The Dupre Family

My maternal grandfather William Fink was the son of Homer Dupre Fink. Homer was the son of Minerva Jane Dupre, who was the daughter of Abraham Francis Dupre and Minerva Alice Clark.

Abraham Francis Dupre was born Sept 1834 in Huntington Ohio and married Minerva on the 20th of Sept 1855 in Gallia Co Ohio. He died in 1912 and was buried at Mount Tabor Cemetery in Huntington Twp Gallia Co. OH. He was the son of Abraham Dupre and Polly Deckard.

Abraham Dupre was born around 1810/11 on the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands. He married Polly on December 5, 1833 in Vinton, Gallia Co. OH and died on September 25, 1894 in Sciotoville, Gallia Co. OH. He's also buried at Mount Tabor Cemetery. The son of Abraham Dupre and Marie DuMaresq, he was seven years old when his family immigrated to America.

Abraham Dupre was born May 5 1774, married in 1808 and died March 14, 1869. He was the son of Abraham Dupre and Jane Lacouter. Marie DuMaresq was born June 5 1787 and died July 12 1852. They had eleven children: Abraham, Mary, Jane, Mancy, Eliza, Philip, Susan, Elizabeth, Ellen, Rufus, and one that died young. When Jane, their third child, was just four days old, they left Jersey for America. The crossing took nine weeks.

Abraham Dupre was the son of Philip Dupre, who was the son of Charles Dupre. Around 1720, Charles and his family left France for the Isle of Jersey. He owned a farm in France, but the only property his family could take with them was what they could carry because of the persecution of Protestants in France. They traveled through the countryside by night and hid in the woods during the day until they reached the Channel, where they found a boat. The boat was chained to a rock, but they broke the chain and rowed to the Isle of Jersey.

My assumption is that the Dupres were French Huguenots. My great aunt Esther Josephine always said that they were the only family line with naturalization papers because everyone else was already here when the United States became a country.

New Information (?) and other news

My grandmother is moving to Florida soon with her son and so has been cleaning out her home. This past weekend, she passed yet another bag to me full of sewing things and other random items, including some genealogy information. I'll have to double check, but I believe that some of the information she gave me is information that I don't currently have in my research, on the Dupre and the Curtis lines.

She also gave me a huge, blank family tree. It's meant to be filled in to the great grandparent level and has lots of blanks for siblings and cousins. I'm going to see if I can alter it to take it out farther than my great grandparents. The alteration was Mama's idea.

I can't wait to start filling it in. If I'd had an acid free pen with me, I would've started while at my parents' over the weekend.

Clifford Ancestry Notes Part IV - The Babbitts

Elizabeth "Betsey" Babbitt's "immediate ancestry is remarkable for cousin marriages...Nathan Babbitt and Abigail Babbitt were brother and sister, and both of them were first cousins of Abiathar Babbitt. So the parents of Elizabeth "Betty" Babbitt were first cousins, and the parents of "Betsey" were both first and second cousins.

"Levi Babbitt had three short terms of service in the militia in 1775, one term in 1777, and one term in 1778. He lived all his life in Norton, MA.

"Nathan Babbitt had one six month term of Revolutionary War service in 1778. He lived all his life in Norton, MA.

"Abiathar Babbitt had three terms of Revolutionary War service in 1777 and 1778. He was born in Easton, MA and lived there after marrying his cousin Abigail Babbitt until they joined the Shakers. All of the family, except Betty, who had married Levi Babbitt, then moved to the Shaker colony at Harvard, MA, where both Abiathar and Abigail later died.

"Edward Babbitt was the immigrant ancestor. His first appearance on record was at Plymouth, MA on a list dated in 1643 of those males between 16 and 60 years and able to bear arms. Probably he was not much over 16 at the time. He bought his first land in Taunton, MA in 1652, and two years later married Sarah Tarne, daughter of Miles Tarne, a leather dresser, of Boston. He bought more land in 1658 and became one of the proprietors of Tauton by 1666.

