Families
My Parents Dowling Manning McCord McDaniel Ventura Wood Zoz Clermont Co. OH
DOWLING is the surname of my Mother, Saidee Elise Dowling Wood. This surname was first found in early Virginia (possibly in Jamestown as Doolin). This family relocated to the area around Darlington South Carolina. In the 1700s and 1800s the Dowlings migrated south to Georgia and Florida and westward to Alabama, some even as far as Texas. This family is well documented in the book A Dowling Family of the South. The ancestor that was the primary focus of that book was Robert Dowling who served in the Revolutionary War. Since publication of that book in 1959, earlier ancestors have been discovered and some of what was believed about Robert has been disputed.
Additional biographical and historical material is available for the DOWLINGs beyond just names and dates.
- Availability of books on the Dowling Family: A Dowling Family of the South, and The [Dowling] Family -- Their Ancestors and Descendants.
- A booklet published in 1946 titled to the Dowlings who served in America's wars, that was written honoring family members that served in America’s wars. This booklet contains a number of biographical sketches including an extended one on William Hamilton Dowling.
- The historical recollections of several Dowlings who lived through Sherman’s March through the Carolinas during the Civil War.
- Dowling Reunion Photographs
BARFIELD is the surname of my two daughters' maternal Grandfather. Their oldest known ancestor in this line is William C Barfield who was a steamboat captain on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Another relative, Lance Ware, served with the Union Army in Missouri during the Civil War. I have not gotten back past the 1800s with this family yet but in the 19th and early 20th centuries they lived in the midwest. Their roots may go back to Germany and there is also a question about a possible American Indian ancestor.
Descendancy Chart for William C. Barfield
LOCKE is the surname of my son Kenneth's maternal Grandfather. This family came to New England early in the history of America and was represented in the Revolutionary War by Dr. Abraham Locke (1752-1820). Others in this family were present at this Revolution's first skirmish in Concord MA. Another notable ancestor in this line was Sir William Locke (1486-1550) who was Knighted by King Henry VIII. Sir William had charge of the King's commercial affairs both at home and abroad. He also served as both Alderman and Sherriff of London and was in line to become Mayor of London when he died.
For more information see a report by Jerry Harrison. and the Descendancy Chart for Sir. John Locke
MCCORD is the surname of my paternal Grandmother, Mabel Maude McCord Wood. This surname is first found in Samuel McCord who left Pennsylvania circa 1845-48 with his wife Eleanor(e) and young daughters Drusilla and Henrietta and moved to Johnson Co. Iowa. There they had three more children; Almira, Samuel Q (my great Grandfather) and Alice. Where they came from in PA or who their parents were are unknown as there were many Samuel McCords in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Samuel died in 1863, and Eleanor remarried in 1874 to Archibald Worley Blaine who was born in Carlisle, PA in 1814. The Blaine name was strongly associated with the Pennsylvania McCords but so far no connection has been made.
Samuel and Eleanor's son Samuel Quinn McCord married Hester Mary Hill in 1874. (She was descended from Frederick Hill, a Hessian Soldier paid by the British to fight against the Americans in the Revolutionary War. He deserted and fought with George Washington against the British instead.) Hester and Samuel had 8 children. Samuel deserted his family around 1895 after going to town to sell a wagon load of grain and he was never heard from again. My Grandmother was about age nine at the time and she was not the youngest of the children.
I now have found a Y-DNA donor and hoping that this result will advance this line. The kit number is #857886 on Family Tree DNA.
This line is designated "Family MM" in the records of The Clan McCord. My McCord cousinss have moved into the Dakotas, Kansas, California, Oregon and into Canada (and in my case to Florida).
MCDANIEL is the surname of my maternal grandmother, Ethel Louise McDaniel Dowling. My oldest proven ancestor in this line is Levi McDaniel Sr. who was born and lived in the Edgefield District of South Carolina located just north of the Augusta Georgia area. Levi married Anna Holmes, daughter of Fredrick Holmes and Charity Holmes. This has been a difficult line to research because this area had poor records or the records were destroyed in Civil War. Like many other families, many sons were named after their father's plus in some cases I found where the given and and middle names were used interchangeably. More research is needed and although DNA testing has been performed, Levi remains a dead end at this time.
VENTURA is my wife Sylvia's paternal surname. This family immigrated to New York City from Palermo, Sicily, Italy around 1900. Research is still in progress but it appears that Sylvia's great-great Uncle Vencinzo Ventura was the first to arrive in America. I have written a short article, The Ventura Family Immigrates to America describing their immigration and the deplorable conditions that were present on the ships that brought them and many other poor immigrees to America. Sylvia's oldest known ancestors are Rosario Ventura and his wife Maria Rosa Musa. It is not known at this time if they immigrated to the US or reamined in Italy.
Like many Italian families, the children were named after parents and/or grandparents. Making it even more difficult, soon after arrival in the US their names were Americanized. In many cases the Americanization of their names was not even intuitive. Two examples are a Rosario renamed Sam and Vencinzo renamed Jimmie. Also I found one case where a young child died and a later child of the same sex was named after the deceased child. This makes for a very confusing line to research. To make it worse, once the research moves to Italian records I might even have to learn some Italian (lol).
Still a child, Sylvia's Grandfather moved from NYC to Cincinnati Ohio around 1913. Sylvia and I found it interesting that our families had settled within a few miles of each other in Ohio, hers in Cincinnati and mine in the next county to the east, Clermont.
WOOD is the surname of my paternal line. My oldest proven ancestor in this line is John Wood Sr. who was born circa 1734/1740. He lived on his farm in Derry Twp., Mifflin Co., PA with his wife (name unknown) and died in 1799. A handwritten copy and a transcript of John Wood Sr's will is available. Note that he used the surname "WOODS" in the will but appeared to sign it "John WOOD". The records I have seen for his children all used WOOD and not WOODS.
When I first started looking for my WOOD ancestors a researcher named Phyllis Gillaspie reached out to me and provided a wealth of information. Phyllis was a Manning and our lines merged at the WOOD-MANNING marriages in the late 1700s. Phyllis, who passed away some years back, provided me with a wealth of information including many family group sheets (FGSs) for those pioneer families that originated in early Clermont County Ohio. See the Clermont Co. page under Families in the menu for more information.
ZOZ is the maternal surname of my wife's family. I have not spent a lot of time working on this family as her late Aunt Rose Zoz, and also a distant cousin, Ron Zoz, had already done a very good job of documenting it. This line has been traced back to the oldest known ancestor, Oswald ZOZ living in Baden, Germany in the 1600s. Ron has an excellent website on this family: Descendants of Oswald Zoz of Oberowisheim Germany.
