Friday's Photo: Claude Davis

My grandfather, Claude Davis, was born on September 28, 1893 - 120 years ago tomorrow. This is a photograph was taken in 1921. The photographer was Taylor, but the exact location is unknown. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Happy Birthday to My Brother

Loved you then and love you now. Happy Birthday to my slightly younger  brother. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Davis, Smith, and Gentry of Edmonson County, Kentucky

This photograph belonged to my grandfather, Claude Davis. In the album, the date is given as 1909. The boys look as like they might be rolling cigarettes. I am assuming that this was taken in Edmonson County, Kentucky as Claude, Harrison Smith (aka John Harrison Smith), and Edgar Gentry (aka William Edgar Gentry) lived in Parker, Edmonson County in 1910. 

Diana

© 2013

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Sources

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Operations Inc, 2006

Documenting My Davis Family: A Genealogical Challenge

This Davis family picture was taken in 1926 when my grandfather(center) was home for a visit.
To see a picture with some family identified, click here. 

My Davis family is a challenge, but I haven't given up and am gradually being rewarded with new bits and pieces of information. I have decided to share my Davis research on this blog during the next few weeks to pass along the information found to other family members and also with hope that currently unknown Davis family members will find this blog and share additional information. 

My grandfather was Claude Louis Davis from Edmonson County, Kentucky. I was told that his name was first Claude Smith and when he learned the identity of his real father, he changed his name to his mother's maiden name of Davis.

Claude's mother, Bertha Davis, was 14 years old and unmarried when he was born. A census search for her family revealed that she was the daughter of Olive Caroline Davis, an unmarried woman, in Edmonson County with two children in 1880.  Olive Caroline Davis was the daughter of Seth H. Davis and Margaret "Peggy" Jones who married September 29, 1843.

Can you see my challenges? 

• Davis, Jones, and Smith are extremely common surnames - all listed within the top 10 surnames in the 1990, 2000, and 2010 U. S. Census records. And, believe me, there were plenty Davis, Jones, and Smith families in Edmonson and the surrounding counties. 

• Women are difficult to research, but you can usually hope to find them paired with husbands in marriage and land records. Women without husbands, and especially those without money, leave no trail.

In addition to the above challenges, some Davis family members appear to be nonexistent in census records, there are very few researchers looking for this family, and I don't have background knowledge of this family; few family stories, no bible records, no obituaries and only a few photos.

During the next few weeks, I will post my photos and found information about this Davis family along with questions that I would like to answer. If you have photos or additional facts, please contact me. 

Diana

© 2013

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Sources

"Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2010 - U. S. Census Bureau" Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.  https://census.demo.socrata.com/dataset/Frequently-Occurring-Surnames-from-Census-2010/uqzf-9yai

"Genealogy - Data - Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000 - U.S. Census Bureau." Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.  http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/data/2000surnames/

Year: 1880; Census Place: Edmonson, Kentucky; Roll: 412; Family History Film: 1254412; Page: 569C; Enumeration District: 042.