Research Notes

Jenkins Genealogy & DNA (TN, GA, MS) is a research and collaboration group for descendants and researchers of Jenkins families with connections to Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.

The group was started by descendants of Elijah Daniel Jenkins (1847–1909), who was born in Georgia and later settled in Jasper County, Mississippi. Elijah’s parents remain unidentified, making his Jenkins ancestry a long-standing research question.

DNA research has identified significant connections between descendants of Elijah Daniel Jenkins and descendants of several other Jenkins families, including:

• Benjamin F. Jenkins, born about 1812 in Tennessee, who lived in Bradley and McMinn Counties, Tennessee, and whose descendants include Allen Jenkins, William Houston Jenkins, Benjamin F. “Frank” Jenkins, Permelia Jenkins, and others.

• Samuel Jenkins (1822–1891), born in Tennessee and later of Georgia, who married Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson in Henry County, Georgia, in 1846 and later lived in northwest Georgia.

• William Lewis Jenkins, of Georgia, whose family is being investigated as a possible close connection to Elijah’s Jenkins line.

• Sarah Armanda Jenkins, of Georgia, whose descendants—including descendants through her son Newtie Gay Ogletree—have produced multiple DNA matches to the Elijah Jenkins descendant group.

These DNA connections do not yet establish the exact relationships among these families, and one of the main purposes of this group is to bring descendants together to compare family trees, records, photographs, family stories, autosomal DNA matches, Y-DNA results, and other evidence.

Research topics may include Jenkins families in Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi, as well as related families and migration into surrounding Southern states.

All Jenkins researchers are welcome, whether your connection is proven, suspected, DNA-based, or still being explored. Our goal is to work collaboratively to identify common ancestors, separate unrelated Jenkins lines, solve long-standing brick walls, and preserve information for future generations.

One of the main reasons this group was created is to bring together descendants and researchers who may be able to help solve the family of Elijah Daniel Jenkins, my direct ancestor and the starting point for much of my Jenkins research.

Elijah Daniel Jenkins was born December 25, 1847, in Georgia, probably in or near Newton County, Georgia. Although his later records consistently connect him to Georgia, the identity of his biological parents remains unknown.

The earliest record I have found for Elijah is the 1850 census of Newton County, Georgia, where he was approximately four years old and living in the household of George Washington Bagby and his wife, Winiford “Winnie” Johnson Bagby. The nature of Elijah’s relationship to the Bagbys is one of the major questions I am still trying to answer. Evidence strongly indicates that they served as his guardians or raised him, but I have not yet located a record identifying his biological parents.

The Bagby and Johnson families are therefore extremely important to this research.

As a young man, Elijah remained in the Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia area. During the Civil War, records indicate that he served in Company B, 8th Georgia State Guard Infantry, enlisting at Decatur on August 4, 1863. Interestingly, George W. Bagby and other men associated with the Bagby family also appear in records connected with this unit.

On March 28, 1867, Elijah married Sarah Ann Margaret Jane Thomason, the widow of Lewis N. Thornton, in DeKalb County, Georgia. Sarah was considerably older than Elijah and had children from her first marriage. No children are known from her marriage to Elijah. Elijah also signed a voter registration oath in Decatur on July 2, 1867.

The 1870 census provides an especially interesting clue. In Decatur, the households appear consecutively as:

• Winney Bagby

• Richard Thomason, Sarah’s father

• Elijah Jenkins and Sarah

This places Elijah immediately beside both the woman who had helped raise him and his father-in-law.

What happened to Elijah’s marriage to Sarah after 1870 is still unresolved.

We do not currently know whether Elijah and Sarah formally divorced, separated, or whether Elijah simply left Georgia. This question becomes especially interesting in the 1880 census. Sarah was still living in Georgia and reported her marital status as married, rather than widowed. By that time, she was living in the household of her father, Richard Thomason, who was still living beside Winney Bagby. In other words, ten years after the 1870 census, Sarah remained within the same close Thomason-Bagby neighborhood while Elijah was living in Mississippi with a new family.

At the same time, Elijah was living in Jasper County, Mississippi, with Mary Ann Arledge Hodges, whom records identify as his wife. Their daughter Alice M. Jenkins was born around 1872, followed by John Daniel Jenkins several years later.

Alice’s birth strongly suggests that Elijah probably arrived in Jasper County not long after the 1870 census was taken, and that his relationship with Mary Ann began earlier than later census records suggest.

Mary Ann was already firmly established in Jasper County, Mississippi, before Elijah arrived there. She appears on both the 1860 and 1870 censuses in Jasper County living with her maternal grandparents, the Arledge family, after the deaths of her parents. This places Mary Ann in Jasper County continuously during the period when Elijah was still documented in Georgia.

Later census records indicate that Elijah and Mary reported being married around 1876, but that date does not fit comfortably with Alice’s estimated birth around 1872. It seems likely that Elijah came to Jasper County soon after the 1870 census and that his relationship with Mary Ann began earlier than the later-reported marriage date.

Unfortunately, the original marriage records for Jasper County, Mississippi, were destroyed in a courthouse fire, so a civil marriage record for Elijah and Mary Ann may no longer survive. I have also not located any family Bible, family record, obituary, or other document that gives a specific marriage date for them.

For now, the exact date of their marriage remains unknown.

By the 1880 census, Elijah and Mary were living in Jasper County with their children Alice M. Jenkins and John Daniel Jenkins. The census reports that Elijah was born in Georgia and that his father was born in Tennessee, providing one of the few clues we currently have to the origins of his biological Jenkins family.

