b: November 14, abt 1870 Porterville, MS
d: November 1, 1965, Porterville, Kemper Co. MS
Matthew Lawrence Davenport's story and my search to find out the truth is so long and dragged out, so I'm going to try and condense it the best I can.
When I first found out about Matthew, it was through a first cousin once removed, she actually had two surnames, Grantham and Davenport and no first name. Then through another cousin I found out his first name was Lawrence Mack Davenport, still not the correct first name but getting close. Then I go visit my aunt and she shows me a picture of a man it's in a oval looking sort of Tin Type frame, and on the back it has some writing: Mr Davenport, no first name and also some other writing which I can't make out and a question mark after it. This time frame has spread out now from 2001 - 2007.
So I take a picture of her photo and some other pictures she had of the family and when I flew back home I immediately got started researching. The first thing I did was post a query on Rootsweb with what little info I had. Then my aunt calls me and says I should call my cousin Walter and ask him. I hadn't see Walter since I was a little girl, didn't even know where he was living now or anything. She gave me his phone number and I called.
He gave me lots of information, said he's been researching for many years before the internet, and he was finished looking, he gave me a CD with photos, several family trees. So I get to work again researching, still no Lawrence Mack Davenport, but a year later there Mack is. I figured that Ancestry.com just hadn't posted his information until then. I finally found him..So cool. I also found out that "Mack" was his nick name.
Then while on ancestry.com I find a person that has a photo of a man that looks like Matthew but an older picture of him, I'm sure it's Matthew, so I contact this person, he says he's related to the Davenports has lots of information except his information doesn't match up with mine.
He says that Matthew is my great uncle not by gr grandfather, and that my gr grandfather is William B. Davenport which is Matthew's father. I immediately called Walter. Walter says no he's wrong, my grandfather is Mack, I've met him, some of my children have met him, they use to visit him in Mississippi. They visited Matthew off and on until he died in 1965.
The other cousin had no communication with Matthew. So I knew then that Walter's story was what I was going with.
My aunt died not long after my visit with her and a couple of years later her daughter, my first cousin, sent me the photo of Matthew in the oval frame to keep, she said she knew I would love to have it since I did the family research. She has been really great with trying to remember stories that were told in the family and sharing photos that she finds.
The census and record keepers back in those days didn't record everything correctly, plus some people didn't always know exactly when they were born, I've found many census records with incorrect dates, even military records .
So now the puzzle is solved. I can now place my gr grandfather in his correct position in the family tree.
More on Matthew in upcoming blogs
