Amelia Smith and Oliver Jenkins

If you have been following my genealogy trek to find my early ancestors, you know that telling Amelia and Oliver’s story has been complicated by the fact that Amelia’s parents were missing from the 1880 census records as were Oliver, his brother Simon Felix and his father Henry Jenkins, Sr. Additional complications to telling Oliver’s story was that his mother, Elsie Edwards most likely died soon after his birth in 1878 and Elsie’s parents, Handy aka Anthony and Versy aka Olivia Edwards, were missing from the 1880 census as well. It is only because I found Simon Felix Jenkins social security card application that I know the name of his mother. Felix died in 1941, but not before he applied for a social security card in 1935. That application gathered information supplied by the actual applicant and is often the only time we find the maiden names of mothers. When Felix died in 1941, his half-brother Matthew Jenkins provided the name of Henry Jenkins as Felix’s father for the death certificate but said that the mother’s maiden name was unknown.

One of the greatest unknowns about Amelia and Oliver is where they and family were for the 1910 and 1920 census. I spent a great many unsuccessful hours sitting at genealogy libraries, painstakingly turning the microfilm reader wheel slowly, looking at every frame hoping to see the family. I used every genealogy search engine–searching for near matches on variations of their names. I searched for them living in different states but still didn’t find them until 1930.

In 2012, I found a book written by Amelia and Oliver’s granddaughter, Leanna Williams that detailed the family’s life in The House Surrounded by Sugar Cane. She painted a vivid and inspiring glimpse into our shared family story. She described the house as being situated at the end of a road, separated from the quarters where other plantation workers lived. She told of the many fruit and nut trees that surrounded the house in addition to the acreage devoted to food crops and to truck farming. So, I thought that perhaps census workers overlooked the house when on their rounds. Perhaps the road was too muddy or the house too isolated and so the house was skipped? But Leanna also wrote that an uncle named David and his wife Sarah had lived in the house and it was only after Sarah’s death did her father Livington Jenkins and family move in to help him with the farm. She placed the family moving in with David sometime shortly after her sister Theresa was born. That would have been about 1933 or so.

This confused me because Amelia and Oliver were still alive in 1933–why weren’t they living in The House Surrounded by Sugar Cane? I’d theorized that Sarah Smith and her husband William Davis were actually the Sarah and David mentioned in Leanna’s book, but they were living in New Iberia at the time of the 1930 census. Sarah died in 1939 and by 1940 William was living in Patoutville, which is where the family farm was located.

Did Amelia have a brother named David? Answering that question is a unanswered puzzle. Amelia was born about 1881 or so and first appeared on the 1900 Iberia Parish census. 1900 census data revealed that Amelia’s mother Charlotte had given birth to fifteen children of which 9 were still living. The problem is that through all of my research, I can only account for eleven children, living or deceased: Maria, Eliza, Ida, Lincoln, Louvenia, Ella, Charlotte, Oliver, Sarah, Amelia and Cora. Four of Charlotte’s children: Maria, Eliza, Ida and Lincoln were never seen after the 1870 census. Were any of these 4 children alive somewhere. I have only found 7 of the 9 children reported to be living in 1900: Louvenia, Ella, Charlotte, Oliver, Sarah, Amelia and Cora. After more thinking, I wonder if Charlotte was counting among the 9 living children, her daughter Charity who lived in Maryland? Charlotte had been born in Calvert County, MD and then sold and shipped to Louisiana in 1851?

I tossed out my assumption that Amelia and Oliver were not listed on census records in 1910 and 1920 because they were living in The House Surrounded by Sugar Cane. My focus now was on their children and on what became of them. I want to tell know their stories! I know some of their descendants moved to Texas, California and Arizona. But I suspect that we, the Guys/Jenkins/Bernards/Charles/McGees, are out there in every state, county and continent on this great earth!

Amelia and Oliver’s children

• Elzenia Jenkins 1901-1952 Iberia Parish, LA & Louis Newchurch
• Florence Jenkins 1905-1961 Shasta County, CA & Sidney Benjamin
• Gladys Jenkins & Polite
• Elsie Jenkins & Ivory Hills
• Austin Jenkins 1913-1986 CA & Corinne Rosette 1912-1984 AZ
• Livingston Jenkins & Reverta
• Charlotte Jenkins & Andrew
• Oliver Jenkins Jr. & Sarah
• Cora Jenkins & Phillip

And so, I invite everyone who is a descendant of Amelia and Oliver to join me in gathering stories and photos as well as celebrations of birth and of lives well lived. I hope you join me if only to ask a question.

Best,