Welcome to ...

A collage of American Corner subjects:  In the foreground are my Great Grandparents: Thomas James Daffin and Margaret Wesley Callaway

    Please continue to return here for more and feel free to email me with any suggestions, questions, information, etc.
 

Rick Largaespada    (a.k.a.  the "Webmaster"!)

A message from the "Webmaster"...

TRY THIS NEW DOO-DAD!!  If you enter your email address iinto the "Change Detection" device, you will be notified by email whenever there is a change on this page! It does seem to work.

Please note that this is only the beginning and the pages are still being worked on. More and more content will be added regularly. Here's what I got so far!

An Introduction...(some of my "ramblings")
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1-Benjamin Daffin(1801 - 1876)
 

2-George Daffin of England  (The descendants of George Daffin, some of whom emmigrated to the United States early in the 19th century)

3- John Daffin of North Carolina.
 
 

This has been in the works for a while and is still being worked on. John Daffin was born in North Carolina circa 1730. The information on this line was provided by Marlene Pavelka of Texas and some other items, including great photographs were provided by Bobbi Wilson, also of Texas. I know there are many more researching this line and I hope to contact them and "refine" these pages even more. I've done some reading on the history of North Carolina and discovered that almost all of their earliest settlers came from the colonies north of the Carolinas and that Halifax County, where John and his family first appear, was on a well travelled route from Virginia, which now is Rt. 301. Rt. 301 also goes on up through Maryland. It was originally an Indian "Highway" and was used during the Revolutionary war also. This could certainly hint at a possible connection between the Maryland Daffins and the Carolina Daffins. NEW!!   Here are the Wills of... JOHN DAFFIN...1803 GEORGE DAFFIN...1797 HENRY DAFFIN...1788 JAMES DAFFIN...PROBATE COURT RECORDS...1853

Marcus Lafayette Daffin

 4- The Floyd Perry Daffin family of American Corner, Maryland...circa 1932.

5- Floyd "Pop Pop" Daffin's Boxing Match
"Pop-Pop" Daffin vs. (???) Towers; circa 1932... I do believe there was an error concerning the TOWERS name.  It could be GARDINER or LEON (or something different all together).  Hope to get it straight soon!

6- The "ebay" Document. A sheriff's writ dating from the 1700s pertaining to Daffin, Dyal, Dickinson, and Wm. Richardson of Caroline county, Maryland.

Also: Thanks to Joseph Dickerson for adding some more history pertaining to this document...

7-  The Town and Port of St. Mary's, 1642
I found this map in a history book. It shows the different areas and names around St. Mary's in 1642. I plan on making an improvement on the quality soon!
 

8- UNION GROVE CEMETERY... During a bleak winter's day drive through Caroline County to find AMERICAN CORNER, we came across this old cemetery. Some of the names on the headstones were WILLOUGHBY, FELL, BLADES.
 
 

9- THAWLEY'S CHAPEL...A Methodist Chapel built in 1865 near Hillsboro, Maryland. I hope to add more of it's history on here soon.
 
 

10- The Will of JOHN DAFFIN...This John Daffin lived in St. Mary's County, Maryland early in the 18th Century.
 

11- The BLUE HEN RAMBLERS...    In 1946, at the age of 19, EMMA JEAN DAFFIN was a singer and muscian with the Country and western group, The Blue Hen Ramblers.

12- IRL DAFFIN _the Man... Irl Daffin became a very successful businessman. He grew up in Williston, Md. Here is a short bio.

George Daffin lived in St. Mary's County, Maryland at least as early as 1747, but there records that show he may have been there as early as 1710. Where he was born or where he came to the colony of Maryland from are yet unknown, but he produced a long line of descendants still growing.      His sons came to the "Eastern Shore" and played a prominent role in the history of Maryland before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.     I was born and grew up only miles from where brothers Charles and Joseph Daffin lived and my family stories tell of how we are descended, but since there are no actual records showing a connection to this line, I can only keep searching.

William R. Daffin Family  William R. Daffin (1851-1927) was the great -great grandson of George Daffin.

