Madness Monday - Why Did I Do That?

Earlier this week, I came across the work of certified genealogist Kathy Sullivan, who questioned my Jenkins research and theories. I was embarrassed, and my immediate reaction was to delete all my blog posts about the Jenkins family that contained my early work. Now, after reflecting all weekend, I keep asking myself, “Why did I do that?”

I’ve spent my spare time diving back into the DNA matches for my dad, focusing on those in my Jenkins group around the 4th cousin range. I’m currently building trees for about five of them. I’ll admit, Kathy may have had a point about Anna Fronberger—there’s some potential there—but I still don’t think Drury Jenkins is the father. The DNA doesn’t seem to support that conclusion. I’ll post more on this later.

What really bothers me is how quickly I reacted to her criticism. Yes, I’m seriously considering her suggestions, but I let my emotions get the best of me. As a result, I deleted articles that were essentially my research notes. Some of them dated back to when I lost data from a computer crash—things I’ll never recover. Those blog posts documented the progression of my research: how I formed hypotheses, where I disproved family theories about M. O. Jenkins’ parentage, and even my initial consideration of Drury Jenkins as a possible father. Though I had dismissed him as a viable option, I’m now revisiting that idea just to be sure.

I’ve been trying to locate the bastardy bond for Drury Jenkins from April 1824. Unfortunately, that image isn’t available online, and I’m not in a position to travel and obtain it myself. This is one of the many limitations we face in genealogy. If you can’t travel, accessing certain local records becomes much more challenging. I may need to contact the North Carolina Genealogical Society to see if someone can assist. That’s now on my to-do list.

I’ll never make that mistake again. I won’t let another professional’s work make me feel so inferior that I delete my own. The article I stumbled upon was from 2015, and back then, I didn’t have the DNA data that I do now. I’m still not convinced that we aren’t descended from Joseph Jenkins and Elizabeth Hambright. The DNA evidence continues to point in that direction, and I’m finding no significant connection to Drury Jenkins. Although his name came up in a Y-DNA test, I still believe the link is much further back—not as M. O. Jenkins’ parent.

I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, and I’m frustrated with myself for doubting my research so much that I let embarrassment cloud my judgment. Genealogy is a process, and I often remind people that we may never know the absolute truth. I’ve said that in my articles and even in my book. But I still share my theories and findings, including debunking family rumors, such as the idea that M. O. Jenkins was Native American.

Kathy may have given me a vital clue about who M. O. Jenkins’ mother could be, but I’m still not convinced that she can definitively say M. O. isn’t descended from Joseph Jenkins and Elizabeth Hambright. You can’t prove a fact in the absence of evidence. If family lore is correct and records involving his parentage were destroyed, this mystery might never be solved through traditional records. That’s where DNA comes in.

So, I’ll keep building out this DNA tree until I find exactly where M. O. Jenkins fits into the Jenkins family.