Preface

The Vernon offspring, especially, will turn the pages for their names, and names of family members. Curiosity will take them on into the family history.

The Bosleys, Robertsons, Beers, Kipps, the Corbin clan are there...the Hensleys, Merrells, Stulls, the Wootens and the Soles. There are Calls, Hendersons. The collateral Vernon families, the Lansberrys and their associated families, and the Vernon cousins, the Lonbergers, Dixons and Woodruffs. And, of course, the Meadows, Slaughters, and many, many more related family names.

There is much of this family to preserve...stories, histories, personalities. There are many, many photographs, both of earlier generations as far back as the middle 19th century, as well as a multitude of family photos of present generations, from the 1950s' through the 1990s'. There is a collection of documents...birth certificates, marriage license applications and death certificates...and letters...some poignant, some humorous and some angry.

But, this work is about Donna Lenora Davis of Elkins, West Virginia, late of Akron, Ohio and of her Davises, Ramseys, Pennells, Polings, Grooms, Browns, Talkingtons, and others of her intimate family...her world.

This book is also about Bill Vernon (that elusive father who remained a mystery until the author's fifties); the Vernon's origin in Normandy, France; participation in the Battle of Hastings in 1066; nobility of Norman England; Quaker persecution and flight to the New World; the struggles of the Vernon clan from 1600s' Pennsylvania through the Virginia piedmont and the seaboard south to the heartland coal mines until, although still moving onward, to industrial Akron, Ohio.

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This book is catalogued in a genealogical manner, from the author and each of his siblings, to the male parent and on to the female parent, much as with any pedigree. Appropriate charts and lists are (hopefully) appendixed.

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Since this work is a memorial to Donna Lenora and her family, as such the volume begins with her biography. It continues on through her mother's biography and that mother's family (as much as this author was able to piece together), then on to Donna's children, especially since they had different fathers.

Many pedigrees begin with a principal and work back through each generation to the progenitors. Donna's children and others of her most immediate family are represented in this writing by five principals, and they are numbered or designated: M# (for all progenitors common to Donna and those of the five principals relative to her lineage); 1F# for the Vernon surname lines, lineal and collateral (after all, I wrote this thing!); 2F# for Bosley and related lineage (as is common for primogeniture); 3F# for the Corbin siblings, Patty Ann Corbin-Merrell and Jacqueline Melissa Corbin-Soles, and related lines...and all collateral Corbin cousins; and 4F# for the Meadows family lines. The Slaughters are listed under M# for matriarch M#8.7 Rosa Jean Ramsey Slaughter, sister of Gay Ramsey and aunt of Donna, a very close collateral lineage.

In each family line, persons are listed according to their numerical progenital relationship to that family line principal. Thus, the author is 1F#1 Dallie A. Vernon (Sr.). 1F#1's first spouse was 1F#1(1); first spouse's child (not of 1F#1's bloodline) is 1F#1(1.1); 1F#1's first child is 1F#1.1; second child is 1F#1.2, etc. 1F#1.1's child (grandchild to principal) is 1F#1.1.1, etc. 1F#1's second spouse is 1F#1(2); her child is 1F#1(2.1), etc. Principal's daughter-in-law or son-in-law is 1F#1.1(1), etc. Some of the principal's offspring sired or bore children not common to their spouse. Their designation would necessarily be 1F#1.(1.1), or 1F#1.1(1.1) in the case of offspring of a spouse not common to a line. However, for simplicity's sake, a principal's offspring may be found occasionally as simply 1F#1.1, ..2, .3, ..4, and ..5. (I have found genealogy rather flexible for this reason, although for the most part its rules are faithfully followed.)

Each included pedigree reaches back in generations as far as research time permitted. Genealogical research never has an ending. Each generation traced back produces a doubling of parental lines; thus, each parent is numbered consecutively according to generation, beginning with the principal. Accordingly, 1F#1 Dallie A. Vernon, Sr.; 1F#2 James William Vernon; M#3 Donna Lenora Davis; 1F#4 James Robert Vernon (patrilineal grandfather); 1F#5 Effie Drucilla Dudley (patrilineal grandmother); M#6 Dallie A. Davis (matrilineal grandfather); M#7 Florida Gay Ramsey (matrilineal grandmother); 1F#8 Joseph Vernon (patrilineal great-grandfather); 1F#9 Martha Jane Branegan (patrilineal great-grandmother); 1F#10 Samuel Ezra Dudley (father of patrilineal grandmother); 1F#11 Mary Catherine Hellyer (mother of patrilineal grandmother; etc.

The families are thus chaptered in this fashion. However, quick reference for a particular given name and surname is still alphabetized in the index (how specifically alphabetized will depend on the endurance of the author!). The reader would also want to review the Errata pages.

While the reader will undoubtedly turn the pages directly to his or her name, or family's history, a read of this entire volume will provide a social, historical and enlightening insight into this biography and genealogy of Donna Lenora Davis.

What would a narrative be without a disclaimer? The author went to great lengths and pains to include in these pages only documented facts, interviews as verbatim as clarity would allow (on most occasions taped so as to recall accurate content) and the origination of unsubstantiated statements and conclusions. In some instances, comments were deleted which suggested unkind content. These words are a memorial to Donna Lenora and a herald to those she embraced.