Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Davis Family of Moore Co NC

This week I spent a few days working on my mother's family, the Davises of Moore Co, NC. I've learned so much over the last year on HOW to use the tools at Ancestry.com and then dove-tail from there into Findagrave.com and Fold3.com and other ancillary sites. 

This go around I have found Last Wills & Testaments for two of my Davis ancestors. Both were named William Coleman Davis (father and son), and both died in Moore Co, NC around Carthage and Ritter.

William Sr's Will helped me nail down the names of all 7 of his children, something I had not been able to do previously.

William Jr's Will helped me learn that he lived longer than I previously realized. And I was able to find that he married a second time, and that his middle initial was also "C", something I did not know previously.

I was also able to fill in so many generations of descendants coming forward in time for the descendants of William Coleman Davis Sr. 

I descend from the following Davises:

  1. Robert Davis (1744-1828) m. Nancy Cheek
  2. William Coleman Davis Sr (ca. 1793-1870/80) m. Phoebe Phillips (not Bannerman!)
  3. William C. Davis Jr (ca. 1820/2-1904/5) m. Clarkey Hilliard
  4. John (Wesley) Davis (1844-ca. 1911) m. Ruth Ann Barber
  5. Troy Lee Davis (1909-1988) m. Lettie Mae Langley
  6. Vanza Davis Patterson (1939-2018) m. Francis Oliver Patterson
  7. Wes Patterson m. Ginna Fishburne
I hope to publish a book on this family in the near future.

Wes

Monday, October 28, 2024

Next Book - George Patterson of Ivylog, GA

A few weeks ago I began the early stages of my third volume in the Butterfly Biographies (BB) series. This next book will tackle the family of George Patterson (1800-1860) and his wives, Rebecca Chastain (1799-1845/7) and Sophia Dunagan (1825-1872/81). 

Volume 1 covered John Patterson, the father of George. Volume II covered Elijah Chastain, the father of Rebecca. Both of those fathers were 4X-Great-Grandfathers to me. George and Rebecca were my 3X-great-grandparents.

When I start a new book, the first thing I blaze through is the content in my FamilyTreeMaker database. That will end up being my guide for the rest of the book, so I make sure I have all details on all lineages correct, as much as possible. Volumes I & II covered a lot of the ancestors and cousins for George and Rebecca and was limited to 3 generations of descendants. Volume III for George will be able to focus on more details regarding his descendants. Therefore, I'm having to research and document all generational lines from George at least one generation further - coming forward in time. In fact, I'm taking the lines as far as I can to World War II descendants, and in some limited cases, even to recent decades. 

I always leave identifiable details blank in the book, however, for living persons. I do list their names, but not other details.

There will be 8 chapters on descendants of George Patterson, one for each of his children who had families of their own. My line is the 4th of the 8 lines - William Harden (Billy) Patterson, who lived from 1832 to 1884. Most of the 8 lines had numerous children and grandchildren, so it can take some time to research every single one of them in online resources, but that's the job!

So far, I have all lines for Jim, Mary and Kimsey completed. I'm currently on the 4th line, which is Billy. He had 12 children, and I'm finished with 10 of those 12 lines. So next I will finish Billy's remaining 2 lines, then finish up the last 4 of George's lines, that being Elizer, John A., Elijah M., and Margaret. Once I have those details completed in FamilyTreeMaker, I begin filling in the content in the book in Microsoft Word.

I was hoping that by the second and third volumes of this series I would be hitting my stride. I think that is starting to work out. I took a few months off this summer and didn't do any writing at all, which delayed Volume 2. However, once I picked it back up, I hit it pretty hard, and am happy to be able to say that the Printer/Publisher (Old Buncombe County Gen. Soc.) accepted it and published it without a single edit!!! Wow. 

OK. Back it...

Wes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Elijah Chastain Sr - Update on Forth-coming Book

In March this year I posted some updates on my research pertaining to Elijah Chastain Sr of Caney Fork, Haywood Co, NC (now in Jackson County). I am currently in the final stages of editing and prepping to send to the publisher for printing. Hopefully by the end of October or early November we will be good to go.

Elijah Chastain lived from 1776 to 1853. He had at least 23 children by three wives - Hannah Adams, Anna Middleton, and Catherine (Kathy) Carson. In the book I will show as many details as I've gathered on these 23 children, 20 of whom married and had their own children. 

The numbers I documented from my exhaustive research and have included in the book are:

  1. 23 Children
  2. 168+ Grandchildren
  3. 806+ Great-Grandchildren
There were also at least 89 descendants or husbands of descendants of Elijah Chastain who served in the Civil War. Details regarding them are also included.

I do not know of any other published work that has covered all three of Elijah's families. Some have focused one or the other, or perhaps two of them, but not all three. This has been my goal in producing this next installment of Butterfly Biographies.