Elijah and Mary remained in Jasper County and raised their family there.

In the 1900 census, Elijah reported his birth as December 1847, matching the December 25, 1847 date used in family records. He and Mary were still living in Jasper County with several of their children.

Elijah died on December 6, 1909, in Jasper County, Mississippi, in a tragic accident. While riding his horse, he picked up a downed telephone line that had crossed with an electrical power line. The line was energized, and both Elijah and the horse he was riding were electrocuted and killed.

His death was reported in local newspapers, including the Jasper County Review and the Bay Springs News. He is buried at Mt. Nebo/Bay Springs Cemetery.

But Elijah’s story does not end there.

DNA research has begun connecting descendants of Elijah to other Jenkins families in Tennessee and Georgia, including descendants associated with Benjamin Franklin Jenkins of Tennessee, Samuel Jenkins of Georgia, William Lewis Jenkins of Georgia, and Sarah Armanda Jenkins of Georgia. Determining exactly how these families connect is one of the primary goals of this group.

Y-DNA testing of Elijah’s direct paternal line has also given us an important genetic marker. His Jenkins line belongs to haplogroup I-BY49562, giving us another tool for identifying Jenkins men who may descend from the same paternal family.

Some of the questions I hope we can eventually answer together are:

• Who were Elijah Daniel Jenkins’ biological parents?

• Why was he living with George Washington and Winiford Johnson Bagby as a young child?

• Was Elijah related by blood to the Johnson family, the Bagby family, or both?

• What happened to Elijah’s marriage to Sarah Ann Margaret Jane Thomason after 1870?

• When did Elijah leave Georgia for Jasper County, Mississippi?

• When did Elijah and Mary Ann Arledge Hodges actually marry?

• Who were Elijah’s Jenkins relatives in Georgia and Tennessee?

• How do the Jenkins families identified through autosomal DNA fit together?

• Can Y-DNA eventually identify Elijah’s paternal Jenkins family?

I’ll be posting records, photographs, census findings, DNA information, family groups, and research questions as we work through these families.

If you descend from Elijah Daniel Jenkins, one of the related Jenkins families, the Bagby or Johnson families, or have Jenkins ancestors in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, or surrounding areas, please introduce yourself and tell us about your line.

Even if we do not yet know exactly how our families connect, that may be the reason you are here.

One of the Jenkins men I am currently researching is William Lewis Jenkins, who appears in records in Newton, Butts, and Henry Counties, Georgia. He is especially interesting because DNA research suggests that he may somehow connect to my ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins, (I strongly suspect they may be brothers) although I have not yet been able confirm anything definitively yet. They could have been brothers, cousins, or related through another nearby Jenkins family.

William appears to have been born about 1847 or 1848 in Georgia. His earliest known record is the 1850 census in Newton County, Georgia, where he was only about two years old.

At that time, William was living in the household of William Dennis and his wife Sarah Dennis, both of whom were born in South Carolina. Also living in the household was a 20-year-old woman named Ann E. Jenkins, also born in South Carolina.

(Of note, my ancestor, Elijah Daniel Jenkins' reported on the 1880 Census that his mother was born in South Carolina.)

The 1850 census does not identify relationships within the household, so it does not tell us who Ann was to young William. However, because she was the only other person in the household with the Jenkins surname and was listed immediately before him, I currently suspect that Ann E. Jenkins may have been William's mother. That relationship remains unproven.

The role of William and Sarah Dennis in William's life is also a mystery. They may have been relatives, guardians, or people with whom Ann and William were simply living, but I have not yet found a record that explains the connection.

By 1860, William was still living with William and Sarah Dennis, but the family had moved to Lofton's District in Butts County, Georgia. William was then about 12 years old. What makes this record particularly interesting is that Ann E. Jenkins was no longer in the household. William was living only with William and Sarah Dennis. I have not yet determined what happened to Ann or whether she died, married, moved away, or was living elsewhere.

A few years later, William began establishing a family of his own.

On 9 November 1865, W. L. Jenkins married Nancy Capps in Henry County, Georgia. This appears to be William Lewis Jenkins and the woman who would remain associated with him in later family records.

By the 1870 census, William had returned to Newton County, Georgia, where he was living in Subdivision 96 as head of household with his wife, Nancy A. Jenkins, and several young children. The children's names are difficult to read on the census image, but they appear to include Sarah O. C. Jenkins, Martha E. Jenkins, and James W. A. Jenkins. Because the handwriting is unclear, I am treating those names as tentative until they can be confirmed through other records.

Later death certificates help fill in some of the family.

One of William and Nancy's daughters was Mary Angeline Jenkins, later Mary Angeline Copeland. According to her Georgia death certificate, she was born about 1872 in Fulton County, Georgia, and died on 16 January 1928 in McDonough, Henry County, Georgia.

Her death certificate identifies her parents as Lewis Jenkins and Nancy Capps, with Nancy listed as having been born in Henry County, Georgia. No birthplace was given for Lewis Jenkins. Mary's death certificate is Certificate No. 1679.

Another death certificate appears to identify one of William's sons.

James William Jenkins, born about 1869, died on 29 March 1928 in McDonough, Henry County, Georgia. His death certificate identifies his father as Lewis W. Jenkins. His mother's name was not provided, and no birthplace was given for either James or his father. His death certificate is Certificate No. 33481.

James William Jenkins may be the child whose name appears as James W. A. Jenkins in William's 1870 household, although I have not yet proven that they are the same person.

