How the dementtree website came about
by Gregg Jacks Miller
In 1955, my Grandmother Nancy “Nannie” Adelia Dement Jacks and her brother John Lafayette Dement had been corresponding for years with Dement relatives and organized a Dement Family Reunion held at Buescher State Park here in central Texas, which has been held annually ever since. From that gathering they came up with a list of 500 names that were all related back to my great-great grandparents Ruben Dement and Synie Glenn. Shortly after that, my grandmother Nannie and Uncle John came to our house every day for about 2 weeks, organizing and giving all of their information to my mother Marion Corene Jacks Miller who continued researching the family name and drew up a Family Tree by around 1960.
In the mid 1980’s I became the keeper of the information my mother had collected over the years, and began putting it on computer. Not too many years back, Brad Dement asked our relatives to bring their old family photos to our reunion where they were all scanned, and we started collecting the family stories we could find, and wrote them down. Brad and I initially set up our website to share the family photos and stories, and it has grown from there, bringing us to the present.
As families grow and we lose contact with distant relatives, I have only been able to keep up the Edward Harvey Dement branch of the original Dement Family Tree that my mother first drew up, which now numbers close to 500 that I know of. There have also been a few spin-offs from our annual Reunion that meet regularly here in Texas.
Around the time Brad and I initiated our Dement Tree website, we became aware of the Dement Family Association, which was organized in 1986, and they hold regular Dement Reunions in the Tennessee area. From within that group, Marilyn Holmes put together a book “Dements Through the Ages” to which I have submitted our Dement family records.
The earliest Dement ancestor we know of is a John Dement, with my line being; John Dement >Charles Dement-1740 (NC)>Charles Gilbert Dement-1768 (NC)>Ruben Dement-1802 (Barron Co, KY)>Edward Harvey Dement-1847 (Austin Co. TX)>Nancy Dement Jacks-1882 (Hays Co. TX)>Marion Corene Jacks Miller>Gregg Jacks Miller. From my mother’s records I have Photostats (copies) from Ruben Dement’s Family Bible listing his parents as Charles Gilbert Dement and Frances Harris. Another story here in the Stories section of our Dement Family website is “Robert L. Dement Remembers” recalling where three Dement brothers came to Texas, with Thomas Dement settling in North Texas (I believe in the Dallas area) and Benjamin Dement and Ruben Dement settling in South Central and Central Texas.
