Patsy adkins's Comments

Yes, I am very interested in joining the DAR. I will probably need help with it. :(

I have my bc, so I need to document from myself back to David Cleveland, from what I understand. I will start collecting the documents that I need.

The information I have says he was visiting a fair out west and died there. I quickly glanced at what I have on Ancestry.com and I am fairly certain that finding proof for the ancestors in question for the DAR is not going to be as difficult as I first thought. I have a lot of census info on them. But I will know more once I get a chance to really sit down with everything and make a list of what I have and what I need. Thank you again so much for helping me. :)

Nevora Porter was my maternal grandmother. She married my grandfather, Benjamin Whittaker in May of 1890 in Charleston, Kanawha Co., WV. In 1880, she and her widowed mother, Mary, were in the Charleston, Kanawha Co., US
Census. Nevora was born on 04 Jul 1872, according to all other records, except the census mentioned above she was born somewhere in KY. I have found no record of her having been born in VA as stated in that 1880 Census. Even her marriage record states she was born in KY. The problem in that idea is where in KY??? Nowhere, in any of her documents, death, etc. does
it state what town in KY she was born. I thought I had it, when I got copies of all the SS applications for every one of her children and my Aunt Ethel said on hers that she herself was born in Green River, Kentucky. That turned out to
be a wild goose chase as there is no Green River KY, only a Green River in KY which meanders like a snake across more than half of the state! I have been backwards and forwards over this problem in 10,000 ways. But, I don't feel too bad because just this year I found that my grandmother was that Nevora Porter in the 1880 Census with her widowed mother. I had the worst
time finding that out because she apparently did not like her real first name,
Nevora, and changed it to "Geneva" or "Neva", which was what all her kids,
including my mother thought it was. I found the truth using the Charleston City Directories. I found her in the 1898 Directory as "Nevora Whittaker".
Then I knew who she was because I had been looking at that census as
a "possible" for a long time. I thought the brick wall was over; but, it was
not in the stars yet. First I thought, I would look for her father who apparently died between the time she was conceived in 1871 and the 1880 Census. He
did not die in Kanawha County, I can tell you that much. Neither did her mother. Nor did her mother re-marry in Kanawha Co. I believe she was an
only child......as no evidence of any brothers or sisters has ever been heard
of in my family.....nor shows up anywhere else either. I checked where they
were living in that 1880 Census and Estill Road is right next to (conveniently)
a Porter Road. I checked the land there and it belonged to a George H. Porter
who was connected to all the other Porters in town....including the ones in Cabin Creek, however, he was single. I started to think that she may have either been divorced and claiming to be a widow (not unusual for the times) or to have had my grandmother out of wedlock and possibly be a Porter herself.
I can so far find nothing to corroborate this idea, nor anything to dispell it either. If you would like further details on the story, I wrote one about it on my site called "More Taming the Tree"(URL listed on my page on Genealogy Wise). The name of the story is "What's in a Name"? I also published this story in "Porter Settlements" in the last year. Nevora Porter died in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1926. I have all of her burial records, death certificate, and death notice, none of which gives the coveted answer.

Who was your patriot that you joined on? I have been to Charleston several times. Fell in love with it. I plan to move there when I retire in a few more years. I have a good friend there, too, named Cristy Dunlap who loves genealogy. Do you know her by any chance?

Hi Patsy. Thank you for commenting on my blog. I loved the chat. :)

They're actually my husband's Ensmingers. Arrived in Philadelphia in 1733 on board the "Samuel". His particular branch moved to Harrisburg by the 1790's, and stayed there till post WW II. The branch that moved through Maryland is related, back there in the mid 1700's.