Davis Family = The History Channel

If my project of tracing my roots was a cable network, the Davis Family would probably be the History Channel.  Previously I traced the path of the Davis Family back to the Revolutionary War and mentioned that Thomas Nicholas Davis lived in Maryland at that time.  According to my stated goal of finding the immigrant ancestor I will finish the Davis line by saying that before Thomas Davis my Davises were living in Delaware, Pennsylvania and came over from Wales before 1685.  I will offer more complete information on this as the weeks and months go by.  Remember, my research is not complete.  

Along with Thomas Davis I suspect we have Rev War patriots in the Brandenburg, Hendrickson, Clary, Spears, and Burger families.  There might be others as well.  I have inklings of service for the families I have named here and will continue to work on establishing the proof.  This is just on the Davis side of this branch. 

My Grandfather Davis’ mother was Sarah Ann Wetzel.  I still have a lot to uncover here, but I have started.

Her mother was a “Clark” from Ohio.  In my quick research I found it is possible (do I dare say this…POSSIBLE, but not nearly proved) that there is a link here to William Clark.  (Remember, I fanaticize a lot.)  The fun part is that in the same, very weak moment of FANTASY I traced my husband to Meriwether Lewis in Virginia.  This is where the Mythbusters say “probably not”.  How cool would that be?  Mike and Sue ~~ Lewis and Clark!  However, you will now have more incite to the fantasies of a genealogist.  A lot of dreaming on a little bit of fact.  This stays between us, okay? I will let you know how this one comes out.

The Clark, Cook and Deary family do go back into Virginia.  I was in a courthouse when I discovered the Cook-Deary connection.  Can you begin to imagine the feeling of coming upon something like this?  I was probably in jeans and a t-shirt, probably skipped lunch because I wanted research time and could eat later.  It was a will or land record and it took my breath away!  I let out a squeal and was grinning from ear to ear.  The worst part was I wanted to jump up and down and hug someone and yell about what I found.  As I glanced around I saw people looking at me.  This was a modern, working court house.  They were at the other end of the room.  I was looking at records from the early 1800s and they were in the mid to late 1900s.  Most of them had suits on and were carrying briefcases.  This was before computers were popular and portable, so I probably had a tote bag overflowing with notebooks and file folders.  I bet I was having a better day than they were!  One of the great things about this find is that "Deary" is not a common name.  I was having trouble with "Cook" in the Shenandoah Valley.  A fairly common English name.  But "Deary" will be much easier to follow up.

And finally the Wetzel-Wunderlich-Stoever group.  This was fun and eventful.  This group settled in the southern part of Pennsylvania.  I would put them from Lancaster to Carlisle.  The easiest ancestor of this group is John Casper Stoever.  He came from Germany (not Germany then).  Born in 1707, he came to “America” and established the first Lutheran church in this country.  We can trace his work here and his ancestors back to 1458.  A lot has been written about him.

See what I mean.  The History Channel.