This family history got its start with Isobel Kiefer McCain and even before her. She was focused on the Kiefers and McCains and passed a lot of information on to me. I have researched the other lines shown here. Not always expecting to find much, I was amazed when some lines reached into the 16th Century. I decided to limit this round of research to people and events after 1600. A note of warning: I haven’t always followed the strict guidelines of genealogy. I have been so pleased to find ancestors that I may have accepted a few incorrect suggestions. Let me know when you see such errors.
Welcome to the Clarke-Davis family history website. It is very much still under construction. The overall intent here is to present the ancestry and cousins of the six grandchildren of Robert D. Clarke (Bob) and Elizabeth J. McCain Clarke (BJ). The first installment is the ancestral family trees of the Clarke, Sippel, McCain, and Kiefer lines, which lead to my four siblings and me. The second installment will be the ancestry of the Davis, Kroupa, Bohannon, and Hudgins lines, which lead to Betty Lou Davis Clarke. The third and fourth installments will be the lines leading to Mary Ann Heywood Clarke and Susan Turner Clarke. Eventually the “20th Century” people will be brought in, those who descend from the eight lines listed. Besides the descendants of Bob and BJ, this group will include lots of cousins. “20th Century” refers to anyone born after 1900. Further down the road, narrative histories of the several lines and the 20th Century people will appear. Feedback would be much appreciated, including additional information and corrections.
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. 'It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.' by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.
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We make every effort to document our research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.