After 1870, William becomes much more difficult to follow.

So far, I have not been able to locate William Lewis Jenkins in either the 1880 or 1900 census. That leaves a significant gap in his life and family history. Those records could potentially identify additional children, show where William and Nancy were living, and provide more clues about William's origins.

William is reported to have died in 1905 and is buried at Philadelphia United Methodist Church Cemetery in McDonough, Henry County, Georgia.

His grave is marked with a military headstone that reads:

PVT William L Jenkins
Co H
3rd GA Res
CSA
1847–1905

Find a Grave also has a memorial for William, but I currently suspect that some of the family relationships listed there, particularly his parents and children, may be incorrect. Because of that, I am trying to verify his family independently through census records, vital records, military records, and DNA rather than relying on the online family connections.

The biggest unanswered question remains where William Lewis Jenkins fits into the larger Jenkins family.

My ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins was also born in Georgia in the late 1840s and was living in Newton County, Georgia, in 1850. Elijah's parents are still unknown.

DNA research has indicated connections among several Jenkins families in Georgia and Tennessee, and William Lewis Jenkins appears to be part of that broader puzzle. At this point, however, I do not have documentary evidence proving whether William and Elijah were brothers, cousins, or related in some other way.

For William, the records I would most like to find next are the 1880 and 1900 census records, additional information about Ann E. Jenkins, and anything that explains the connection between the Jenkins family and William and Sarah Dennis.

If anyone descends from William Lewis Jenkins and Nancy Capps, or has researched Ann E. Jenkins, William and Sarah Dennis, or Jenkins families in this part of Georgia, I would love to compare information.

Another Jenkins family I am researching very closely is that of Samuel Jenkins, who married Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson.

Samuel is particularly important to my research because I currently suspect that he may have been an uncle of my ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins. I want to emphasize that this relationship has not been proven through documentary records. We still do not know the identity of Elijah's father, and Samuel's own parents have not been definitively identified.

However, there are numerous DNA matches between descendants of Elijah Daniel Jenkins and descendants of Samuel Jenkins and Bertie Johnson that support this theory. At this point, I consider the uncle relationship a working hypothesis rather than an established fact.

Samuel Jenkins was born 15 September 1822 in Tennessee. His exact birthplace is somewhat uncertain.

A biographical sketch in Memoirs of Georgia states that Samuel was born in Marion County, Tennessee, while FamilySearch currently gives his birthplace as Smith County, Tennessee. The Memoirs of Georgia account also states that Samuel came from Tennessee to Georgia while still young. Because Samuel consistently reported Tennessee as his birthplace in later records, Tennessee itself appears well established, but the specific county still needs to be resolved.

By the 1840s, Samuel was living in Georgia.

On 9 August 1846, Samuel Jenkins married Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson in McDonough, Henry County, Georgia. This marriage places Samuel in the same general area of Georgia that later becomes extremely important in my search for the family of Elijah Daniel Jenkins.

Samuel and Bertie went on to have a large family.

Their known children include:

• James A. Jenkins (1847–1925), who married Eliza Jane Green

• Josiah Jenkins (1853–1937), who married Martha Ann E. McIntire

• Mary E. Jenkins (born about 1854)

• William D. Jenkins (1856–1895), who married Maude Alsobrook

• Silas Luther Jenkins (1857–1920), who married Elvira Leah Viola Parrish

• Georgia A. Jenkins (1860–1922), who married Robert Payne Waters

• Julia A. Jenkins (1860–1908), who married Napoleon Privett

• Thomas J. Jenkins (born about 1864), and

• Hettie E. Jenkins (1865–1941), who married Joseph Van Turner.

Samuel and Bertie's descendants spread through a number of Georgia families, and several of those descendant lines have become important in my DNA research.

The 1850 census places Samuel and his family in Henry County, Georgia. Sometime during the following decade, the family moved northward.

By 1860, Samuel Jenkins was living at Pond Spring in Walker County, Georgia. This is especially interesting because the Walker-Catoosa area may also hold clues concerning Samuel's father and the earlier generation of this Jenkins family.

Samuel remained in Walker County in 1870, when the family was enumerated in Subdivision 128. The 1870 household included Samuel, Bertie—whose name was indexed or written in a form resembling Cebesta C. Jenkins—and a number of their children, including James, Josiah, Mary, William, Silas, Georgia, Julia, and Thomas. The family's movements from Henry County to Walker County and eventually into Chattooga County are especially interesting in the context of the larger Jenkins puzzle.

Samuel's whereabouts in 1880 remain unresolved. Bertie appears in Trion, Chattooga County, Georgia, in 1880, but I have not yet satisfactorily identified Samuel in that census. Determining where he was living at that time remains one of my open research questions.

Samuel died on 3 December 1891 in Chattooga County, Georgia. He is reported to have been buried in Summerville, Georgia.

The Mystery of Samuel's Parents:

Samuel's parents remain one of the biggest unanswered questions in this research. His mother is currently unknown, and I have not found a record that definitively names his father.

However, there is a remarkable family account concerning Samuel's father preserved in Memoirs of Georgia. According to that account, Samuel's father was reportedly born in Ireland around 1761 and immigrated to America around 1775, when he would have been approximately 14 years old.

The account states that he served during the American Revolution and later served under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812.

He was reportedly involved in the campaigns associated with the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the Battle of New Orleans, and was also said to have served as a guide or scout during military operations in Georgia and Florida.

