Bob is someone I see at a weekly men’s breakfast that I go to. When I mentioned my interest in genealogy, he told me about his great grandfather Ansen Davis from West Haven. I said that I could look to see if I could find out more about the Davis family. I recently wrote a Blog on Fred from the breakfast group. After over 160 Blogs on genetic genealogy, the Blog about Fred was my first on just genealogy. Neither Fred nor Bob have taken a DNA test.
Looking for Ansen
I had thought perhaps Ansen should be spelled Anson. I also thought that Ansen sounded Norwegian, but Bob said the family was from Wales. My first look at Ancestry.com for Ansen Davis produced people all over the US. Then I added that he was from West Haven and got this.
I went a way down this route only to find that this was the wrong Anson Davis family. This is why genealogists go from the present to the past. I should started with Bob’s grandfather rather than his great grandfather.
Wilbur Perry Davis
I just figured out from my notes that Bob mentioned that his grandfather was Wilbur Perry Davis. A search at Ancestry for Wilbur Perry Davis shows this:
This makes more sense as Bob mentioned Maine and West Haven. My guess is that this would be Bob’s grandfather, but let’s check.
Here is Wilbur’s marriage:
Here is the reference:
It appears that Eunice was baptized at this Church3 years before she married Wilbur:
Here is the Wilbur Perry Davis family in 1920 way up in Bangor:
According to this Census, Wilbur was born in New Hampshire as was his dad. His mom was born in Connecticut. Hmm… This also shows Virgil as a daughter, which I would have thought would be a male name.
Here is the Bangor Directory for 1923:
1930 – A Few Changes for the Davis Family
It looks like Wilbur moved to Greenwhich, CT, remarried and had two children by a second wife. Now the wife is Elizabeth born in Missouri. Now Virgil is correctly shown as a son. This even shows a son Wilbur born in Illinois. So a lot happened in 10 years. Wilbur, the head of the household is a salesman, but I can’t quite make out the name of the company.
Who is Wilbur Perry Davis’ Dad?
Here is a family tree clue from Ancestry:
Here is the paternal side Bob’s revised Davis Tree. I don’t know anything about Bob’s mother.
Wilbur Perry Davis: The Early Years
It looks like Ansen may have died young. Here is the 1900 Census:
I assume that Wilbur’s mother remarried a Frederick Smith. Wilbur is now listed as a stepson. Perhaps Wilbur’s mother’s maiden name was not also Smith. The 1890 Census was destroyed, so some important information is missing. Wilbur’s step-dad was a carpenter. This couple was married for 10 years as of 1900, so they married around 1890. That means that it is not likely that Wilbur knew his dad.
In 1910, Wilbur was a book keeper for a Wholesale Grocer in Orange:
My guess is that Wilbur had a good step father as Wilbur stayed in the house for quite some time. In 1910, Wilbur’s father is listed as being born in New Hampshire. Going back to check the 1930 Census, Wilbur’s father is said to be born there also.
Back to Ansen Davis
I still know little about Ansen. I did learn that Wilbur was born in Lee, NH. Ansen appears to have died when his son Wilbur was quite young.
Here is Lee:
Backing In To Ansen Via Alice
Let’s look at Wilbur’s mother Alice. Remember the 1900 and 1910 Censuses. That showed a Frederick J(?) Smith married to an Alice I(?). I see this promising record at FamilySearch.org. It has Fred and Alice’s daughter Eva:
My working theory is that Ansen married Alice Kelley and had Wilbur. Ansen died. Alice remarried Fred and Fred adopted Wilbur. All these middle initials and details play an important part in the research. Another thing I notice about Alice is that she was born in Connecticut but both her parents were born in England.
Summary at Mid-Point
- First I found a few Anson Davises in the West Haven area. They were well documented and had a farm in Oxford, CT.
- So far I have found no connection between Bob and this Connecticut Anson Davis family except by name
- Bob’s grandfather Wilbur Perry Davis is fairly well documented. However, I am having trouble finding a birth record to confirm that he was indeed born in Lee, NH.
- I have so far found no primary record linking Wilbur Perry Davis to Ansen Davis
Concerning the last point (and perhaps second), here is a Social Security record for Wilbur’s son Benjamin Anson:
I mention this because Wilbur’s first son’s middle name was Anson. This would be one of the only physical links I have found to the name Anson (or Ansen). There is also one family tree reference at Ancestry, but that lists the name as Benjamin Ansin Davis.
