JENKINS-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Gonna Post my folks again for new members....
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 05:42:54 -0500

Hi guys,
I am gonna post my genealogy again for the new members in hopes that
someone
new may know something about my folks, so here goes:
Nancy Smith Jenkins married Harrison Jenkins on April 1, 1850 in Gates
County, NC
She was 22 and he was 29; Nancy's mother was "foreign born" and neither
of them could read or write and they were both white and "from someplace?
in VA" (though I
do not know where in VA). Next door to them is: Ann Jenkins age 57 and
living with Ann is James Jenkins age 24 ( I believe this to be Harrison's
mother and younger brother, just a 6th sense I am going on here). In
1860, Harrison is still listed in Gates County age 40 and living with
Anna Jenkins age 87 years ( believe this to be Harrison's grand
mother....just another hunch). The neighbors in 1860 are the same as in
1850...Eure, Harrell, Parker, Smith...but it looks like they have moved
into one
house in 1860 and they are all living under one head of household...odd.
Anyway Harrison is living without Nancy...AND they had a son named Joseph
William Jenkins
in 1859 who states that he was born in Portsmouth/Norfolk County, VA..so
this leads
me to believe that Nancy was up here where I live having a baby without
Harrison and
I can't find her living here in Portsmouth or Norfolk County under her
own name, so she must have been living with relatives..(yes I need to sit
down and go through all
the people in Portsmouth/ Norfolk County for that 1860 census
year..haven't done
that yet). My mom said that maybe Nancy came up here to have her baby at
a sister's
house or Nancy's mom's house. OK, I'll buy that. But then I go to the
1870 census and
find Nancy living in the Tazewell Taylor household, as a domestic servant
age 40 (here the age is wrong) and her son Joseph age 11 is an errand
boy..PLUS we find
Laura Jenkins age 8 living in an orphanage in same city with Nancy. ( I
have always been told by my now deceased granny that, my great great
grand mother brought her
kids up here and put them into an orphanage..and I have never been told
that I had "any" kin on my Jenkins side...none at all...no one ever knew
anything according to my
granny, about my Jenkins. My dad always wanted to know about his people
and never
knew anything and died not knowing even what I have found out since his
death...I did
one time ask my dad's brother about our Jenkins and my uncle said, "You
better not
go looking up those Jenkins, you might find skeletons in their closets
you wished you
had never found, better to leave them alone....and that is all I ever
knew). ok, so then I
check out Joseph's death certificate....it lists that Joseph's parents
are: Harrison Jenkins from "VA" and Nancy Smith Jenkins from "VA". I
check out Joseph's first marriage certificate and it lists Joseph's
father as: W.H.H.Jenkins and his mother as
Nancy Smith Jenkins. Ok, so then I get an obituray on Joseph for 1926 the
month and
day and year that he died....and it states that Joseph is survived by a
sister named...
Mrs. Laura Murray of Norfolk and that a 'John W.Jenkins' is a pall bearer
at Joseph's funeral and a member of the 'Odd Fellows' organization and is
there to represent that
organization. ok, so I call my aunt, my dad's sister, the only living
relative I have left...she says that she never heard of any Laura Murray
or John W.Jenkins and that the orphanage story is not true and that just
cause I found a Laura Jenkins in an orphanage still does not prove that
this was Joseph's sister. She doesn't believe Joseph ever even had a
sister and tells me that "I don't know what I am doing"...she
is in denial over all that I have found, even though I tell her it is in
an obituray on him...
she wants to get off the phone with me in a huff. Ok, so I figure if she
really wanted to
find out anything about her family relatives, she'd have said....oh,
yippee...find all you
can...but since she is defense and into denial...I figure she knows
something and is
hiding something from me. I don't know how to take my family back to 1840
and find
anything cause the 1840 census only lists heads of households....and I
don't know
who the parents are of Harrison and Nancy or where in VA they are
from....??? so,
I can't go backwards unless I find their births in a family bible
someplace in VA.....