The same account indicates that he lived to an unusually old age and died around 1859 near Catoosa County, Georgia, reportedly at approximately 98 years old. This story is fascinating, but at this point I have not been able to identify Samuel's father by name or independently prove the military history described in the biography.

Because of that, I am treating the Memoirs of Georgia account as an important research lead rather than established fact. The timing and geography are particularly interesting. Samuel was living at Pond Spring in Walker County by 1860, and Catoosa County had only recently been created from portions of Walker and Whitfield Counties. If Samuel's elderly father truly died near Catoosa around 1859, he may have been living very close to Samuel during the final years of his life.

That is one of the reasons I have been concentrating so heavily on Jenkins families in Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Chattooga, and the surrounding northwest Georgia counties.

How Samuel May Connect to Elijah Daniel Jenkins:

This is where Samuel's family becomes especially important to my own Jenkins brick wall. My ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins was born 25 December 1847 in Georgia, probably in or near Newton County. His parents remain unknown.

In the 1850 census, Elijah was living in Newton County in the household of George Washington Bagby and Winiford “Winnie” Johnson Bagby. I have never found a record identifying either of Elijah's biological parents. Later census records consistently indicate that Elijah's father was born in Tennessee.

That fact immediately makes Samuel's background interesting. Samuel was himself born in Tennessee in 1822 before coming to Georgia, and he was living in Henry County, Georgia, by the 1840s and 1850s. Henry and Newton Counties are part of the same broader area in which Elijah's earliest known records are found.

My current working theory is that Samuel Jenkins may have been a brother of Elijah's unidentified father, which would make Samuel Elijah's uncle. Again, there is currently no document proving this relationship. What makes the theory worth pursuing is the DNA.

There are numerous DNA matches between descendants of Elijah Daniel Jenkins and descendants of Samuel Jenkins and Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson. The pattern is substantial enough that I believe the two families almost certainly share a meaningful ancestral connection, although DNA alone has not yet told us exactly what that relationship was.

The documentary evidence now has to catch up with the genetic evidence.

I am particularly interested in finding records that might identify:

• Samuel Jenkins's father and mother

• Samuel's family in Tennessee before he came to Georgia

• Other Jenkins families who migrated from Tennessee into Henry, Newton, Walker, Catoosa, and Chattooga Counties

• Samuel's exact birthplace—Marion County or Smith County, Tennessee

• Samuel's whereabouts in 1880

• Records concerning the elderly Jenkins man who was reportedly Samuel's father and died near Catoosa County around 1859

• Probate, estate, land, tax, court, church, or guardianship records that might connect Samuel to another Jenkins family

• And, most importantly, evidence identifying the Tennessee-born father of Elijah Daniel Jenkins

At this point, I believe Samuel Jenkins and his descendants represent one of the strongest leads I have for eventually identifying Elijah's paternal Jenkins family.

If anyone descends from Samuel Jenkins and Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson, or has researched Jenkins families in Marion County or Smith County, Tennessee, or Henry, Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga, Newton, or surrounding Georgia counties, I would love to compare information.

I am especially interested in anyone who has old family Bibles, photographs, letters, obituaries, cemetery records, military information, or family stories concerning Samuel's parents or his Tennessee origins.

Another Jenkins family that has become important in my effort to identify the family of Elijah Daniel Jenkins is that of Benjamin F. Jenkins, who lived primarily in eastern Tennessee.

As with Samuel Jenkins, I do not currently have documentary evidence proving exactly how Benjamin connects to Elijah. His own parents are still unknown. However, descendants of Benjamin's family are part of the broader network of Jenkins families that I am investigating as I try to determine where Elijah's unidentified father fits.

Benjamin's story is particularly interesting because he spent much of his life in Bradley and McMinn Counties, Tennessee, an area that deserves close attention as we work backward into the earlier Tennessee Jenkins families.

Benjamin's early life

Benjamin F. Jenkins appears to have been born in the 1810s, but even something as basic as his exact birth year and birthplace is not completely settled.

The 1850 census gives his age as approximately 32 and records his birthplace as Tennessee, which would place his birth around 1812. Other census information has resulted in estimates closer to 1818, and at least one later record appears to give Georgia rather than Tennessee as his birthplace.

Because of those inconsistencies, I currently consider his birth to have occurred approximately 1812–1818, probably in Tennessee, but the question is not completely resolved.

Even more importantly, I have not identified Benjamin's parents.

Later information suggests that both of his parents may have been born in Tennessee, but I have not found a record that names either one.

Benjamin and Ruth Walker

Benjamin's first known wife was Lutherina "Ruth" Walker.

I have not yet located a marriage record establishing exactly when Benjamin and Ruth married.

Ruth was born about 1826 in Tennessee. My research identifies her parents as William Houston Walker Sr. and Mary Beck.

By the 1850 census, Benjamin and Ruth were living in Bradley County, Tennessee.

Their household consisted of:

Benjamin F. Jenkins, born about 1812 in Tennessee
Ruth Jenkins, born about 1826 in Tennessee
and their infant daughter, Abigail Jenkins, born about 1850 in Tennessee.

Over the next several years, Benjamin and Ruth's family grew.

Their known children include:

Abigail Jenkins, born about 1850, who later married William Morgan

Allen Jenkins, born about 1852, who married Mahala Wade

William Houston Jenkins, born about 1853, who married Elizabeth E. Beavers

Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Jenkins, born about 1855, who married Sarah Land

and

Permelia Jenkins, born about 1857.

By the 1860 census, the family was living in McMinn County, Tennessee.

