Comments on: GENTRY, Benjamin, of Hart Co KY

By: charles w. wiseley

charles w. wiseley — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:07:36 +0000

Hi Kathy,
Thanks for your reply. I was back on your website looking at the content regarding the Willoughby bible. I was fascinated when I saw the reference to the Clay County, IN deed. So this particular Willoughby and my great grandfather, Randall Gordon Donica/Donaghe migrate to IN about the same time. Many Donica family members first stopped in Lawrence Co IN. Randall Donica and Benjamin Willoughby both lived adjacent or very close by each other in Nevins, Twp, Vigo County IN. Nevins Twp is immediately adjacent to Clay County IN. Both James Donica and Thomas Donica married Willoughby girls in 1797. Chalkley’s Annals of Virginia relates how the Donaghe’s/Donica’s moved to the Nolichucky, Washington Co and Greene Co KY(now TN) between about 1785 and 1798. I have always thought the James Donica that is in 1840 Martin County IN at the age of 70 with his wife about 10 years younger are the other Donica/Willoughby couple.
The only way that Samuel Donica could be the father of Randall Gordon Donica is if he is the son of Samuel Donaghe and Mary Smith who married in Augusta County VA on March 9, 1810. Randall’s birthdate I recovered years ago from an old Donica family bible. It also had a lot of Montgomery family information but I could never tie it in to the Donica family. I only got to review the bible for a few minutes.
I plan to review your Willoughby info this weekend. I also have found that when we go back 7 to 9 generations we all seem to be related. Interestingly, my mother’s family came from the south and my dad’s family from the north but I can find member’s from each side living within 7 miles of each other in Maryland on the Severn River in the late 1600′s.
Charles

By: alvispat

alvispat — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:41:26 +0000

Hi, neighbor.
I was in Tulsa Saturday for the Oklahoma Society of Descendants of the Mayflower meeting. I live in Hydro, about an hour west of OKC on I-40.
I also started genealogy years ago, 44 to be exact, since I started in the summer of 1966. I definitely hold to the belief that we are all related in many, many ways. My mom had a brother and a sister. My dad was a Gentry descendant, my uncle married a Gentry, and one of my aunt’s two children married a girl with Gentry ancestry. So, although neither of my maternal grandparents was a Gentry descendant five of their six grandchildren (or a spouse) were.
As you undoubtedly saw on my blog, I earned an MA at OU in 1969; my husband has a PhD from there, 1974. I was the third generation of my family to attend there, but none of my children, their spouses or apparently my grandchildren will be going there. End of a tradition.
I am related to my father-in-law (9th cousin 3 times removed), my mother-in-law (9th cousin), and my daughter’s mother-in-law (9th cousin). My father’s 9th great-grandfather was a brother of my mom’s 8th great-grandfather. My other son-in-law is from Mexico, so I haven’t found a relationship yet, but if I could go far enough back, who knows?
The Benjamin Willoughby in Nevins Township, Vigo Co IN, was brother to my ancestor, Elizabeth (Willoughby) Parker, later Howard.
I am sorry to tell you that I found the Donica-Willoughby connection at Ancestry.com.

Here’s how I set up my website:
I subscribe to the genealogy newsletter, Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, at http://www.eogn.com. Among many, many interesting articles was one about 20 months ago which suggested setting up a free blog at worpress.com. That same week (by chance?) I read in New England Ancestors, a magazine that comes with my NEHGS membership, about a project to identify everyone who appears in the 1790 Vermont census with a brief biography with evidence and sources.
So I started with every ancestor in the seventh generation and back and created a similar format that you can see in the pages of my blog. This took at least eight months, but I was able to pinpoint weak spots in documentation and add children’s children to my database, using the Internet.
I should add that one feature I really like is that this entire blog site is almost immediately indexed at Google, so I get quite a few queries and comments. The Elijah and Susannah (Leachman) Willoughby Bible was by far the best thing I found for my own research.
I am a teacher, which I believe is synonymous with someone who can’t get the IT department to give me the time of day. So I have set up another blog to post daily assignments and homework. In fact, I have seven blogs, most of which are for my convenience and probably not consulted by other people.
Kathy

By: Charles W. Wiseley

Charles W. Wiseley — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:11:53 +0000

Hi Kathy,
My name is Charles Wiseley. I live in Tulsa, a 1963 OU grad. I have done genealogy for years and accidentally came across your genealogy blog while I was googling Donica. I have been doing genealogy for 30 plus years and I was interested in some of your families. My ex-wife is related to your Moser families. We might be connected through a possible Willoughby/Donica connection. I am connected to a Hugh Gentry by the marriage of my ggaunt Mary Lane ie dtr of Lambert Lane and Nancy Ann Anderson. The latter connect me to about 10 families of Maryland’s first 100 families. I am particularly curious about the two Donica’s that married Willoughby sisters in Greene County, TN. Curiously a Benjamin Willoughby was an adjacent neighbor to my great grandfather Randall Gordon Donica in abt 1850-60 in Nevins Township in Vigo County IN (very close to Terra Haute). I have worked on this Donica family for year. I would also be interested in how you set up your website.
Sincerely,
Charles W. Wiseley
cwiseley@gmail.com