Let's get started with a Jacob M. Oakes update

Hello everyone,

 

I hope that you are interested in a little touch of family history. I’ve collected a lot of information over the years and have decided that one of the ways I can refresh my own memory of what I’ve found and stored away is by developing this blog. I’m intentionally going to be brief in my blogging. Too much information too quickly might be burdensome for some of us. I want to capture your interest and share information about your family tree. You have probably already received an invitation to join up as a “follower” of this blog. By so doing I believe Blogger will automatically update you when a new post comes out. Let’s get started.

 

I want to start with an update on the research on Jacob M. Oakes. In order to give you a reference, here is where Jacob fits in the family tree. The symbol > points to a child in the next generation.

 

Jacob M. Oakes >Elmer B. Oakes > Margaret G. Oakes King > Steve King….

 

Research update: I’ve been stumped on Jacob Oakes (born April 1852 and died November 6, 1908) for years. Grandpa (Elmer) told me before he passed away that his father had been bound out as an orphan and that we don’t know who his parents are. Over the years I’ve been grouping Oakes and Oaks family genealogy and migration information. I found three main groupings of Oakes/Oaks but can’t connect our family with any of these. Then two months ago I was talking with a fellow missionary friend with whom we served in Argentina. Randy Whittall has been a good friend for years. He started talking about his Oakes family as though I would remember a previous conversation. We had talked about this common family surname 15 years back. I just forgot. Randy’s Oakes family settled in Oklahoma. He told me he knew a website that gave the genealogy so we took a look. That resulted in the best lead I’ve had in years. I have nothing conclusive but I found two potential connections that call for further research.

1. Randy’s Oakes family came through Guilford County, NC
2. Randy’s Oakes family in Virginia and Guilford County, NC related to a McCuiston family.

 This is significant to me as our Jacob Oakes was being raised by Joseph and Rachael McCuiston in Jefferson County, Tennessee according to the 1860 Census. He was seven years old then.  Joseph and Rachael were in their 80’s at the time. Ten years later he was living with a different family as they had passed away. What is interesting is that Joseph and Rachael moved to Jefferson County, TN from Guilford County, NC. I am continuing to work on this and welcome anyone else who is interested in researching the McCuiston-Oakes connection to do so. It seems unlikely that these two connections are a coincident. If we can connect the dots we may have found out who are our Oakes ancestors. It is too early to tell but I am encouraged that Randy may be a distant cousin of ours and that we may be able to trace our Oakes roots back several generations more through North Carolina and into Virginia. If you are interested in helping out with Internet research drop me a line and we can chat.

Website to visit:  http://genforum.genealogy.com/mccuiston/messages/93.html