Benjamin was there with his children Abigail, Allen, William, Benjamin Franklin, and Permelia.

Ruth was no longer in the household and appears to have died sometime before Benjamin remarried in 1861. Her exact date and place of death are still unknown.

Benjamin's second marriage

On 30 January 1861, Benjamin married Catherine Haney in McMinn County, Tennessee.

Catherine was born about 1840 and was the daughter of William Haney and Chloe Parr.

Benjamin and Catherine had at least one known child together:

George Jenkins, born about 1864.

Benjamin therefore had at least six known children between his two marriages.

The family after the Civil War

Benjamin remained associated with eastern Tennessee after the Civil War.

My current research notes place him in Grainger County, Tennessee, by the 1870 census, and again in Grainger County in 1880.

There is also a 5 October 1877 land transaction in McMinn County, showing that Benjamin continued to have ties to McMinn County even after the family had apparently moved elsewhere.

At least one of Benjamin's sons also remained in McMinn County. Allen Jenkins, born about 1852, appears there in the 1870 census.

Benjamin was still alive when the 1880 census was taken.

After that, however, his trail becomes much less clear.

I have not yet determined Benjamin's exact date of death or burial location. At this point, all that can be said with confidence is that he died sometime after the 1880 census.

Records from Benjamin's children

Two of Benjamin's sons are particularly useful because later death records provide information about their parents.

Allen Jenkins, who lived from approximately 1852 to 1920, has a death certificate identifying his parents as Benjamin Jenkins and Lutherina Walker.

Likewise, William Houston Jenkins, born about 1853 and died in 1928, has a death record identifying his father as Benjamin Jenkins and his mother as a Walker.

Those records are important because they provide independent support for the identity of Benjamin's first wife as Lutherina or Ruth Walker.

The unanswered question: Who were Benjamin's parents?

Like several of the Jenkins men involved in this research, Benjamin eventually leads us to another brick wall.

His father is unknown.

His mother is unknown.

I have not yet found a probate record, Bible record, marriage record, land transaction, or other document that places Benjamin into an earlier Jenkins family.

That is now one of the major questions I am trying to answer.

Benjamin's estimated birth in the 1810s makes him a contemporary of the generation immediately preceding Elijah Daniel Jenkins.

He was also living in eastern Tennessee at a time when other Jenkins families with possible connections to Georgia were moving through the region.

How Benjamin may fit into the larger Jenkins puzzle

My ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins was born in Georgia in 1847, but later census records consistently report that Elijah's father was born in Tennessee.

Elijah's parents remain unidentified.

Another family I am researching is that of Samuel Jenkins, born 15 September 1822 in Tennessee, who later moved to Georgia and married Caroline Ceberta "Bertie" Johnson.

Samuel's father is also unidentified.

I currently suspect that Samuel may somehow belong to the same extended Jenkins family as Elijah's unidentified father.

Benjamin F. Jenkins is another Tennessee Jenkins man whose descendants have become important to that research.

At this point, I do not have evidence proving that Benjamin was Samuel's brother, cousin, uncle, or any other specific relationship.

What I do have is enough evidence to believe that the Benjamin F. Jenkins family deserves to be investigated alongside the Samuel Jenkins and Elijah Daniel Jenkins families, rather than as an unrelated Tennessee Jenkins line.

DNA research has also produced connections between descendants of these families. As always, I view those matches as evidence that helps identify which families deserve closer investigation—not as proof of a specific genealogical relationship by themselves.

The goal now is to find the documentary evidence that explains those connections.

What I am looking for next

For Benjamin F. Jenkins, some of the most important unanswered questions are:

• Who were Benjamin's parents?

• Where exactly was Benjamin born, and was it Tennessee or Georgia?

• Can his birth be narrowed from the current 1812–1818 range?

• Where was Benjamin living before the 1850 Bradley County census?

• When and where did Benjamin marry Lutherina "Ruth" Walker?

• When and where did Ruth die?

• What was Benjamin's connection to other Jenkins families in Bradley and McMinn Counties?

• Why did the family later move to Grainger County?

• When and where did Benjamin die?

• Where is Benjamin buried?

• Can land, probate, court, tax, church, or estate records identify an earlier Jenkins relative?

• Can Benjamin's family be connected through records to the Jenkins families that later appear in Georgia?

I am especially interested in Jenkins families living in Bradley County, McMinn County, Grainger County, and surrounding eastern Tennessee counties during the early-to-mid 1800s.

If anyone descends from Benjamin F. Jenkins and Lutherina "Ruth" Walker, or from Benjamin and Catherine Haney Jenkins, I would love to compare information.

I would also be very interested in hearing from anyone who has old family Bibles, photographs, letters, cemetery information, probate records, or family stories that identify Benjamin F. Jenkins's parents or siblings.

Like Samuel Jenkins, Benjamin may ultimately turn out to be an important piece of the puzzle surrounding the Tennessee-born father of Elijah Daniel Jenkins.

The last of the major Jenkins brick walls I am currently researching is Sarah Armanda Jenkins, who married Jesse Thomas Ogletree.

Sarah is especially important because, although I have not identified her parents, we have numerous DNA matches to her descendants through her son Newtie (or Nudie) Gay Ogletree. That makes her another strong piece of the larger Jenkins puzzle I am trying to solve.

At this point, however, I do not know exactly how Sarah connects to my ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins or to the other Jenkins families I have been researching.

Sarah appears to have been born around 1868 or 1869 in Georgia, probably in or near Henry County. The strongest age information I currently have comes from the 1900 census, where she reported that she was born in July 1869. Other records may point to a birth year closer to 1868, so I am keeping the exact year open for now.

