Updated Cummons Tree

Cummins & Stone - Waterford, Ireland

Last July, I spent eight amazing days driving across the Irish countryside with my BFF. I will probably recount some of my stories as they relate to family history in later posts, but I wanted to share this image I took of a storefront in Waterford, while I was still posting about the Cummons side of the family.

When I took this picture, I was still bummed that I hadn't found any Cumm-"ons", only Cumm-"ins" in any of my stops through Ireland. Recently however, I spoke to a person on Flikr from Galway, who told me not to get hung up on the spelling of my surname. She said that over in Ireland, Cummons, Cummins, Cummings were pretty interchangeable, and most likely all related! So, hooray for my little Cummins and Stone storefront in Waterford... maybe they were kin folk after all!

I've Had a Breakthrough!

After all these years, all it took was a simple query!

I recently got another free 2 week subscription to ancestry.com (I try to purchase a month's subscription twice a year to look for any new leads). This time, I came across someone who had some information that corresponded with mine, but when I contacted him, he said this information came from a brother, and he was unable to confirm the details he had listed. One thing he had that I DIDN'T have, was the date of James Hamilton Cummons' marriage to Causby Jane Patterson. I wanted to confirm that the date he had was accurate... and that's where I got my epiphany!

I signed on to the Wythe County, Virginia message boards. (I knew for a fact that was where they were married.) There, I asked if anyone had access to marriage records, and if they could confirm the date I had (October 18, 1869). And then I began to wonder... what are the chances that James Hamilton listed his parent's names on the marriage records?? So, I asked about that too.

Two days later, after 12 years of hitting an ancestral brick wall, I had an answer! Here is what it said:

"According to Wythe County, Virginia Marriages 1867-1888, a compilation by Janie Dillon and Mary B. Kegley, James H. Cummons/22 yrs/single/born Gilford[Guilford]Co., NC, son of John Cummons and Sarah Nelson, married Causby[Cosby] J. Patterson/23 yrs/single/born Wythe Co., daughter of James Patterson and Sarah Halsey on August 18, 1869 in Wythe Co., VA. They were married by Andrew Wheeler."

So now, I know the name of my great, great, great, GREAT grandfather!
Welcome to the family tree, John Cummons!

Cummons Family Photo Gallery

Yes, that's me in the center, as much as I may have looked like a little boy! At that time, I was the only grandchild, so there were no little boys available for this "generations" photo.
From left to right: William H. Cummons (great grandfather), Robert Alan Cummons (father), Robert Arthur Cummons (grandfather).



My mother and father, before I came into existence.
Carolyn Y. Malone, Robert Alan Cummons



My grandfather and grandmother on their wedding day, circa 1953.
Robert Arthur Cummons, Nellie Joyce Tomblin



My great grandparents
William H. Cummons, Bessie Virginia Sprouse



My great, great grandfather
Henry Arthur (Blackie) Cummons


Now, here's a little mystery to be solved:

This is a picture of Grandpa Blackie's wife, Anna Bell Davis
Now take a look at the picture below:

My grandpa insists that THIS is also Anna Bell, but that doesn't add up. Look at the age of the photo, as well as the dress. I would take a guess that this is actually my great, great, great grandmother, Causby Jane Patterson, wife of James Hamilton Cummons! I sure would like to be able to confirm that theory some day!


So there you have it! A simple photographical run down of my Cummons line, as I know it thus far.

It All Starts Here (Sort Of)

I guess it would help to give you an idea of where this branch of Cummons' came from! Let's start by taking a look at an old newspaper article my grandfather gave me. Unfortunately, I have no idea where or when this was published, but it gives a little background on our family's origin. (I have to note, this article says that my 3rd great grandfather, James, fought for the confederacy in the Civil War. However, if I am decifering his wife's application for Civil War pension correctly, he actually fought on the Union side.)

So, as you see James and Causby settled into the Cabell County West Virginia area. This is where they lived, worked (James was a shoemaker in Huntington), raised a family, and eventually died (I have pictures of their tombstones I will scan and get on here as soon as I can.)
My family line comes from their son, Henry Arthur, who married Anna Belle Davis, and settled down to farm in Ohio. So that is where my immediate roots come from, specifically the Gallia County area. Below is a picture of my great grandparent's (William H and Bessie) log cabin. I have pictures of my grandfather as an infant on the front porch of this cabin, and as a child, I remember visiting Bessie, or Mamaw Cummons as I called her, and playing the board game "Trouble" that she kept on top of the refrigerator in this same cabin. My great grandmother lived here until the early 1990's.

As to James Hamilton's origins in North Carolina, that has yet to be discovered, but hopefully I'll be able to pinpoint that soon!

Cummons Tree

Cummons, Cummins, Cummings - Would You Make Up Your Mind Already??

I was born Angela Dawn Cummons. I took pride in that spelling, because there weren't many of us around. I wasn't Cummins, like the diesel engines, nor the more proper, stuffy looking Cummings... I was a Cummons.

It wasn't until I became interested in family history, that a realized what a bother my last name could be. Just because my family knew how to spell their last name, didn't mean that census takers, or other record keepers did! Early on in my history, it wasn't hard to figure out. My grandpa is still living, and he could tell me stories clear back about HIS grandpa Blackie (Henry Arthur Cummons), but then we got to my 3rd great grandpa, James Hamilton Cummons, and that's where the fun began!


Here is what has taken me since 1999 to compile:

Now do you see my confusion? Who am I?? Am I a Cummons... a Cummins... a Cummings?? Did my 3rd great grandfather come from Ireland, or North Carolina? What about the 12 years of confusion about when he was born? And most importantly, am I ever going to find his parents???

My mother's line, the Malones, runs cold before I can ever place them in Ireland. I so desperately wanted to get my Cummons line in Ireland, to find out what county they were from, to give me an excuse to return to the Emerald Isle... but it looks like I still have lots of work cut out for me!

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Angie. And this is the "re-launch" of my blog. My original blog, "Backstage with Puppet Girl", was random and scattered... and mostly full of useless ramblings. After a while, it just sat on the web, unused, unread... but finally! Inspiration has taken over!

I have spent the past 12 years digging around my family's history, mostly through the internet. I've never had the opportunity to travel and do the down and dirty digging... but I've been fortunate enough to uncover quite a bit of my past. Perhaps, if I can gather all of that information here, on my blog, I can share my findings with others... and maybe even uncover a few more branches to my tree!

My roots are mostly Irish... my father was a Cummons, my mother a Malone. Those are the two names I have mostly dug into. Other names in my tree include, from my paternal side, Tomblin, Workman, Patterson, and Sprouse; and from my mother's side, Evans, McFann, and Carroll.

So, please, come back often, as I hope to be posting stories, documents, and photos soon... so that all of you can be sure and know that my roots are, indeed, showing!