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As a brief perusal of Appendix II, "Loose Ends: Unidentified and Possible Dentys" will show, there were several Denty immigrants from Great Britain to the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It's not certain, however, if any of those "unidentified and possibles" actually produced descendants who carry the surname today. By contrast, the families appearing below are known to have descendants in the United States who currently bear the surname.
It is hoped that any reader unable to discover his or her forebears in the preceding chapters will discover them here, but bear in mind that the information contained herein is often based upon hearsay, i.e. family stories.
The Newfoundland-Georgia Dentys
According to family tradition, the founder of the Denty family in Newfoundland was an Irishman named Sweetman serving on a British man-o-war during the American Revolution. This particular ship was apparently a hotbed of republican sympathizers for, in a desperate move to avoid fighting against the colonists, the entire crew abandoned ship in Newfoundland. To escape arrest and hanging, Sweetman changed his surname, taking his mother’s maiden name of Denty. Oddly enough, his mother was supposedly French.
One hundred years later, his descendants were cod fisherman in Boat Harbor, a tiny village on the coast of Placentia Bay. One of these Dentys, whose first name is unfortunately unknown, was the father of six sons. In a tragic accident that is still talked about in Boat Harbor, five of those six sons, aged nineteen to forty-two, perished at sea when their boat floundered on the rocks in a violent storm. The only surviving son, Joshua Wilson Denty, who had married Selena Keeping before the shipwreck, stayed in Boat Harbor until 1913, when he emigrated to a small town near Miami, Florida with all his children. During World War I the family moved to Glynn County, Georgia, where Joshua died on 7 Jul 1929. Both he and Selena are buried in the Palmetto Cemetery in Brunswick, Georgia.
Joshua and Selena had ten children, all born in Newfoundland: Jessie; James Wilson[1] (b. 30 Apr 1893, married Ethel, d. 21 May 1966); Winnie; George Thomas (b. 9 Jun 1895, married Rocky); Ida; Arthur Lloyd (b. 18 Oct 1900, married Alice, d. 24 Aug 1978); Ada Pearl; Ralph Emmanuel (b. 2 Dec 1907, married Ruby, d. 17 Aug 1996)[2]; a daughter who died in Boat Harbor and whose name is unknown; and Adelia Denty. Private Arthur Lloyd Denty was head boilermaker at Camp Marfa, Presidio County, Texas in the 1920 Census.
The founders of one of the most recent families of Dentys to arrive in the United States were brothers Edwin and John Stanley Denty of England. Edwin was born in 1882 and Edwin in 1890, the sons of timber salesman Edwin[3] and Emily Ann Niblett Denty of Bedminster, Bristol and Somerset. They immigrated separately, "Ted" in 1904 and Stanley in 1908, but ultimately settled together in Massachusetts.
Ted, a chauffeur, married Christie Cormier of Canada. In 1920 they were enumerated at 232 Auburndale Avenue in Newton, Massachusetts with their children thirteen year old Edward Pierce Denty (b. 23 Mar 1906), eleven year old Joseph, and eight year old Helen.[4] Ted died in 1961 in Lake Worth, Florida.
Stanley, an auto mechanic, married Caroline Sorenson on 7 Nov 1917 in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1920 the couple was residing at 24 Sharon Avenue in Newton. They later had two sons: Stanley John, born in August 1922 in Somerville, and Edwin Heber, born on 11 Dec 1926 in Newton, Massachusetts.
Many descendants of these two Englishmen live in New England today.
On a date unfortunately now lost, an immigrant named Franco Dante arrived in the United States from Northern Italy, having been "imported" to marry an Italian woman named Rose. Love is never predictable, and the prospective groom instead fell in love with Rose's younger sister, Philomena. Whatever problems this may have caused, Franco and Philomena were married. Later, however, Franco got into trouble with the Mafia, and to avoid being found by them, changed his name to Frank Denty. The details, as handed down to descendant Robert Lee Denty, are vague. One version is that he had five brothers who lived in New York. And descendant Garland Denty believes that the Frank Denty who married Philomena was a son of the original immigrant.[5] All that can be known with any certainty, is that the original Frank Denty was Italian and that Frank and Philomena Denty had three children: Corrinne, Garland, Adele, and Robert, who was actually Corrinne's son but was adopted by Philomena.
But scattered records contain a second story . . . A Frank Denty, born in Genoa, Italy on 16 Mar 1885, immigrated to the United States as a small boy, reportedly with his older brother. A tailor by trade, he first resided in New York City, but later moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Either in New York or Iowa he married Marie Anna Kibitz, born on 3 Sep 1895. The couple had at least two children: Kay Frances Denty (b. 17 May 1939, d. 19 Apr 1948) and another child, gender unknown, who lived to adulthood and married Mr./Miss Coleman. Both Frank and Marie died in Illinois; Frank on 4 Jul 1969 and Marie on 13 Mar 1989.
Were there two Frank Dentys from Italy, or one? Two would seem to stretch our credulity, although it's not impossible. It's certainly simpler to combine the two stories as both may contain fragments of truth intermingled with errors, and they certainly contain common elements. For instance, both Franks supposedly lived in New York and both are reputed to have lived in Iowa, one in Davenport and one in Cedar Rapids. Perhaps Garland was correct and there were two generations, the Frank born in 1895 in Genoa and his son, Philomena's husband. The Dantes await their historian.
The African-American Dentys
As many of the Southern Dentys owned slaves, it's most likely that African-Americans carrying the surname today are the descendants of those slaves. However, likely or probably are very different from certainly. It may be that free blacks before the Civil War or freed slaves after the war assumed the name either through friendship or gratitude, or simply propinquity. Nor is it beyond the realm of possibility that there is a genetic connection. Stories of master-slave dalliances have become familiar. Without written documentation or DNA evidence, who can say?