I have not yet been able to identify Sarah with confidence in an earlier census as a child and that is one of the biggest problems in researching her.

The first record I can confidently connect to Sarah is her marriage. On 25 November 1886, Sarah Armanda Jenkins married Jesse Thomas Ogletree in Butts County, Georgia.

Her name appears in records with some variation, and she may also have gone by Sallie. There is also a possibility that she may have used the name Minnie, although I have not yet proven that.

By 1900, Sarah and Jesse were living in District 723, Henry County, Georgia. In that census, Sarah appears as Sarah Ogletree, age 31, with a reported birth date of July 1869. She was living with her husband, Jesse T. Ogletree, and their children:

• George or Georgie Ogletree, age 11

• Nannie Ogletree, age 9

• Avery Ogletree, age 7

• Dovie Ogletree, age 3

• Nudie Ogletree, age 2

Some of the names are difficult to read in the census, and later records use different spellings, so I am treating several of those readings cautiously.

Newtie / Nudie Gay Ogletree

Sarah and Jesse's youngest son is particularly important to my research. His name appears in later records as Newtie Gay Ogletree, although the 1900 census appears to show his given name as Nudie. His death certificate gives his birth date as 1 September 1898 and his death date as 28 November 1929 and identifies his parents as J. T. Ogletree and Sara/Sarah Armanda Jenkins (both born in GA). Newtie was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia. Although there is no photo of his gravestone, his death certificate confirms his burial in that cemetery.

We have numerous DNA matches to descendants of Sarah Armanda Jenkins through Newtie Gay Ogletree. Those matches are one of the main reasons Sarah remains a high-priority person in my Jenkins research.

Sarah's death and burial

Sarah died relatively young. Find a Grave lists her death date as 16 February 1906 and reports that she is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia. At this time, there is no gravestone photograph attached to her memorial, so I am treating the burial information as a useful lead that still deserves additional confirmation if cemetery records can be located. As previously mentioned, her son Newtie is also reported buried at Oak Hill, and his death certificate independently supports that burial location.

The biggest mystery: Who were Sarah's parents?

This is where Sarah becomes another major Jenkins brick wall. I have not yet identified her father nor her mother. I have not found a census record from 1870 or 1880 that I can confidently say shows Sarah as a child in a Jenkins household. That means the records that should tell us the most about her family are still missing.

Her marriage in Butts County, later residence in Henry County, and burial in Spalding County all place her within the same general central Georgia region where several of the other Jenkins families I am researching appear. That geographic pattern is one of the reasons she is so interesting.

How Sarah may fit into the larger Jenkins puzzle

• My ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins was born in Georgia in 1847, and his parents remain unknown.

• I am also researching several other Jenkins families that appear to connect through geography, documentary clues, and DNA, including the families of:

  • Samuel Jenkins and Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson

  • Benjamin F. Jenkins

  • William Lewis Jenkins and Nancy Capps

• Sarah Armanda Jenkins is the fourth major brick-wall Jenkins line in this group. At this point, I do not have documentary evidence proving that Sarah was a daughter, niece, cousin, or other close relative of any of these people. What I do have is a strong reason to believe her line belongs somewhere in the same broader Jenkins network.

• The most important evidence is the number of DNA matches to descendants of Sarah through her son Newtie Gay Ogletree. That does not prove Sarah's exact relationship to Elijah Daniel Jenkins, but it strongly suggests that her ancestry deserves to be investigated alongside the other Jenkins families rather than separately.

What I am looking for next

The records I would most like to find for Sarah are:

• A confirmed 1870 census entry

• A confirmed 1880 census entry

• Any record identifying her parents

• A more complete copy or image of her 1886 Butts County marriage record

• Church, probate, guardianship, land, tax, or court records in Butts, Henry, Newton, or Spalding Counties

• Cemetery or sexton records from Oak Hill Cemetery

• Additional records for her children that might identify grandparents or other relatives

• Obituaries for Sarah, Jesse, or their children

• Any old family Bible, photograph, letter, or family story that names Sarah's parents or siblings

I am especially interested in anyone researching Jenkins families in Henry, Butts, Newton, or Spalding Counties, Georgia, during the 1860s through the early 1900s.

If you descend from Sarah Armanda Jenkins and Jesse Thomas Ogletree, particularly through Newtie/Nudie Gay Ogletree, I would love to compare information.

Sarah is one of the clearest examples in this project of a person whose descendant DNA connections are strong, but whose documentary ancestry remains almost completely unknown.

Finding Sarah's parents could potentially help connect several of these Jenkins families and move us much closer to solving the larger Jenkins brick wall.

As I continue to hit brick walls in my Jenkins research, I made the decision to turn more heavily to DNA research to help identify possible leads.

DNA genealogy can be extremely useful, but it is also tedious and has limitations. The farther removed a tester is from a common ancestor, the less DNA they are generally expected to share. There can also be confounding factors, especially in smaller or more rural communities where families may have intermarried across multiple generations and two people may be related through more than one ancestral line.

Because of that, I try not to place much weight on a single distant DNA match by itself. Instead, I look for patterns of matches across multiple branches of Elijah Daniel Jenkins's descendants.

I have confirmed DNA matches through descendants of three of Elijah's sons:

• John Daniel Jenkins

• George Washington Jenkins

• Jesse Cleveland Jenkins

When I identify a possible connection to another Jenkins family, I also examine the person's shared matches to see whether the connection appears across more than one of Elijah's descendant lines. A match that connects with descendants from multiple children of Elijah is much more useful to me than a match that appears in only one branch.

