I want to announce some sad news which was already noted on the companion blog which you see linked in the above masthead - Burns . The Hunter-Burns Tribal Historian had married into the Jenkins family and even when working on this side of the tree she was my greatest collaborator and was amazed by some of the discoveries I had made. My mother Lois Burns Jenkins passed away in late August and I missed sharing some of the new discoveries that were made. Sadly I never had the chance to tell her of my visit to a reunion of the extended Jenkins family. Also attempted to share pics of my visit, however, she had become so ill that she wasn't thinking about any of her electronic devices. Lois B. Jenkins ✝ While thankfully I do have other family members who are interested in these discoveries the main person who was part of this now has a new home . She was an important part of the story I had written months ago . She said that she had attended a funeral on the West Side of Chicago and w...

Will Jenkins 1881? - ? I went to a recent family reunion hosted by the descendants of my great-uncle Will Jenkins and I'm sorry to have not shared this already it was held at the Dan Ryan Woods Forest Preserve near 87th Street & Western Avenue. My time at this event was unfortunately very brief, however, it was great to meet my cousins and from one of them I certainly got some good information on my uncle Will - the man. It was interesting to hear my great-uncle referred to as grandpa Will. It was interesting to know he had his own favorite grandchild who is still with us to possibly tell us more about Will. It was also interesting to hear about Will's wife Cora who lived on the west side of Chicago on Adams Street with her son Hollis. And I went over  what my mother had told me about her visit to Hollis' residence and that funeral whom we had to guess who it was for . Unfortunately I didn't have the time to talk to everyone on this day, hopefully there will be more...

Tom Jenkins 1883? - 1934 Since starting this blog I got away from my great-grandfather Tom Jenkins - Head of the Table. Father's Day had just passed and on my own personal social media I noted that my grandfather and father had both given me my name (or variation thereof). It is also in fact the Head of the Table who's also responsible for giving me my last name. What do we know about him? We know that he died in 1934 per legal documents - reportedly from a snakebite according to one of my uncles (Tom's grandson). We also know that during the 1910s he purchased land somewhere outside of Mound Bayou, Mississippi which his descendants continued to hold until at least 2004. Tom also briefly owned this land with his brother Will though he later returned his interest in this land back to the Head of the Table. It's safe to say he was a farmer and certainly a landowner. He married Georgia Johnson in December 1908 and had ten children from this union. I didn't know about ...

Henry or Fox Jenkins? I was told through a DNA match on Ancestry - a distant Jenkins relative - that Garrison's father was a man named Fox Jenkins . Was also told that his origins is from Cape Town, South Africa which was formerly a British Colony. My only question to that was how did he wind up in the U.S.? With this said as stated earlier other DNA matches have connections to other Jenkins which were found in the 1900 US Census out of Pike County, Mississippi. Other family trees connected with John and Willie (William) Jenkins seem to list their father and mother as Henry and Patsy Jenkins who were listed as being from Virginia. Also allow me to add Garrison, Bob, John, and Willie are reportedly brothers - another tip from that distant Jenkins relative. There is a significant age difference between Garrison and his younger brothers Bob, John and Willie. Garrison was likely born in 1838 and his younger brother is Bob who was born in about 1857. Then John & Willie Jenkins ...

 I was recently alerted to the identity of the person in this photo shared in December . I identified this photo as my great-uncle Levi Jenkins, it seems that was in error. Levi "Boots" Jenkins Jr.? One thing that seems apparent as seen in the last post here is that it seems the Jenkins name their children after their family. My grandfather Levi Jenkins Sr. was possibly named after his uncle. One of my great aunts - well Levi Sr.'s sister - Delia possibly named for her grandmother Delia Newman Jenkins. Of course, Garrison Jenkins - Levi Sr. grandfather was yet the namesake for the son of Willie Jenkins ( to whom there was a DNA match to me). EDITOR'S NOTE: Willie Jenkins is not to be confused with Tom Jenkins' brother Will Jenkins. Willie could possibly be the brother of Garrison Jenkins and thus the uncle to Tom, Will, Levi, and JayGou though to be honest his familial relationship to the family is not known beyond DNA. I also want to note that the picture shown a...

Have you bought your kit? I was eagerly waiting my Ancestry DNA results and have spent a lot of time since about the first Tuesday of March assessing the results. It blows my mind that aside from having my DNA being registered from such African regions as Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, etc. I'm also registering 16% Celtic - Scottish, Irish, & Welsh and it's being assigned to my paternal side more than anything. Also they noted that I'm part of the genetic geographical groups of early Southern African Americans and my DNA is being registered in the area around Pike County, MISS. In my own research I have found some ancestors (not necessarily Jenkins) who hail from the counties nearby to Pike. Namely Amite County, MISS and St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. This is how I will introduce some other Jenkins I had found out of the 1900 US Census. Other than Garrison there were three other Jenkins men who were recorded that year all with their own families. And in my recent experi...