Lauver and Davis Family Trees

So far, no connections have been found to celebrities, presidents, or royalty. Frankly, I want the true story, with no embellishments. Embellishments were common among family historians in the 19th century because genealogy was mostly about social status. Today, genealogy is about legacy and awareness. The Lauver and Davis story is simply a story of struggle, pain, persecution for non-conformity (in past centuries when nonconformity was a crime punishable by torture and death), joyous moments, and perhaps stories that could be cinematic, but nothing of which fills the biographical shelves of libraries.

Some members of my family have expressed interest in a persistent family oral tradition regarding a direct line from my grandmother Helen Bunyon Davis (1903-1933) to the family of John Bunyan (1628-1688), the author of Pilgrim's Progress (1678), second over the centuries only to the Bible as being the most frequently printed book in the world. No evidence has come forth to prove such a connection. I hope to prove or disprove this in the future. At the very worst, John Bunyan is an interesting historical figure to study. Bunyan, who had fought on the side of Oliver Cromwell in the name of ending religious persecution, between 1644 and 1646 in the English Civil War, spent more than eleven years in an English prison simply because he was a nonconformist preacher. While in prison, he wrote one of the most strangely prolific books of all time, along with several other books that have survived. At the same time, there are Irish roots in Ireland who suffered under the hands of Oliver Cromwell.

The Lauver and Davis "Roots" is a story of a New Hampshire great-great grandfather (Joseph Brawn) who helped rescue the Altoona, Pa., brother of his future bride (my gg-grandmother) from a Confederate Civil War prison. Brawn, who escaped the Civil War with minor wounds, was killed by a train in Altoona in 1882. It's a story of the Davis family and a proud Welsh immigrant whose farm near Antietam, Maryland, was close to ground zero during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Named after (but not descended from) the great Welsh prince and hero, Llewellyn, another branch of the family (Tipton) was responsible for slaying the prince. That latter story has only just begun to unfold.

I have been surprised during the past couple of years by the number of distant cousins I have met with whom we share a common ancestor. If you believe in "Six Degrees of Separation," the serendipity in genealogy is incredible. It is an amazing feeling to discover that friends, and even neighbors, even while living in a city distant from my old hometown, when you find out you share common ancestors. One woman had been a good friend for 25 years when I found out that we have the same great-great grandfather.

Discovering your roots and realizing just how close many of us are connected brings a different perspective to the ideas of family and our fellow human beings. Unless one has originated on a different planet, we probably all share a piece of DNA. It is sad to think that people who turn against others could well be turning on their own family, perhaps today a distant cousin, but close kin a few short generations ago. Family history studies remind us that we are all in a sense brothers and sisters while we are in this world.

Those who look at these pages looking for clues in their own search, must keep one thing in mind. Genealogy is not often an exact science. Even professional historians are often off base regarding the facts, and it seems too often that people of current generations, with a biased idealogical agenda, attempt to rewrite history. But sometimes documents or other primary source evidence just do not exist. The researcher can be left with only deductive reasoning skills, much like a detective. For this reason, be warned that the information in these files, while efforts have been made to check sources, even official public records can be wrong. Errors, even simple typographical errors, can send one down the wrong path. Think of it as a starting point. Do not make the mistake on the Internet that society made in the 1950's regarding television. People used to believe everything they saw on TV. People were naive in early television and had faith that broadcasters would never lie to them. If it is in print and on the Internet, it does not necessarily make it true.

I must admit, however, that I will be forever grateful to authors such as John Slabaugh, Hannah Benner Roach, Melvin Lauver, Floyd Hoenstine, J. Simpson Africa, and many other distant cousins and unnamed researchers who have put their findings in print, thereby paving the path for me and my descendants to walk. Still, if you are serious about learning the true story of your family, you must take this secondary information and confirm it with a preponderance of original evidence whenever possible. It is my hope to be able to continue to add to the legacy. When enough information is gathered and confirmed, I expect to publish those findings for anyone interested. That could be years away. I still must report to my day job which is currently split between being assistant editor of Pennsylvania Heritage magzine and working on a couple of books! Oh, and one other thing: the source file and notes have been generated automatically by software, but because there are more than 3,000 individuals in the database, I have not had time to edit them, so there could be typographical or grammatical errors. They will be corrected in a future published edition.

The pursuit continues. If given a choice between discovering a room full of gold and discovering a room with the mother load treasure of my family's entire history, I would choose the latter.

Regards and best wishes in your quest,