There is also one geographic factor that helps with this research. I am primarily looking for clues in Georgia, where Elijah was born and lived before eventually moving to Mississippi. None of Elijah's children were born or married in Georgia, so their maternal family lines are less likely to explain Georgia-based matches. That does not eliminate the possibility of another shared ancestral connection, but it helps reduce one major source of confusion.

Privacy and DNA Research

To protect and respect the privacy and autonomy of people who have tested and shared their information through sites such as Ancestry, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA, I will not identify individual DNA matches or provide personal information about them. I will, however, share summary information, including the ancestral lines into which I have been able to map those matches.

So far, I have identified and mapped 47 DNA matches whose family trees lead back to one of the four Jenkins families I am currently researching.

Current DNA Match Summary

Benjamin Franklin Jenkins — 21 confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of William Houston Jenkins

• Descendants of Abigail Jenkins

Samuel Jenkins & Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson — 17 confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Silas Luther Jenkins

• Descendants of Hettie (Hattie) E. Jenkins

• Descendants of Georgia Ann Jenkins

William Lewis Jenkins — 5 confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Mary A. Jenkins

• Descendants of Sarah E. Jenkins

Sarah Armanda Jenkins — 4 confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Newtie Gay Ogletree

What does this tell us?

The important part is not simply that DNA matches exist.

For Samuel Jenkins, Benjamin Franklin Jenkins, and William Lewis Jenkins, matches have been identified through more than one of their children. That is especially useful because the DNA connection is appearing through separate descendant branches rather than being confined to one family line. Sarah Armanda Jenkins matches currently trace through her son Newtie Gay Ogletree.

None of this proves exactly how these families connect to Elijah Daniel Jenkins. DNA alone cannot tell me the exact connections. It can help support and develop theories.

My current theory is that Samuel may be Elijah's uncle, that Benjamin may be either Samuel’s brother (Elijah’s uncle) or Samuel’s cousin, that William may be Elijah’s brother, and that Sarah may be William’s daughter and Elijah’s cousin.

What DNA does provide, however, is a pattern. We now have 47 identified DNA matches connecting descendants of Elijah's family to descendants of four separate Jenkins brick-wall families. All four of these families therefore remain important research targets.

My goal now is to use these DNA clusters as leads for documentary research—census records, land records, probate files, guardianships, court records, tax records, church records, military records, and other sources that may eventually explain how these families connect.

The DNA is showing us where to look. The challenge now is finding the records that tell us why they match.

Good afternoon! It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted, so I thought it would be a good time to post an update on my research. I have now identified and mapped 64 DNA matches (previously 47 as of 12Oct2026) whose family trees lead back to one of the four Jenkins families I am currently researching.

Current DNA Match Summary

Benjamin Franklin Jenkins — 24 (previously 21) confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of William Houston Jenkins

• Descendants of Abigail Jenkins

Samuel Jenkins & Caroline Ceberta “Bertie” Johnson — 20 (previously 17) confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Silas Luther Jenkins

• Descendants of Hettie (Hattie) E. Jenkins

• Descendants of Georgia Ann Jenkins

William Lewis Jenkins — 9 (previously 5) confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Mary A. Jenkins

• Descendants of Sarah E. Jenkins

Sarah Armanda Jenkins — 11 (previously 4) confirmed DNA matches

• Descendants of Newtie Gay Ogletree

• Descendants of George Reed Ogletree

• Descendants of Nannie Lou Ogletree

One thing to note, in identifying additional descendants of Sarah Armanda Jenkins, we have now found matches through 3 of her children rather than just 1 as previously noted. Having DNA matches to descendants of multiple children of a couple indicates that the connection is at the level of one of their parents, or further back.

Another exciting DNA development, we now have a confirmed Big Y-700 DNA match with confirmed STR matches at 634 of 700 markers. What does this mean? I’m glad you asked! This means that we have further classified our father-to-son genetic line haplogroup into a more specific group. Our newly classified Y-DNA Haplogroup (Jenkins Male Line) is I-FTH83422.

What is Y-DNA? – Y-DNA is passed down from father to son nearly identically. Daughters do not inherit the Y-DNA so only a direct male of the line can test. The test does not necessarily mean you carry the same surname. There are numerous factors that can impact the surname…a child being born outside of wedlock, name changes through adoption or other means, or an unknown father. Additionally, while the Y-DNA is passed from father to son nearly intact, it does mutate through generations. So the further you go back in time you will notice changes. Our current match does not have the Jenkins surname, however the estimated time of the most recent common ancestor is 1450-1800. A lot can happen in almost 600 years! There could have been an adoption or a name change upon immigrating to the United States. It could also have been before surnames were fully adopted which was phased in between 1250 and 1400 being nearly standard practice by 1450. DNA research is not exact. But it does help give us direction!

Now that I have shared some of the major Jenkins families I am researching and the DNA evidence connecting their descendants, I want to turn the next several posts toward the family of my ancestor Elijah Daniel Jenkins himself. Over the next few posts, I will share what I have found about each of Elijah’s children, beginning with the oldest and working forward in order of birth.

Before doing that, however, there is an important and still unresolved part of Elijah’s story that provides context for the beginning of his family in Mississippi.

