In February of 2001, I started a project of putting the whole Blankenship family into one database. The response of other researchers willing to share their work and records was phenomenal. Working with them, we have been able to correct and remove a lot of the errors and misinformation that have flooded the web. It also became clear that more work is needed, as we have a lot of loose information, and lines of the family that are not yet connected.
The volume of information was so over whelming, that a genealogy program was not the format to logically organize the information for research purposes. A system of Area Timelines allows me to see others in the same area at the same time. The system has worked so well for me and contains so much information that I can’t keep it to my self. New information keeps coming in all the time so a system of constantly mailing updates to everyone would be far to time consuming. So, with this site I will be able to make it all available to everyone and easy for me to keep updated.
The different formats that information can be found in would again be to much to try to maintain, so I will only use the
transcribed text for my format on this site. I will also remove the @ from E-mail addresses and use (at),
this will allow me to post the address for you to use but will help prevent
automatic programs from raiding the site and using them for mailing lists.
Submitters. is a list of the researchers that sent me their genealogy
file for the project. I have set up the Submitters list as a place where I can
post updates for E-mail addresses. It would be way to hard to find them in the
Genealogy file notes.
Spellings of the family name are many, Blankenchip, Blankenship,
Blankinship, Blankingship, Blakenship, Blankship, Blenkinship, Blenkenship,
Blenkinshep, and on and on. It was Andrew Jackson that said “ it’s a damn small
mind that can only think of one way to spell a word”.
In the Genealogy program, I use I
use the following spellings.
Blank’en’ship for the VA family
Blank’in’ship for the MA family
Blank’an’ship for the African Families
This greatly simplifies searches
when working with that file.
In the Area time lines all the
spellings will be kept as found. In the genealogy file, I also use common
spellings for first names, IE I use Lewis for Louis, or Mary for Polly, Sarah
for Sally, Etc.
Area Timelines These files contain a lot of information that I’m in the process of trying to place in the family database. As I work thru them I have put my notes in green Type. A plus sign in front of an item is to mark the ones that have been put in the database. If part of first line is in red then I made the entry under American Blankenships, because I don’t know the parents but wanted it in the file for others to find. I’ve tried to organize everything into a standard format to make working with it easier. Some items may have more then one entry. I can’t possibility check everything that is sent to me, so when the submittals are different I put both in and leave it to others to check it out.
If you care to submit any information please send it to BLANKINSHIP-L@rootsweb.com , make sure it is in the body of the E-mail and not an attachment. This will not only get it to me, but will also share it with the researchers on the Blankinship List at Rootsweb and add it to the archives thus creating a backup copy of it.
If you care to help identify any item you can contact me at James(at)blankenshipweb.com
If your line is not in the family database and you would like to submit or make any corrections or additions to the family database you can send it to me at jkblank1(at)sbcglobal.net .
American Blankenships is a false parent that I use in the genealogy program to connect families and attach the loose lines of the family to. So if you follow a line back to an American Blankenships then you have the immigrant or are on a line that has not been attached to one of the known immigrant families.