Discovery: 5GGs Abraham Davis and Ruth Smith

There haven’t been any significant breakthroughs in the Jonnes Family Tree for some months.  So, what a serendipitous surprise to discover two new 5th great grandparents (5GGs)!  Especially one of whom my father would have been excited about.

The two new ancestors are Abraham Davis and Ruth Smith, husband and wife.  (View them in the chart above.)  I’m calculating they were born in the 1740s, maybe the 1730s.  Abraham died about 1792; Ruth’s death death is unknown.  They are the parents of 4GG Rachel Davis (1775-1814), who is known to have married 4GG David Homan (1762-1823) in 1805 in Galloway Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey.^[1]“New Jersey, Compiled Marriage Records, 1684-1895,” database online, Ancestry.com, David Homan and Rachel Shane, 17 March 1805, Gloucester County, New Jersey; citing FHL microfilm 0441462.  (Galloway Township is currently in Atlantic County, which was carved out of Gloucester County in 1837.)

Keep in mind that almost all our Lukemire and Homan ancestry involves migration from New Jersey to Clermont County, Ohio in the very early 19th century.  The McIntoshes came in 1806 and the Lukemires and Homans about 1815.  4GG Rachel Davis is the mother of 3GG Joel Homan (1808-1883).  Rachel died in New Jersey in 1814, which may have been what prompted her widowed husband David Homan to move west.^[2]

Joel Homan in turn is the father of 2GG Catherine “Kate” Homan (1845-1912), who married Leonidas Lukemire (1843-1928) — my grandmother Barbara Lukemire’s grandfather.

I’ve rarely posted about the Homan line before and I doubt I’ve even mentioned the Davis family previously.  I have performed almost no research on the line.  I was just sitting under a tree and a coconut fell on my head!

The coconut was a DNA match.  I happened upon a new match which the ThruLines feature on AncestryDNA claimed went back to Abraham and Ruth.  I checked other DNA matches who might triangulate with us and — lo and behold — two more DNA matches popped up on ThruLines.  Thus, I have three small genetic matches on AncestryDNA who reportedly descend from common ancestors Abraham Davis and Ruth Smith.  Two are 5th cousins once removed (5C1R) and one is a 6th cousin (6C).  (I subsequently found several other Davis cousins who are not DNA matches.)

However, ThruLines is only as good as the family trees proffered by match owners.  So I began reviewing the sourcing to determine if there was any concrete evidence demonstrating the claimed relationship.  That’s when I hit gold.

The Davis family has kept in its possession for almost 200 years an ancient “autobiography” written by a grandson of Abraham Davis named George Washington Davis (1797-1853).^[2]George W. Davis, “Autobiography;” manuscript, circa 1835 (Gonzales, Texas); privately held by Daniel Spitler, Phoenix, Arizona, 2024. [Typewritten transcript, date unknown, of … Continue reading  It is written in the form of a long letter to his children.

This is how George begins the letter:

“The thought has lately arose in my mind that some day, if not now, you would like to know something more than you do of my history and to hear an account of your ancestors and relatives …” ^[3]Davis, “Autobiography,” p. 1.

More poignantly, here is George describing the impact on subsequent generations of the service of his grandfather Abraham Davis in the Revolutionary War:

“My grandfather … (served) with bravery and zeal … in the great cause of liberty, suffering cheerfully for his country and the cause, all the privation, hardship and losses incidental to the patriot soldier of that time.  And here I cannot omit remarking to you that your family are the lawful and rightful inheritors of that liberty which we now all enjoy.  You are not interlopers or intruders on the rich inheritance; your share of these rights were bought and nobly paid for by the blood and toils and suffering of more than one ancestor.”^[4]Davis, “Autobiography,” p. 4.

The words penned by George almost 200 hundred years ago confirm that Abraham and Ruth are my 5th great grandparents, particulary because George specifically mentions David Homan.

Although George ended up in Texas, he was aware that the Homans moved to Ohio.  In the autobiography, he states:

Of the daughters, my father’s sisters, Rachel, the oldest, married a man named David Homan — lived in New Jersey until 1814, when she died, leaving one daughter and several sons.  David Homan and family have since removed to Ohio.^[5]Davis, “Autobiography,” p. 5.

George W. Davis and Joel Homan were, in fact, first cousins.  Note the similarity of the very light-colored eyes in the two photographs.

George W. Davis was a very interesting guy.  He studied both medicine and the law and ended up becoming a well-known attorney and county clerk in Texas.  He was an active participant in the Texas fight for independence.  The details of his life may be found on many Texas history websites.^[6]Click HERE, for example.  He was a delegate to the Convention of 1833 and was appointed the head of the committee of safety for Gonzales, where the first battle of the Texas Revolution was fought — just a skirmish really.  The famous Come and Get It Cannon was buried in his peach orchard.

George’s autobiography is 8 type-written pages long.  It’s not the original document — which would have been hand-written — but a typewritten transcript, date unknown.  For various reasons, the family believes it was originally drafted in the early 1830s, although conceivably it could have been written anytime up until George’s death in 1853.

The memoir is remarkable.  You don’t see too many of these old family histories from the 19th century.  Some of the new facts gleaned from it:

• Abraham Davis fought in 1st New Jersey regiment during the Revolutionary War;
• Abraham was a privateer during the Revolutionary War;
• Abraham died about 9 or 10 years after the end of the Revolutionary War, circa 1790-1793.
• The original Davis immigrant came to Massachusetts from Wales;
• Abraham’s father was a seafarer who settled for a time in Nantucket, Massachusetts;
• Abraham’s father moved at some point (probably 1750s or 1760s) to Chestnut Neck, New Jersey;
• Abraham’s father operated merchant ships, primarily transporting lumber to the West Indies;
• Ruth Smith’s father (first name not given) died at age 106 in 1805.

Dad would have been over the moon about the military career of Abraham Davis, his 4GG.  Abraham fought in the Revolutionary War with the 1st New Jersey Regiment, but also became involved in capturing British merchant ships as a privateer.  The next post will provide details.

(Kudos to fifth cousin Daniel Spitler — a descendant of George W. Davis — who helped considerably in explaining the family history and providing what he knew about the provenance of the autobiography.)