Where are the ancestors of John Dennis, Sr., Fairfax Co., Va. hiding?

Question

Regarding Dennis-2376

Over the last 17 years I and a handful of fellow researchers have failed to find any trace of John Dennis, Sr. ancestors. We know he was b. abt. 1744 in Loudoun Co., Virginia and married Elizabeth Buckley. She was b. 1748.

They had six (6) sons: Isaac, Thomas A., John, Jr., William A., and Absalom Sr.,

Absalom was b. 6/5/1791 Loudoun Co., Virginia and d. 5/19/1877 Benton Township, Monroe Co., Ohio. He married Mary Ann Wilson 12/21/1811 in Loudoun Co., Va.

Absalom married a second time to Jane (Maiden name unknown) Lockard. Jane had been previously married to William Lockard.

By requesting help I hope someone has access to resources I and the other researchers have not had.

Thank you in advance for your time and any help you may provide.

With regards,

Bob Wood

Comments

Hi Robert. You may be aware, since you have researched this family for much longer than I, there was a William Dennis b.1769 who carried the names of those sons (Thomas, Absalom, William, grandson Isaac) to Wayne County, Indiana. William is said to have been born in Guilford County, NC with his family originating in Nantucket. He was the grandfather of Prof. David Worth, at the Earlham College founded by the Quakers. There is a brief bio for Prof. D. W. Dennis at http://genealogytrails.com/ind/wayne/bios.html  Hopefully this yields some clue for you. ~Honi

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Hi Honi, I was not aware of that Dennis leg so I've added to my list of things to investigate.

Thank you, Bob

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Oh good, I'm glad I mentioned them. I have researched the Dennis' who came to Southeastern Indiana looking for a connection to our [[Dennis-4100|Jeremiah Dennis]] b.1790 d.1849 in Indiana. I often wonder if his birth place (New Jersey), listed on the Mortality Census of 1850, was just flat wrong. He did marry a New Jersey girl and lived there among the French family for a time. Family lore has always been these Dennis' came from Pennsylvania (named his only son John)...So if you ever run across anyone who closely resembles him anyplace, I will be extremely indebted to you. Best of luck in your search!

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Honi, I've got your back. You are now in my Dennis file and will contact you if anything looks remotely close.  Bob

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Thank Bob, and likewise! ~Honi

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I am a descendant of Absalom DENNIS and his 2nd wife Jane. I have been putting some of my notes up on this family for the last couple of days. I have a report I printed out some time ago that is about 115 pages long of descendants covering about 6 generations. Some of these are on the wikitree already, but not sure on some of them so I will have to be doing more research on them to identify sources.

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The grandson, Washington W. DENNIS, son of William A. DENNIS mentioned a Cousin Lewis and Sister Olivia moving to Illinois and Missouri so it is possible some of the line went out to Indiana. This letter was written in April 1838 so it is unlikely that they were there when your family of Dennis came into the area, but it might be a match to some kin that you had not researched yet. Washington W. DENNIS was the son of William Alexander DENNIS and Catherine Olivia FORTUNE. I have not made Washington's profile, but I just got through typing up the letter from Washington to his parents in their profile. I also have not identified the Cousin Lewis and I did not have a listing for a sister named Olivia so I will have to check out those two items as well.

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Jeanne, I've seen all the wonderful work you have done and thank you a thousand times.  Bob

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Thank you cousin, it is hard to do a lot at the moment as my ulcerative colitis has been majorly acting up the last week or so, but I can still type up my notes on my mom's tablet. She got it for when I was on the computer and she wanted to play a game so we just switched for her to be on the computer so I could rest when it kicks in. I can't search and copy / paste anything though so I have to come back to it when it calms down and it lets me get on the computer. It has put my contributions this month way lower than I normally do and my identification of the unknown orphans project is on hold until I feel better as well since that requires side by side comparisons and tons of source searching to do. But I will get through it and if it keeps up call my doctor. I think when she changed my med it came out of remission. I was having one or two bouts of this a month for about a day before she did that and now it has been going on for about a week off and on.