The DUEL
 
 

Thomas B. Daffin married Rebecca Dickinson and they lived on a large plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Thomas's father, Charles Daffin spared no expense in building this home and it was the site of many social events at the time.      Before he was President, Andrew Jackson, had visited here and met Rebecca Daffin's brother, Charles Dickinson. The two  had a bit in common when it came to horses and became close friends...at least until, some say, a wager on a horse race brought out some very hard feelings between the two down in Tennessee. It lead to a lot of name-calling and eventually a fateful ride up to the Red River in Kentucky where "Dueling" was still legal and acceptable in settling one's differences.     Although Andrew Jackson took a bullet close to his heart, he managed to get off a shot that killed Charles Dickinson.     Read one account of this tragic event written by Joe Valliant.  I do not know who Joe Valliant is or where the article came from. My attempts to find Joe or the publication that this article appeared in have failed. I believe it was from a newspaper in the 1960s.

Andrew Jackson (foreground) waits for Charles Dickinson to get his shot off...

 
 

Mrs. Joseph Daffin... A Portrait:
 
 

Col. Joseph Daffin of Dorchester County, Maryland married Elinor Ennals. In 1790, artist Charles Willson Peale travelled to their home on the Eastern Shore to paint their portraits. Peale is known for his portraits of George Washington and other Revolutionary War patriots.      There is a special story that goes with this portrait concerning Peales trip to Dorchester Co., but I must admit it is "lost" amongst my jumbled files. I'll find it eventually!     This portrait is on display at the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, Ohio and it is being shown here by their permission.     It is sad to note that there was also a companion portrait of Col. Joseph Daffin done by Peale, but it's whereabouts are unknown.

Mrs. Joseph Daffin...1790

DENTON JOURNAL...  I am in the slow process of scouring through the online archives of the Denton Journal. I'll be adding more as time permits.

A Special Project...

    Many of us have found instances where the surnames we are researching changed spellings in older records. Sometimes it is hard to figure out if a James Daffrin, James Daffern,  or James Daffin are different people or actually one and the same. Well, here is a William Green DAFFORD who happens to be the "Brick Wall" of Lila Niemann Garner. It appears possible that his name may have been spelled different at one time. 

    Take time to read Lila's story and see if there is anything that matches your own research or if you may have come across something that may help her. 

    Lila is the administrator to the  Daffron-L-Rootsweb List. Although it is called "DAFFRON", it pertains to any surname beginning with "DAF" (that includes DAFFIN!). She posts everything that she finds on these names and anybody may subscribe to this list and post their own queries or findings as they need.
    If you aren't already a subscriber to the  Rootsweb DAFFRON LIST and want to subscribe, just click on this link and enter only the word ... "subscribe" in the body of the message, nothing else... DAFFRON
 

William Green Dafford...

    Lila has put together a page with the story of "Billie" Dafford and changes it as she finds new information, etc.  Check it out HERE--->Billie's Story.

    I am putting up this page to help Lila, as she has been very helpful to me and others in digging up and passing along helpful research information.
 
 

    Here is an article that I am posting here with the permission of the author, Curtis Thomasson . It concerns a family that has both the DAUPHIN and DAFFIN spellings in their name. It seems that that the name DAFFIN may have French roots (more on that later). In earlier times  spellings of names may have been changed when a family moved to another area by court clerk or church vestry when they "decided" how the name was spelled. Illiteracy played a big part as well.
    Anyways, in an effort to show as many of the  Daffin families that exist, here is the article about DARLING DAFFIN...or DARLING DAUPHIN.
 

How About some other "Daffin" HOMEPAGES???

    From correspondance I have  received, I have some links to webpages of other "Daffin Cousins"...

Homepage of David J. Daffin...

    David is descended from Albert Bruce Daffin (great grandfather). His ancestors are from Mississippi (Yet another Daffin Family?!?!?). It is possible he is related to the North Carolina Daffins, but we don't know. Here's a Family Webpage of David's. Think you are related? 
Contact David J. Daffin
 
 

Here's a change of pace: 
    How's about some music??

Check out FRAGILE X

    Christpher Scott Gailfoil is the grandson of  Dr. Charles Hall Daffin and Dorothy LaRue Daffin of Panama City, Florida and is also the drummer of a band called Fragile X...sounds like they are doing good...  Cris describes the sound of Fragile X a "70's style rock with an alternative/punk feel... sort of like The Who meets Nirvana"
...some other sites for his band:

EARCANDY ONLINE MAGAZINE

Fragile X's mailing List:
Yahoo! Groups : FragileXgroup
 
 
 

   Search the Web
 

 Although my time is very limited for any research, I am still very interested in the Daffin familyhistory.