Tracing the Davis family to the Revolutionary War and before

Davis Family

When I began working on finding my roots this is the branch I knew least about.  It is funny how genealogy research goes sometimes.  Almost immediately I found a book about the family that included my grandfather, Herschel Davis, and went back to the first Davis of this family coming from Wales in the 1600s.  They actually came to the area I am living in now!

My philosophy is that a book is merely a suggestion, or clue to what the truth could be.  I always try to verify with another source, hopefully a primary source, a government record, such as birth, death or marriage records, land records, census or wills.  Even these have been known to be erroneous at times.  But you get where I am going with this.  Verify when possible.  I do have a good example of no primary sources being available, but a strong case is made in another way.  This is very interesting and falls in the Crone family.

This book (The Davis Family in Wales and America) has been accepted by the genealogist at the DAR, so that’s good.  I have found several holes in the details in my direct ancestors that I am trying to fill and will keep you posted on that.  However, there is a lot of discussion and controversy about the same book and its connection to Jefferson Davis.  And on it goes.

I take it as interesting that Jeff Davis might be related to this family, but he is so far removed (something like fourth cousin seven times removed) that it is of little concern to me that it might be wrong and I will spend no time on this problem.

The book led me to Nicholas Davis, who was living in Maryland during the Revolutionary War and is name in the DAR as a patriot.  More details on him are coming, but today let me give you some of the information that we will be discussing.

I am the granddaughter of

Herschel Lee DAVIS (b. 1894 d. 1967 m. Iona Jane Crone) who was the son of

Oliver DAVIS (b. 1865 d. 1947 m. Sarah Wetzel) who was the son of

Alfred Ward DAVIS (b. 1826 d. 1875 m. Jeannetta Clary) who was the son of

Solomon DAVIS (b. 1802 d. 1871 m. Eliza Hendrickson) who was the son of

David Ward DAVIS (b.1762 d.1837 m. Elizabeth Brandenberg ) who was the son of

Thomas Nicholas DAVIS (b. 1741-42 d. 1805 m. Rebecca Ward) who was a Private 2^nd Co., 4^th Batt, under Capt John Mitchell in the war for independence

I call this information the bones, or skeleton of genealogical research.  I have done a lot of study on this family, and have a lot of meat to share with you.  I have done research in Illinois, Kentucky, and Maryland on these families and have followed up on each wife listed.  There is a lot more information to come, including several more DAR patriots and a couple of mysteries solved, I think.  I hope.  Questions like: where in Ohio was Solomon born and was Rebecca Ward’s father’s name really Pierre?  I will let you know what I find out.