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Hang in there Cuz, better days are ahead.

Answer 1

This is from Ancestry.com, so I don't know how accurate it is, but family trees there claim that his father was Samuel Denney.

Birth 1715 • Virginia County, Armagh, Ireland

Death 1800

And his mother was Sarah Elizabeth Ann Suddarth (Southard)

Birth 1732 • Albemarle, Virginia, United States

Death 1800 • Surry, North Carolina, United States

Good luck! I've been having a devil of a time tracking down my Dennis ancestors.

Comments

Thanks Laurie. This gives me a lead to look into. Good luck in your search. Do our Dennis lines cross?  Bob

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Our Dennis lines might cross. There seem to be a lot of Dennises. The farthest I've been able to go back (reliably) is Joseph Dennis, born 1811 in Butler County, Ohio, then married Mary Kirkham and lived the rest of his life in Schuyler County, Illinois. He passed away in 1892.

There are so many Dennises with similar names that I'm having difficulty determining which ancestors really are his.

Laurie

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Laurie, I have been unable to find a Joseph Dennis b.1811 in Butler Co., Ohio but he is living so close to many of my Dennis' that it's a very good chance he is related.

Answer 2

I am somehow related to these people you have through my great grandparents. My 2nd great grandfather is George Ervin Dennis. His parents are Stephen costen Dennis and Hannah Louise Blair. Stephens father is Absolum David Dennis sr born in 1791. I have a tree on ancestry it that would help at all!

Comments

Hello Kelsey, thank you for responding to my inquiry. I would love to view your family tree on Ancestry. As I don't have a paid account you would need to grant me permission to view the tree.

Bob

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Can you send a request ? I’m new on wiki tree so I’m still getting used to things. If you have an ancestry account my tree is well more filled out on there

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Kelsey,

I found your WikiTree info. We are 4th cousins 1x.

Bob

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Well hello new cousin. I’m waiting on dna results from my ancestry dna. It’s in the final process now.

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Kelsey,

Glad to connect with you. You can find my WikiTree profile at Wood-6960. There you will also find my DNA info. Once your results are back I'd like to run a one-to-one comparison. To do that you would need to upload your test results to gedmatch.com. It's a free service and offers may great dna tools.

Answer 3

Howdy All, I think this might be some help, this is my 3xGGf.  This wasa tough nut to crack, along story. 