The only thing I know to do is check the soundex for Mrs. Laura Murray
using the
1920 soundex.....I haven't been able to find the death of Nancy Jenkins
in Portsmouth
or Norfolk....but I wonder does anyone know what the name of Newport
News/Hampton/Denbeigh/Warwick area would have been named back in the
1800's??? Cause I haven't checked for Nancy's death in that area, under
the last name Jenkins....now I don't know if Nancy got married again
either, don't know how to
check that out either. My great grand dad, Joseph W.Jenkins married a
woman from
Mathews County, VA and I wonder why he was up in that area when Joseph
and Nancy were last seen on the 1870 census in Norfolk County, VA....I do
know that Joseph went to work at the NNSY in Portsmouth and I sent for
his personnel records
and it said that he worked for Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock
before he went to work for NNSY (Norfolk Naval Shipyard)...now Newport
News Dry Dock is near
Mathews County area...and I wonder if he took his mother with him over to
that area
and maybe even Laura went with him, and maybe Laura got married over
there...maybe even Nancy got married there too, or else died over near
there....does
anyone know the county name for Newports News area, so that I can check
them out??? Oh, yeah, I sent for Nancy's marriage cert with Harrison and
it listed a witness
as: Wilkins and the man at the courthouse who singed it was a Riddick. I
called Gates county courthouse the other day, and guess who answered the
phone?? A man named Riddick....very odd that a relative is still keeping
that job>smile< but
Mr Riddick said he didn't know if there was any kin at all cause he did
not know anything about genealogy...( I loved hearing this...aaaah!) I
can't get anything out of
Gates county folks, and I can't find out where the family started out in
VA...I do believe
that W.H.H.Jenkins stood for William Henry Harrison Jenkins....but that
is only a guess.The marriage bond did not list parents of Harrison or
Nancy...but I do not know if they sent me the actual Marriage Bond...does
anyone know what one would look like?? I have checked out the Harrison
that Amy has in her book, and that Harrison is
10 years older than my Harrison...:( Amy's Harrison is listed on the
Loudoun County
1870 census as a man age 60 years..."my Harrison would be 50 in that 1870
census"). I don't know if the lose estate papers have an index to them
someplace in
some library so that I can look for Harrison's name in there before I
send to Raleigh for the papers, does anyone know if there is an index to
lose estate papers??? I also
am taking a guess that maybe Joseph is named after his grand dad either
in the Jenkins line or the Smith line....but have no way to prove this.
Can some kind soul
please read this epistle that I have submitted and give me some clues??
Also, can
someone please suggest a true blue paid genealogist who can help me out
with this,
someone that has been tried by someone and has proven to be smart and
seasoned
in doing genealogy?? Thanks guys, please e-mail me if you can help,
Susan of Tidewater VA PS I watched The Irish In America the other night
and it said that Irish women took over the domestic servant jobs in this
country...and that Smith was Irish,
I go to the pbs site and go to genealogy on Irish and it says that the
English Smith's went into Ireland to live...so they are both English and
also Irish....does anyone know
about this? I have heard that Jenkins, though a Welch name, there were
many fellow Jenkins living in Donagal Ireland for some reason, which now
escapes me....I am wondering if my Jenkins man was a farm laborer who
just went where he could find
work....oh, I forgot, because there "is no land deed for Harrison/or
W.H.H.Jenkins in
Gates County"....somebody please help me out with all of this, pleeease!!
I am thinking about sendin this into Unsolved Mysteries....no kidding, I
wonder if even those folks could figure this thing out! Does anyone know
if Alex Haley is still alive?
No kidding, maybe he would take this on as a challenge!? Plus does anyone
have access to the Library of VA micro film for births? If so can you
check Joseph William
Jenkins born in 1859; Nancy Smith born about 1828; Harrison/W.H.H.Jenkins
born
about 1821 and look for any births on John W.Jenkins probably born near
the same time as Joseph, maybe some time before or after...but only about
10 or so many years one way or the other???? And if Harrison is dead in
the Civil War, then there are
so many William Jenkins, that I'd be spending a lot of $8 for each one I
tried to find info on, to see if he were my man...anyone have a better
idea of finding this Civil War
info on W.H.H./Harrison without me requesting all info for each and every
William in
North Carolina who ever served?? Plus my dad was named "Harry
Jenkins...and granny just always said that she 'liked the name'...and now
I see for sure that dad was named for his great grand dad, and boy he
would have loved knowing that one!!! Yep I am long winded all
right...heck folks I cut this one down to the bare bones for you and
still I take up probably 4 pages! Sorry this is always sooo long. Thanks
again,
now will some loving, kind, generous, Christian soul please help me out,
please???

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