My own roots

I’ve been interested in my family history since I was a young girl and my paternal grandmother entertained me with stories of captains, pioneers, the flu epidemic, the Gold Rush, and mysterious relatives. In later life, I’ve also learned what’s underneath the surface of my family’s history: colonization and participation in slavery. Family history has the potential to help us understand current conditions in society and to address injustices.

I have an extensive working database of my own family on genealogy software, (I use Reunion for Mac). The best place to learn about my family is on WikiTree, a collaborative, open-source, one-world tree. Learn more about my father, Alvon Hale Davis,  and my mother, Gladys Oletia (Johnson) Davis Simpson, by following the links on their WikiTree profiles.

Videos

One Family Together relates the experience of my paternal grandmother’s family during the flu epidemic of 1918. The soundtrack was provided by my brother, Jon Davis. More about his music here.

Bibliography for the video.

Tennessee Girl  honours my mother and the paternal side of her family. 

Ellis Letters Project

In 1999 I completed a project transcribing, annotating, and analyzing family letters written between 1863 and 1867. The central character in the letters is my 3x great-grandfather, Rev. Thomas Oliver Ellis, MD. He wrote of family, political and practical matters as a man of two worlds (religion and medicine), living in a fascinating time (the Civil War years) in an unsettled place (California).

I am in the process of sharing the letters via a WikiTree project.

You can download a PDF of my report below. This report was written with the writing standards of 1999. Genealogical writing standards have evolved over the years since and the document will never be complete. I continue to learn about the Davis and Ellis families.

Connie_LaVon_Davis_1999_Ellis_letters_updated_images_2018

Building knowledge, skills, strength, and resilience through
connecting people to their family history.