"Relations with the local Indians became increasingly worse at this period. Finally the conflict known as King Phillip's War broke out. The alarm was given, and Edward and his family fled to the garrison stockade at Taunton, a few miles from their home. According to family tradition, Edward returned home to pick up some item which he had forgotten, but was caught and killed by the Indians before he could get back to the stockade."

Clifford Ancestry Notes Part III - The Shinkles

"Henry Shinkle was born in Lancaster Co. (now Lebanon Co.) PA. He married his first cousin, Maria Margaret Shinkle, later known as Margaret. He died in Fayette Co. IN. After his death, Margaret Shinkle moved to Madison Co. IN and later married a man named Stover. They moved to Missouri where she died.

"Philip Jacob Shinkle was born in Edenkoben, Electoral (Rhenish) Palatinate, Germany. he was brought to Pennsylvania at about 5 years of age. During the Revolutionary War, he was a Private in the Heidelberg Twp. Company of Associators (militia). He married Julia Ann Bolender and later moved to Ohio, where he bought land on 18 March 1805, and died at a date unknown to us.

"Christian Shinkle was born in Heidelberg Twp. Lancaster Co. (now Lebanon Co.) PA. During the Revolutionary War he was also a Private in the Heidelberg Twp. Company of Associators (militia). He married Maria Magdelena _______ and later moved to Lewis Twp. Brown Co. OH in 1805. After the death of Maria Magdalena, he married Elizabeth Stayton.

"Philipp Carl Schenkel was born in Edenkoben, Electoral (Rhenish) Palatinate, Germany. He married Maria Elisabetha Zimpel. As a serf of the Electoral Palatinate, he had to be manumitted (freed) before being allowed to emigrate, but was manumitted and permitted to emigrate without paying any of the usual fees because of his poverty. He and his family came from Rotterdam to Philadelphia on the ship "Snow Ketty" in 1752. They settled in Heidelberg Twp. Lancaster Co. (now Lebanon Co.).

"On July 22, 1984, our three-generations-in-a-van (Richard and Jeanne Forkner, Steve, Jo Ellen, Rich and John Ham) visited Edenkoben, a picturesque town on the Deutche Weinstrasse."

This image shows where Edenkoben is located in Germany.

Powers Family Reunion II

I had a good time this year. I drove down to Mt Sterling KY with my mom and grandma, worked on a few things in the car during the long drive (sewing, costume planning and a job application). While there, I chatted with some distant cousins and discovered that I have one that has the same hobby I do - costuming. I friended her on Facebook and proposed we hang out at DragonCon.

EDIT My distant costuming cousin's name is Melissa and she's descended from Silas Powers, the brother of my 3rd great grandfather Gilson Powers. If I'm using the cousin chart correctly and if she is the same generation as me which is likely given our close ages, especially since Silas and Gilson were only about two years apart, then we are 5th cousins. She emailed me recently and said she'd love to do dinner while we're at DragonCon.

The next reunion might not happen, unless someone steps in to organize it. The spearhead of the reunion so far has decided she'll help for the next one, but not be the main person.

Powers Family Reunion

The Powers Family Reunion is this weekend! I'm super excited to see all my cousins, and probably meet new ones. The reunion is for anyone descended from Jeremiah and Leah (McCarty) Powers.

Most Recent Immigrant Ancestor

Most recent immigrant ancestor - Edwin Bishop Dobell. He was born in 1818 in Staplehurst, Kent, England. He married Harriet Luck on Oct 5 1840 in Cincinnati Ohio and died in the early 1900s there. He was a furniture maker and his parents were Joseph Dobell and Mary Ann Bishop.

Edwin and Harriet had a daughter named Sarah Elizabeth who married George Albert Groff. They had a daughter, Edna, who married Willard Clement Cookman. Edna and Willard are my grandfather Donald's parents.

So my 3rd great grandfather is the most recent immigrant that I am aware of.