Wes

P.S. Oct 9, 2024 update: I have asked someone to write the Foreword for the book. I am finished with my drafts and have sent to the printer for one copy for final editing - on paper!! Maybe ready to submit in the next week actually - to the publisher!

P.S. Oct 13, 2024 update: This book has been submitted to the publisher. Now awaiting the publisher's board review and pricing decisions.


Wednesday, May 15, 2024

New Book on John Patterson and Margaret Black

Recently, at the end of March (2024), I published a new book on John Patterson and his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Black. This is the culmination of some 30 years of research. More books will follow, but this book focuses on them specifically, including their years of living in Buncombe Co, NC along Jenkins Branch.

The book is titled John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, Buncombe Co, NC. It is 405 pages, and fully indexed. It contains lots of pictures, maps and charts, and has over 100 color pages.

This book can be purchased online here.

Following is a glimpse of three parts of the book. 1) The Table of Contents, 2) the Table of Figures, and 3) the Name Index.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Elijah Chastain - Father of 23 or More

Elijah Chastain was my 4X-Great-Grandpa. He was born in 1776 in Buckingham Co, VA and died in 1853 in Gilmer Co, GA. His daughter Rebecca Chastain was born in 1799 and she was his 3rd child - of 21 (at least). She married George Patterson in the early to mid 1820's and they were my 3X-Great-Grandparents. 

(3/26/24 update: at least 22 children)

(4/10/24 update: 23+ children)

Elijah Chastain and 3rd wife Catherine Carson, ca. 1850. Photo courtesy of Connie Cordell

Elijah was a character. I know he had multiple children (each) by his first two wives during the same two or three year period beginning in 1800. By 1803 he was officially married the second time to Anna Middleton. His first wife, my ancestor, was Hannah Adams. This first marriage ended in divorce. Many have said the second marriage did too, but I can't find anything about Anna after 1810, including no children born to Elijah between 1810 and 1820. I think Anna may have died around 1810 or soon thereafter, but I just don't know for certain. (4/10/24 update: Elijah had at least two children born after 1810 with Anna - Artemesia was born in 1812 and James Witt was born in 1813).

Friday, March 1, 2024

John Patterson book update

 I am making my final editing pass on this book on John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, Buncombe Co, NC.

Plan to be sending it to the publisher in the next week or two hopefully. I think we can get it published in March or in April at the latest.

This has been a work in progress for 40 years! 

Wes

Friday, February 2, 2024

Coming Soon - Book on John Patterson

I am still on target for finishing up the book on John Patterson in the next month or so. Hopefully by April 1st we could be going to print. 

John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, Buncombe County, North Carolina is the current working title. 

This has been a fun project to work on. Getting all my notes and documentation and photos and charts and maps updated, double checked, assembled in one place... it's been a long time coming. All previous attempts were just too large in scope. Once this is published, I can then branch off and focus on various lines, such as one specific child of John, or perhaps John's brother Robert Patterson, or their father, Thomas Patterson of Clarks Fork, and one day HIS father, Robert Patterson of Linville Creek. 

First draft of John's book is complete. I'm now going through and filling in a few gaps, and sourcing pieces missed in the first pass. Then I'll finish up the bibliography and the index and send off to editors for reviewing. 

More coming soon!

Wes

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

I Can't Even Imagine

In writing this book on John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, I've been doing a lot of census verification and other census lookups and updating my documentation on many families. In the process of doing so, there have been numerous families from the mid to late 1800's that went through terrible heartache in the number of children they lost at young ages. One family in particular I'd like to highlight here.

William Jefferson Kincaid (1843-1909)

William Jefferson Kincaid was born 01 Aug 1843 in Union Co, GA and died 15 Dec 1909 in Cherokee Co, GA. He was the son of James (Jim) Kincaid and Martha Denton Chastain. William was also the grandson of William D. Kincaid and Amy Jane Patterson (daughter of John Patterson and Margaret Black). William was also the grandson of Benjamin Franklin Chastain and Rebecca S. Denton. Both of those grandparents were children of Rev. War Patriots, John Chastain and Samuel Denton, respectively.

William himself was a veteran of the Civil War. He served in the CSA, 2nd Regiment, GA Infantry, Co E. He and so many other relatives and neighbors were swept up in that major conflict. Following the war, he married Mary Adeline Ragsdale Robinson in 1866. She was born in Jan 1845 in GA and died after 1900.

The 1900 census is a unique census in that it documented the number of children a woman had given birth to in her lifetime, and then how many of her children were still living. In her case, she had given birth to 12 children, but only four were still living in 1900.

I know that four of their children lived to adulthood. And I know that many died as infants. But to realize that eight children died as young children or infants, is staggering to me. I cannot begin to image what that was like to deal with.

Make me more grateful for my life of ease, relatively speaking.

Wes


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