On March 28, 1867, Elijah Daniel Jenkins married Sarah Ann Margaret Jane Thomasson Thornton in DeKalb County, Georgia. Elijah was only about 19 or 20 years old at the time. Sarah was approximately 38 and was the widow of Lewis N. Thornton. She already had four sons:

• William Jackson Thornton, about 13

• James J. Thornton, about 11

• John S. Thornton, about 8

• Lewis Thornton, about 6

Elijah can still be firmly placed in Georgia three years later. The 1870 census, taken in DeKalb County on June 6, 1870, shows Elijah living with Sarah and her four sons. Their household was beside Winifred “Winnie” Johnson Bagby, the woman who had served as Elijah’s guardian, and Winnie was living beside Richard Thomasson, Sarah’s father. As of June 1870, Elijah was therefore still closely connected to the family and community in DeKalb County where he had spent much of his youth.

What happened between that census and Elijah’s later life in Mississippi remains one of the major unanswered questions in this research. I have not yet found a record showing exactly when Elijah left Georgia, why he relocated to Mississippi, how he came to Jasper County, or how he met Mary Ann Arledge Hodges.

The timeline is especially interesting because Elijah and Mary Ann’s oldest known child, Alice “Allie” May Jenkins, was born in February 1872. If Allie was the child of both Elijah and Mary Ann, Elijah had a relatively short period after the June 1870 census to leave Georgia, relocate to Mississippi, establish a relationship with Mary Ann, and begin a family.

Unfortunately, I have not located a marriage record for Elijah and Mary Ann. Marriage records that might have helped resolve the question were lost in a courthouse fire, leaving us without one of the most useful records for reconstructing this part of their lives. There is also a conflict in the later evidence. A later census indicates that Elijah and Mary Ann considered themselves to have married around 1876. That date fits much more closely with the birth of their son John Daniel Jenkins in January 1877, but it does not fit Allie May’s 1872 birth.

At this point, I do not think that is enough evidence to conclude that Allie had a different mother. She was raised as part of Elijah and Mary Ann’s family, and I currently have no other evidence suggesting otherwise. However, the reported 1876 marriage date is unusual enough that I believe it should remain an open research question.

We also do not know whether Elijah and Mary Ann had a family Bible of their own. A surviving family Bible belonging to their son John Daniel Jenkins does not contain information about Elijah, Mary Ann, or John’s siblings, so unfortunately it does not help resolve the early family timeline.

The first record I have currently located that firmly places Elijah in Mississippi is the 1880 census of Jasper County, taken on July 6, 1880. By then, Elijah was living with Mary Ann and their two children, Alice May Jenkins and John Daniel Jenkins. Elijah reported that he had been born in Georgia, that his father had been born in Tennessee, and that his mother had been born in South Carolina. Another census later gives his mother’s birthplace as North Carolina, so even that clue to his unknown maternal ancestry is inconsistent.

There is another interesting detail in the 1880 census. Elijah and Mary Ann were living next to John H. Arledge and his wife Milly, Mary Ann’s maternal grandparents. Mary Ann’s parents had died when she was young, and John and Milly Arledge had taken her in and raised her. John and Milly were originally from South Carolina. Because Elijah also reported in 1880 that his unknown mother had been born in South Carolina, I think it is worth investigating whether there could have been some earlier connection between Elijah’s family and the Arledge family—or another South Carolina connection that might help explain why Elijah came to this particular part of Mississippi. At this point, that is only a research possibility and not a proven connection.

Elijah’s first wife, Sarah, also creates an unresolved part of the timeline. On the 1880 census, while Elijah was living in Mississippi with Mary Ann and their children, Sarah Ann Margaret Jane Thomasson Thornton Jenkins was still living in DeKalb County, Georgia. She was still using the surname Jenkins, was living with her father Richard Thomasson, still near Elijah’s former guardian Winifred Johnson Bagby, and reported her marital status as married.

We therefore do not know whether Elijah and Sarah ever formally divorced, whether they separated without obtaining a divorce, or whether some other circumstance explains the records. I have not located Sarah in a later census. The surviving 1890 federal census records are largely unavailable because the schedules were destroyed, so that potentially important decade cannot help us follow her. At this point, I simply do not know what happened to Sarah after 1880.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding the beginning of Elijah and Mary Ann’s relationship, they built their family in Jasper County, Mississippi. Their six known children, in order of birth, were:

• Alice “Allie” May Jenkins, born February 1872; married Wiley Wesley Jackson

• John Daniel Jenkins, born January 27, 1877; married Fannie Louena Thigpen

• George Washington Jenkins, born March 18, 1881; married Nancy Caroline Rogers

• Jesse Cleveland Jenkins, born April 22, 1884; married Ena Rogers

• Robert Jenkins, born February 4, 1886; died June 4, 1887

• Eula Jenkins, born June 6, 1888; died July 23, 1889

Nancy Caroline Rogers and Ena Rogers were sisters, making George and Jesse not only brothers but also brothers-in-law. Robert and Eula both died very young and are buried at Bay Springs Cemetery in Bay Springs, Mississippi.

There are still many unanswered questions about Elijah Daniel Jenkins, especially concerning the period between June 1870 in DeKalb County, Georgia, and the beginning of his life in Jasper County, Mississippi. That gap may ultimately be important not only for understanding Elijah’s relationship with Mary Ann, but also for understanding the larger mystery of who Elijah’s parents were and why he came to Mississippi in the first place.

Over the next several posts, I will share what I have found about each of Elijah Daniel Jenkins’ children in order of birth, beginning with his oldest daughter, Alice “Allie” May Jenkins Jackson.