Notebook:James Ronsavall

From User:Dan Welch personal communication Q 10:32, 14 January 2009 (EST)

On Jan 12, 2009, at 7:49 PM, Dan Welch wrote:

Benjamin Ronsavall (modern spelling) is on my direct line. He settled very early at the "Trading Ford" and operated the Ferry there. His son, David Ronsavall, was a key founder of Nashville, Tennessee.

This information was given to me as a gift. This is ... my dad's line. Jean Shay, that gave me this gift died rather suddenly the fall of 2007. For some years I had attempted to trace my dad's line in Jackson County, Missouri with little success. I could not discover anything about my dad's great grandmother other than that her name was Narcissia Gordon as shown in an early 1950s family genealogy and that her mother's name was Ronciville.

Turns out the Jackson County Historical Society had a grapevine that reached to a distant cousin without my knowledge. Armed with this information tidbit, Jean was able to discover Nacissia Gordon's tombstone recorded in an unindexed book. It did not seem like a promising lead until Jean made a tour to the obscure rural cemetery near old Fort Osage. Despite her age, the tombstone reported that Narcissia Gordon was the daughter of Joseph E. Gordon. Jean then discovered Joseph E. Gordon in Sonoma County, California of all places. Quite a logic jump but it was proven by Joseph's obituary which detailed his life's travels from Gordonville, Tennessee with his wife Elizabeth Ronsavall to Callaway County, Missouri, then to Jackson County, Missouri and then on to California.

What a nice piece of research Jean did!