Her passion for preservation, as referenced in this Cornelius Today article, is fueled by her lifelong innate love and curiosity of old things and places. Recently, this passion has been further ignited through learning more about her pre-Revolutionary War North Carolinian roots.

“As I researched Cedar Grove, and the lives of the Torrance ancestors, I began to notice the parallel stories from my own ancestry. When I thought of my ancestor’s stories previously, I imagined one line of history from past to present. However, my thinking changed when I began to see these lines cross and merge exponentially as we dug deeper into the history of Cedar Grove.

One example of seemingly unconnected lines was sparked by Andre Kearn’s genealogy. Kearn learned that one of his ancestors of Germanic descent arrived in Philadelphia on the ship, Neptune. I also knew my ancestor, Jacob Trautman, arrived from Germany to Philadelphia on the Neptune. This new connection inspired interest in learning more about the Neptune and the stories of the thousands of people she brought safely to America’s shores.

Another connection was serendipitously found while researching Lincoln County's history. Jennings shared, “As I was learning more about Ingleside of Iron Station, NC, I began to learn more about the Forney family. One evening while working on my personal family tree, I was fascinated to read a record that my 4th great-grandmother, Fatima Ellen Forney, was born in the log cabin of Ingleside. Tracing the lines revealed her first cousin was Daniel Munroe Forney, who later built the grand historic landmark, Ingleside in Iron Station, NC (not to be confused with Ingleside of Mecklenburg County).

The connections began to mount as Jennings and her husband Randolph Lewis began learning more about many of the properties named in Chalmers Gaston Davidson’s” The Plantation World Around Davidson.” The names within these family trees were widely connected to other plantation families. Cultural connections were also found when comparing the histories of local churches, and the plantation connections were also found in the surnames within the historic African American neighborhoods surrounding the plantation lands.

Through the success of sharing Torance stories at HEARTS Happenings, we realized these connections were truly bigger than just one historic site, as the families and connections flowed throughout the region,” shared Jennings.