, in particular, those genealogical stories that get passed down from generation to generation.  The first written assignment for the lesson was to recount a family legend, then write a research plan for either proving or disproving the legend.

In my case, the family story has always been that we were descendants of the great Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.  My cousins and I had all heard the story from our grandmother, though I don’t recall there being any details of exactly how we were related.  Growing up, I never had any reason not to believe the story.  At that time, my father’s line had already been traced back to Barnabas Davis of Charlestown, MA, so the link, I had always assumed, was on my grandmother’s side.

It’s sort of fun to think that you might be related to someone famous, but, as I started to become more serious about genealogy, I had my doubts about the story.  After all, every line that I traced in my family tree always led back to early settlers in Massachusetts.  Occasionally I would make a half-hearted attempt to prove or disprove the story, but mostly I stayed away from it.  It was a fun family tradition, and I didn’t want to be the one to end it.  That’s not to say that I stayed away from that line of my family tree, I just never definitely said yes or no to the question of Sitting Bull being an ancestor.

Lesson 2 of the HSC was a good excuse to finally state a conclusion.  Though it might be a disappointment to the living family, Item 1 of the Code of Ethics for the Association of Professional Genealogists, of which I’m a member, states “Promote a coherent, truthful approach to genealogy, family history and local history.”[1]

In other words, don’t state something as fact if you don’t have evidence to back up that fact.

Coming up with an argument for or against Sitting Bull being an ancestor was fairly easy.  A quick Internet search turns up that Sitting Bull has only one known living male descendant, Ernie La Pointe.[2]  This is strike one against the story being true.  The Internet being what it is, more evidence is needed though.

The most definitive way to prove or disprove the story is to trace all ancestral lines back to before Sitting Bull’s birth.  Sitting Bull lived between the years of 1831 and 1890.[3]  Some of my ancestral lines have been traced back that far already.  The first written assignment for Lesson 2 called for a research plan.  For this lesson, I included pedigree charts with the proper citations for my evidence sources, showing what information I had already gathered toward proving or disproving the story.  I then outlined my plan to trace the unknown lines back to before Sitting Bull’s birth.  My conclusion, based on evidence available so far, is that it is highly unlikely that I am descended from Chief Sitting Bull.  The grader for this lesson agreed with my research plan, and also agreed that it is unlikely that Sitting Bull is an ancestor of mine.

For the record, I still haven’t traced all the unknown lines back, so there is always a small chance something interesting might turn up.  I have one ancestor that one document claims was born out west, though other evidence points to him being born in New England like the rest of his family.  No other evidence has turned up to give me any reason to believe that the legend is true.

Assignment two of the lesson is to dig out some of those items in your collection that have been passed down through the family and document them.  In my case, this meant a few books, some hand-written notes, and bundles of pedigree charts.  Documentation of these items included writing a proper source citation for each item, and writing a brief description of how you came by the item.  This assignment is a good time to practice those citations.  Inaccurate citations seem to be the number one reason that lessons are returned for resubmission throughout the course.

To see more about the NGS Home Study Course, see my other posts:

• Tuesday Teachings - NGS Home Study Course

• Tuesday Teachings - NGS-HSC Lesson 1

[1] "Code of Ethics." Association of Professional Genealogists. http://www.apgen.org/ethics/index.html: accessed 2/12/2013

[2] "Sitting Bull Family." Sitting Bull Family Foundation, Inc. http://www.sittingbullfamilyfoundation.org/tatanka_iyotake_tiospaye.html: accessed 2/12/2013

[3] "Sitting Bull." Sitting Bull Family Foundation, Inc. http://www.sittingbullfamilyfoundation.org/tatanka_iyotake.html: accessed 2/12/2013