I'm the only namesake left...

My father, James Benjamin Freeman Davis, was an avid genealogist. He spent most of his adult life from age 20 to age 51 doing genealogy. We went to libraries, visited cemeteries, and dug up family info. But he passed away mid-stride of a surprise heart attack in 1993. I was only 15. No one in the family knew how to pick up the pieces of his research. Much of it was lost. Now that I have a family of my own, I'm restarting that research. This blog will be my notebook to track my progress. Partly to help me keep track of where I've been, and what leads to follow. Partly to keep my siblings in the loop. And mostly, just in case I keel over unexpectedly, so that my children, hopefully James, can pick up and continue to trace our roots where I'll have left off.

After all, the Davis name (though common in our modern world) is nearly gone in my line. Not that an extinct family name is much cause for any fuss. So far, I have only one son (James) to pass on my Davis name:

I am the only son (me: Benjamin James) of my father (James Benjamin Freeman). He was one of two sons, but the second was still born, of James Hutt Davis, who was also one of two sons. James Hutt's brother, Benjamin Freeman Davis Jr. died at age 20, and had no children to his name. So effectively, James Hutt was the only Davis to pass on his name from his father Benjamin Freeman Davis, Sr., who was one of 7 boys of Ephraim Lemuel Davis.

So my son is the only Davis in the world who will be able to pass on the Davis name, that came through Benjamin Freeman Davis, Sr born in 1876.