More on Wilbur Perry Davis
In order to find out about Wilbur’s father, we should find out more about Wilbur. This could be a record of his daughter, Elizabeth:
Could Eunice have been named for Wilbur’s first wife? And Possibly the E in the Mary E Chamberlain could be the Elizabeth I had previously for Wilbur’s second wife. Apparently so. Here is Wilbur’s entry in the 1930 Greenwich directory in bold:
Greenwich is one town to the West of Stamford.
A Major Breakthrough with Anson
After many searches for Ansen/Anson, I tried searching for Ansen Davis born in New Hampshire at FamilySearch.org. I came up with a lot of good information.
It was beginning to be a personal thing between Anson and me and I was determined to find him. Here he is as Anson B. Davis. I think he works at Shoesmith(?). Now I’m getting somewhere. I have a whole family with parents and children. They were living in Durham, NH in 1880. Not only that, according to this Census, Levi’s parents were both born in New Hampshire.
Just to be confusing, there appears to be another Anson B. Davis living in Farmington, NH in the same year – 1880. I don’t know who he is. He also works in a shoe shop. Is it possible that Anson was enumerated more than once?
This appears to be the record of Anson’s death:
I would have thought that Anson’s mother would be Lucy, but perhaps Lucy was Levi’s second wife. It is sad that Anson died so young. This also shows his birthplace as Nottingham, NH.
This is the document that I first found that appears to pull it all together.
Unfortunately, Anson had a son named Levi, apparently named for Anson’s father that died young. This clearly shows that Allice J. Kelley was the mother and Anson was the father. This confirms some of my research above. Interestingly, Allice Kelley was born in No. Waterbury, CT and Levi was born in Ansonia CT. This means that this family must have moved from CT to NH in 1886. Or, Allice went to Ansonia temporarily that year for the birth of her son, Levi.
Here is the marriage record for Levi and Henrietta:
It looks like there was some confusion as to the year of marriage. Here is the birth record for Henrietta:
Levi’s birth record appears to say that he had a Davis mother and father.
Now we can see more of Bob’s father’s tree:
This should get us to about the year 1800 in Nottingham, NH.
Here is the death record for Levi:
This shows that Levi’s mother was not a Davis, but a Burnham from New Durham, NH.
1857 Nottingham Map
Here is a spot where the Davis families likely lived in 1857:
Now compare that map with the 1860 Census:
- J.E. Fernald is John E.
- J. Davis I would have thought would be Jacob Davis, but perhaps Levi Davis is living here now. Perhaps Jacob passed away prior to 1860
- Rev A Tuttle is Alexander Tuttle and father in law of Levi Davis. His occupation on the census appears to stand for First Baptist Clergyman
- A Lucy is likely Alexander Lucy
That means that one of Bob’s ancestor was a Baptist Pastor.
The 1850 Census clears things up a little:
This brings us to the 1700’s for the Davis family. The Sarah in the 1860 Census was actually the daughter of Jacob, probably living in her father’s house.
The Tuttle Family
Here is an excerpt from a 1906 called “The Native Ministry of New Hampshire”
Genealogy gets easy when an ancestor is a bit famous. Here, we see that F.B. was actually Free Baptist. Browsing on Google, it appears that the Free in the name could refer to Free Will, an issue of theology relating to Arminianism. I note that there was also a Calvin Baptist Church in Nottingham which I suppose held an opposing view.
The Tuttle family is further documented in this book:
The Freewill Baptists and Anson
Is this reference more than a coincidence? This is from the same book on the history of Nottingham and mentions Rev. Ebenezer Scales:
Anson is a Town in Maine where there was a quarterly meeting of the Freewill Baptists. Hmm…
While I’m on the topic of Anson, his son Wilbur Perry Davis thought that his father was from Lee, NH. Lee is close to Nottingham:
The Free Baptist Church is above the large ‘M’ on the map for reference.
Anson’s New Hampshire Tree
This is just a skeleton. For example, I know the father of Stoten Tuttle but haven’t written that in.
Summary
- There are more Anson’s out there than I knew
- I had never heard of the name Stoten until now
- Bob is descended from a Freewill Baptist Minister, Alexander Tuttle
- The Tuttle’s were a prominent family in early Nottingham, NH
- Less has been written about the Davis family, but they were apparently early residents of Nottingham, NH also
- It doesn’t hurt to come up with theories on ancestors when all the facts aren’t known. Further information will show those theories to be right or wrong