  Find a Grave, John Tennison / Dennis 

BIRTH 1748 Charles County, Maryland, USA 

DEATH 1808 (aged 59–60) Caswell County, North Carolina, USA 

BURIALUnknown 

 MEMORIAL IDd# 80838035  

 4/8/2018: John Tennison had a brother named Ignatious Tennison, who can be found on the will of Peter Smith in Caswell, NC; who was connected to many families who lived on Hogan's Creek (Round Hill) in Caswell, NC. Ignatious Tennison did not change his last name and married Lucretia Dennis (Dennis was her maiden name). It is likely that John Tennison (Dennis) did not marry Rachel L. Grant until a year before her death in 1797. Rachel L. Grant's previous husband, likely Sameral Samuel Dennis (b. abt 1750 and d. 1786 in Caswell Co., NC), had died a short time after the birth of her last child (?Elisha Hudson Dennis). We know that on James Grants' will of 1805 (father to Rachel L. Grant) that he mentions that his daughter Rachel was already dead with only one child, thus she would receive nothing. Rachel L. Grant Dennis had children (specifically Samuel Dennis; who had a daughter named Rachel L. Grant and Elisha Dennis who was b. abt 1784 a short time before Sameral Samuel Dennis died in Caswell). Rachel was married to Samuel Dennis prior to marrying John Tennison as was Elizabeth Betsy Cheatwood married to a Dennis prior to marrying John Tennison. UPDATE: Looking closer at the will for John Tennison Dennis, it becomes clearer that his third wife Elizabeth Cheatwood Dennis likely had children from a previous marriage. Here is an excerpt of the will: John Tennison - Will - 18 Dec 1807 - Wife Elizabeth Cheatwood. ***HER 5 children Asariah, Reubin, Polly Hariott, Nancy, Gregory - 5 last children are ***MY 5 last children: my 3 sons Levi, John, James, daughter Coos? - 4 daughters: Elizabeth, wife of Henry Cobb, Anna wife of William Cobb, Catherine wife of Asa Cox, and Ceasy. Exec: son Levi: Wit: David Powell, Turner Patterson (husband to Celia), and Wm. Tapacott. +++Also: We do find a John Dennis and a wife Mary Slater Dennis in Orange Co., NC where records of land grants can be found for 1759 and 1761. This John Dennis (not a Tennison) moves later to Georgia. This John Dennis (not Tennison) appears to be the father of Lucretia Dennis who married Ignatious Tennison; brother to John Tennison. To complicate matters for researchers, both Tennison brothers appeared to have used the last name of Dennis interchangeably with Tennison; but Ignatious Tennison in the end does not change his last name as does his brother John. The John Dennis b. abt 1720 to 1726 in NJ was a son to Samuel Dennis and Ruth Tindall Dennis; immigrating to New Jersey from Ireland before marriage in 1711 in NJ or Pennsylvania. We know, therefore, that it is likely that John Tennisons' 2nd wife Rachel L. Grant and 3rd wife Elizabeth Betsey Cheatwood were married into the Dennis family before marrying John Tennison. We do know now that it was highly likely that both Rachel L. Grant Dennis Tennison and Elizabeth Betsey Chitwood/Cheatwood Dennis Tennison (Lyons) both knew each other and quite possibly met in Virginia before emigrating to North Carolina. Both Rachel Grant and Elizabeth Betsey Cheatwood have ties to the Irby families in Henrico and Chesterfield, VA areas, as well as Orange and then Caswell Co., NC. Specifically, Rachel L. Grant's brother John Grant married Rebecca Ann Irby who was a daughter of Peter Irby and Elizabeth Cooke Irby and Elizabeth Betsey Cheatwood's Uncle Mathias Chitwood/Cheatwood can be found on court records of 1759 for Penelope Irby Parrott, who was contesting the will of her father Dr. Joshua Irby in Chesterfield, VA. The following information from Diane Clark Smith: John was born John Tennison to Ignatius and Elizabeth Nevitt in Charles County, Maryland while Maryland was till a colony. Elizabeth Nevitt was married previously to a planter named Daniel McPherson who died in 1740. Notes by Diane Clark Smith: The name of his first wife is lost to history. She died about 1791 leaving 7 children: Catherine m. Asa Cox, Levi m. Susan White, Celia m. Turner Patterson, Mary Anna m. William Cobb, John "Jack", Jr m. Mary Arnett, Elizabeth m. Henry Cobb, James P. m. Betsy Chadwick and #2 Parnina Gunnels John's third wife was Elizabeth "Betsey" Cheatwood, daughter of William Cheatwood and Jean Flourney of Powhattan County, Virginia. It is possible that Elizabeth Cheatwood was married to another Dennis, resulting in the children below as described by researcher Diane Clark Smith: Asariah Dennis m. Elizabeth Taylor, Reuben Cartwright Dennis m. Susannah Arnett moved to Illinois, Mary "Polly" Dennis m. unknown Gunnels, Harriet Gregory Dennis m. Joseph J. Knox in Tennessee, Nancy Dennis m. William Grant White in Tennessee Family Members: Spouses: Rachel L. Grant Dennis 1750–1797 Elizabeth Cheatwood Dennis 1758–1850 Children: Catherine Dennis Cox 1776–1851 John Dennis 1786–1865 James P Dennis 1789–1838 Reuben Cartwright Dennis 1800–1883 Harriet Gregory Dennis/Tennison Knox 1804–1890 Nancy Dennis White 1805–1889

Comments

T, Thanks for the response. I need some clarification please. You note that John Tennison did not change his last name, why would he? What am I missing ? Plus you then refer John Tennison as John Tennison Dennis. That leaves me with the impression you believe the Tennison family changed their surname to Dennis, is that correct?