Reader Q&As

The Chevis men featured in the story would have been my great-great uncles. I never even heard of this story, and I have been to many family reunions. I thought my family spelled Chevis as “Chavis”. I would like to know more to include why “Marks” is not my last name instead of “Taylor”. – R.W., 09.07.2023

Hi Cousin! Regarding your first comment, people with the surname pronounced “chay-vis” have used a variety of spellings. Our family’s surname historically was spelled “Chevis”, but some branches decided to use the “Chavis” variant. Actually we are descended from a family of color from the Carolinas who were often documented with the surname “Chevers”. As for your second wonderment, as I mentioned previously in a post using newspapers and genealogy research, our Aunt Olivia Taylor Norman, was born to James Taylor and Leontine Chevis. Family tradition holds that James also was known as Jimmy Marks. That brings up the question, “Why?” Whose surname was Marks? Did Jimmy have a different father than the Taylor man he and his siblings claimed? Or, was this a random nickname? Thankfully, Aunt Olivia had an answer for me; she said that people called her father “Jimmy Marks” because he had spent so much time with his grandmother. Following Aunt Olivia’s lead, I confirmed that the oldest known male in the Taylor line was named Jules Taylor. Jules was born around 1861 to Coralie Barker and, reportedly, a man named James Taylor (presumably Jimmy’s namesake). Around the time of Emancipation, Coralie united with Don Louis Marks; they married officially in 1886, probably in order to legitimize their children. Being that Jimmy was probably her first grandchild, Coralie likely doted on and helped care for him while his parents focused on their younger children. Because of his frequent association with his grandparents, the James Taylor who was married to Leontine Chevis came to be known by some people as Jimmy Marks.