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| Ann Kent Dennis Obituary |
She was so amazing! I am glad that I got to talk with her some before she passed away. I learned some about my father's side of the family from her and I helped her out with her research on her mother's side of the family. Her granddaughter Erin contacted me via email to advise that Ann had passed away. Erin found the emails that Ann and I had exchanged in Ann's effects and wanted to know if I could share with her whatever I knew about their family. I sent her pictures and information about the Wests, Kents and her g-grandmother Geneva Rayfield's family. She was delighted to receive what I sent to her!
As Erin and her parents sorted through Ann's effects, they came across some artifacts that were of great interest to me. One of these artifacts was my g-g-grandfather John West's U.S. Citizenship Certificate! The other artifact was what my brother Mark and I are now calling "The Kent Envelope". The Kent Envelope is an envelope yellowed with age that my g-g-aunt Mary West's husband Thomas Kent presented to her on Christmas Day in 1890. Here is a picture of part of "The Kent Envelope":
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| "The Kent Envelope" |
This envelope contains the names of all of their children, their birth dates and for the ones who had died, the date of their death. Obviously, this envelope served as family record as somebody kept adding names and dates after 1890. It also contains death dates for my g-g grandparents, which provided confirmation of my research and a death date of 1888 for a William West. The death date for William West was very exciting information as it proved that he was a relative and was likely my g-g grandparent's son!
My g-g grandparents John and Alice Hussey West emigrated from Ireland to Guernsey in the early 1850s to escape the Potato Famine and find work. Up until recently we thought that John and Alice had 6 children: John (my g-grandfather), Peter, James, Mary, Margaret and Micheal. Past research of the Guernsey censuses revealed that a William West and his family lived 4 doors down from my g-g-grandparents, but we couldn't find a connection between the families. Well, "The Kent Envelope" has provided this connection! We are now quite sure that William was our g-g grandparents John and Alice West's son.
After seeing "The Kent Envelope", I starting looking around on Ancestry.com and found a guy by the name of Peter Edwards who was related to a William West who died in Guernsey in 1888. I sent a message to Peter and he responded promptly. After comparing notes, we confirmed that his William West is one and the same as ours!!! So, Peter is my 3rd cousin, and the real kicker is that he lives in Guernsey! He doesn't know much about the West side of the family, so I gave him access to my West Family Tree and he gave me access to his tree. We are both learning so much!
My brother Mark and I both remember a story our father told us about one of our g-grandfather's brothers drowning in a lobster trap. Apparently, this was William West. Cousin Peter Edwards has a book that he wrote with a bunch of pictures and information about the family and he is going to mail it to my brother Mark and I. This book tells of how the "clan" dealt with the German occupation of Guernsey and I also believe that it tells of William West's death in "the lobster pot", as Peter calls it.
Mark and I cannot wait to get Peter's book! We are also waiting for our cousin Erin to send us pictures of our g-g aunt Mary West Kent. Ancestral research can be quite tedious sometimes without much results, but if one keeps digging, they will eventually find something and sometimes it can be from very unexpected sources!
Until tomorrow . .
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Update on August 26, 2012
Cousin Peter did indeed send his books to me and it turns out that William West didn't die in a lobster pot after all. According to Peter, William was a sea captain and was critically injured from being hit in the head by a marlin spike. This injury caused him to have horrible "fits", which I'm certain were seizures. His was put into a closet in the family home whenever he had these seizures and Peter said that there are claw marks to this day in that closet. How horrible! Rest in Peace, dear Uncle William!
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