Like the "UnDentys" in Appendix II, many African-Americans listed as "Denty" may have been transcribed incorrectly, and therefore may actually be Dentz, Dent, or Dainty. But of those listed as Denty, and known to be African-American, we have the following . . .
In the 1850 Census waiter John Denty, born about 1830, was enumerated in Walnut Ward and Mary Jane Denty, born about 1842, in Upper Delaware Ward, Philadelphia. Both listed their birthplaces as Pennsylvania.
In the 1870 Census in Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana were Henry and Jane Denty, ages forty-five and thirty-eight. An illiterate laborer born in Mississippi, Henry had real and personal property valued at $100 and $304 that year.
In the 1880 Census in Marshall County, Mississippi:
In Armstead: Mose Denty, age twenty-one and born in Mississippi, was residing in Marshall County with his sister Huldy, age twenty-eight, sister L.S. age twenty-three, sister Rosa fourteen, brother Bud age eight, Dianna six, whose relationship wasn't given, and laborer Ben McKenzie, age twenty-five and born in South Carolina. Fifty-four year old Moses was also listed in the 1910 Census in Marshall County. That year, sister Huldy McKinzy, now fifty-eight, who'd married on 1 Jul 1880, was residing in the same household with her two sons Carl and Lesley McKinzy, fifteen and thirteen years old. (She may be the seventy-five year old "Huldy Denty" enumerated in the household of grandson St. Clair Dalton and his wife Lema on Saxon Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee in 1920. If divorced by Ben McKinzy, she might well have reverted to her maiden name.)
In Red Banks: Laborer Spencer Denty, age twenty-one, born in North Carolina, was enumerated in the household of white farmer A.D. Strickland.
In Wall Hill: 1) Ned Denty, age fifty and born in Virginia, was enumerated in the household of white farmer Marion Mobly. 2) Farmer Henry Denty, age forty-three, born in North Carolina, appeared with twenty-seven year old wife Harriet, born in Alabama, and forty-one year old laborer Cancer Nunally, born in Tennessee. On 29 Mar 1873 Henry mortgaged his crop, two mules, two horses, and farm implements to J.S. Burrows for $268.50. And he and Mingo Sumner rented acreage on Pigeon Roost Creek for one year from W.F. Sangston on 10 Feb 1874, the rent being five bales of cotton and 100 bushels of corn. Both men signed the contract with their marks. He sold his crop of cotton and corn to William Crump in 1876 and purchased W ½ E ½ SW ¼ S5 T4W from W.G. Sangston in 1878. He is almost certainly the Henry Denty, born in North Carolina in 1838 and married to "Hattie", who was listed in the 1900 Census in Pulaski County, Arkansas. Henry died on 21 Jan 1916 in Pulaski County.
In the 1900 Census:
There were husband and wife Joe and Nancy Denty in Texas. Joe had been born about 1838 and Nancy about 1862.
In Falls Church District of Fairfax County, Virginia, farm laborer Antony Dinty was residing with his wife Cora.
Emma Denty (born in 1869 in Alabama) was enumerated in Barbour County, Alabama.
Spencer Denty, born in 1870, was listed in Desoto County, Mississippi. He was no doubt related to the Spencer Denty in Marshall County, Mississippi, who also appeared in the 1910 Census in Desoto, age thirty-nine, living alone.
There was also a Lewis Denty residing in the Falls Church District of Fairfax County in 1917, who was called in the first military draft held there.
Listed in the 1920 Soundex as a roomer of Jim Anderson at 1821 Watkins in Dallas, Texas, was forty-nine year old Hunt Denty. In McIntosh County, Texas fifty year old "San" Denty, born in Oklahoma, was enumerated.
And finally, Viola Denty, age twenty-five, married Frank Lovejoy, age thirty-one, in Pulaski County, Arkansas in December of 1923.
Thomas Draper Denty
Thomas Draper Denty, born on 29 May 1880 in England, immigrated to the United States in 1886, presumably brought by his parents, who remain unknown. He became a farmer near Saratoga, New York, and married Jane Marsden, a native New Yorker whose parents had also been born in England. In the 1920 Census, they were enumerated in Ballston Town in Saratoga with their children Harry M. age sixteen, William R. age fourteen,[6] and Amelia M. age three years eight months.[7] Son Harry was definitely adopted, but it's always possible that William and Amelia were Thomas' biological children. One and possibly all three of these children have descendants alive today. Thomas Draper Denty died in December 1969 in Scotia, New York.
If you have any additions or corrections, please contact me at nancy@nancysdeadrelatives.com.
[1] Here's that "Wilson" for the third time.
[2] In 1988 Ralph Emanuel Denty went back to Boat Harbor, where the lone grocery is Denty's Store, and where the children and grandchildren of the Dentys who perished in 1894 still reside.
[3] In light of his grandson's name, Edwin may have been related to Heber Denty of Clifton in Gloucestershire who, in the 1881 Census, was employed as the foreman in a "timber yard".
[4] She is probably the Helen M. Holt, wife of Chester R. Holt, who died before 1998.
[5] This was the version of events as related by Garland Denty.
[6] He is almost certainly the William Denty, born on 17 Jun 1905, recorded in the Social Security Death Index as dying in June 1983 in Delanson, New York.
[7] Enumerated next to them were William and Amelia Bagg, ages sixty-three and sixty-three, who were also from England, and in light of the name of Thomas and Jane's daughter, likely relatives.