Thankful Thursday: Thankful To Have Found Elizabeth Jones

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How many of you out there can relate to this pose? I call this the "I just found it! Yeah boyeeeee!" pose. It usually happens when you come cross a really meaty genealogy nugget that provides answers to questions and tons of bonus information. Some folks out there may call it the "Damn, I'm good" pose. Whatever you may want to call it, this is the exact pose I held after finding Elizabeth Jones's probate record. 

For those of you who are new to Elizabeth Jones, she was my maternal 2nd great grand aunt. Here's how you get to Elizabeth Jones from me.

-- me 

-- my mom

-- Mary Bryant Horton(grandma)
--Ophelia Jones Bryant (great grandma)

--Alexander Hamilton Jones (great great grandfather)

Elizabeth Jones was Alexander Hamilton Jones's sister.

Now on a post I put out earlier in the week called, Mappy Monday: YooHoo, Elizabeth Jones Where Are You?, I found an Elizabeth Jones living at 2124 Fitzwater St in Philadelphia. How did I know that this was my Elizabeth. Well it took a little bit more digging. Specifically, I found on the FamilySearch.org website under the North Carolina Probate Records 1735-1970; Carteret County Wills, 1925-1948 Vol. G, my great grand aunt's probate record. 

(Part One)

(Part Two)

(Part Three)

(Part Four)

(Part Five)

(Part Six)

Lots of names are listed in this record. It's getting late and my eyes are kind of drowsy, so I will have to pick up with the who's who tomorrow. Until then, everyone have a good night. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty In PInk

Mary Bryant Horton --My maternal grandma looking pretty in pink.

Picture was taken  in the early 90's. She was seated on the front porch of her home

at 181-15 N. Conduit Ave. Springfield Gardens, NY.

Tombstone Tuesday: Cesar M. Jones --My Maternal Great Grand Uncle

Stone reads, "Here lies our loving Cesar M. 

Son of  A. H. & Rosa Jones

Born Dec 6, 1885 Died June 3, 1898

Asleep in Jesus

Bayview Cemetery, Morehead City, NC

Mappy Monday: YooHoo, Elizabeth Jones Where Are You?

Microsoft Office Downloaded Image

If you missed my prior posts that mention Elizabeth Jones, my 2nd great grand aunt, here are the links:

On The Hunt For Elizabeth Jones

Sunday's Obituary: Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones

After figuring out that Elizabeth Jones was alive and living in Philadelphia as of 1943, I decided to see if I could locate her on the census.  Good news! I did.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

I found an Elizabeth Jones on the 1930 census living at 2124 Fitzwater Street who I believe was my ancestor. She was listed as  single and owner of her own home. Three roomers resided with her, two of which were an Alexander and Daisy Jones. I bet you anything that they were related to Elizabeth in some way. I will get back to you on this one after I do some more research. Her age was listed as 50 years old which would have been off by almost 20 years but ages listed on the census were often just approximations.

Source Information:Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives

 and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

In 1940 Elizabeth was still living at the 2124 Fitzwater St address. She had three different roomers this time and her age was recorded as being 68.

Here's what 2124 Fitzwater St, Philadelphia looks like today courtesy of Google Maps.

Here's the street view.

Images courtesy of Google Maps

It looks like the building was torn down some time ago. It's nice to see a garden there instead of just an empty lot.

So how do I know that this was my Elizabeth Jones?  

                                   To be continued...

Sunday's Obituary: Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones

Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones

February 29, 1888--July 29, 1943

As you may already know, I am currently On The Hunt For Elizabeth Jones. In the midst of this hunt I remembered a mention of an Elizabeth Jones in my 1st cousin 3x removed obituary. Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones was the grandson of Cesar Jones and Mary Mitchel Jones.  His parents were William Henry Jones and Emma Shepard Jones. William Henry Jones was Elizabeth's brother.  After growing up in Morehead City, Oscar went off in the world and earned his degree from St Augustine's College. He studied dentistry at Howard University and was a well respected dentist in Baltimore, Maryland.

Here's his obituary. Pay special attention to the last sentence.

Image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers:  The Baltimore Afro-American (1893--1988) pg. 16

"...and an aunt, Miss Elizabeth Jones of Philadelphia"

This must be the Elizabeth Jones I've been looking for. There it was right there in an obituary I already had. Guess what? I found another mention of her in an article I featured on this blog last year.

Image courtesy of New Journal and Guide (1916--2003) January 10, 1942; ProQuest Historical Newspapers:  Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921--2003) 

I had made an assumption when I began researching my family tree that Elizabeth Jones had died shortly after 1880. Why you may ask? Well, I couldn't find her in any of the later census records for Morehead City. She wasn't to be found in the marriage records as well. Silly me just thought she had died. Why didn't I think she could have simply moved away? When I reviewed Mary Mitchel Jones's will recently and saw Elizabeth was indeed alive and well as of 1900, then it dawned on me what I had done. I had made a bad assumption. Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones died in 1943. Elizabeth Jones was alive and living in Philadelphia at the time of his death. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see what I found on Miss Elizabeth Jones.

Something About Me Saturday: Do You Remember The TV Show "The Phoneix"?

Okay this post came up in a completely random fashion today. I've been hanging out with my best friend chatting and somehow we got on the subject of 70's and 80's TV shows. Specifically, it started when she mentioned the show "The Phoneix."  Now don't ask me how this came up in the conversation. We've been laughing about random nonsense all afternoon. But that's when I thought to myself, I wonder how many other people remember this show?

Here's a clip.

"The Phoneix" circa 1982

This show description came straight up from Wikipedia:


The Phoenix is a 1982 television series starring Judson Scott which was on ABC for about one month. The plot revolved around an ancient extraterrestrial named Bennu of the Golden Light, who is discovered in a sarcophagus in Peru and awakened in the 20th Century. The series was first seen on a TV-movie on April 26, 1981


After viewing this, my friend and I got to talking about other TV shows we watched while growing up and we noticed a common theme emerging. It seems that we both grew up watching a lot of cheesy sci-fi. 

Here are a few we got to talking about.

"Shazam"  1974--1977

"Manimal" circa --1983

"The Powers of Matthew Star" circa 1982--1983

"Misfits of Science" circa 1985--1986

Now this last one is for my brother. I know he will laugh his butt off when he sees this.  

"Land of the Lost" circa 1974--1976

On The Hunt For Elizabeth Jones

Image courtesy of  Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Well, I learned a lot from the will I featured last week on my post Amanuensis Monday: The Will of Mary Mitchel Jones. 

1) Mary Mitchel Jones owned property! She had a house and a lot that was inherited by her daughter Elizabeth Jones.

2) My 3rd great grandparents had a total of 6 children. Caroline Jones was a child I hadn't known about. I was not able to locate her on any of the Morehead City census schedules but there she was, plain as day, mentioned in the will. What happened to her? Why wasn't she shown living with the family group in 1880. Was she one of the older children of Cesar and Mary M. Jones?

The answer to that last question, I think one can sort of figure out from Mary's own words in the will.

"To which, I want devided among my six children Names to wit, - Oliver  Violet Ann  Caroline  Alexander, William & Elizabeth Jones"

I thinks she listed her children in birth order, so Caroline was the third oldest.  Still, more questions need answering. Had she already passed away when the will was probated. Or perhaps she had married and was going by another surname. So far I haven't been able to find out much on her, but I will keep you posted.

3) Elizabeth Jones appears to have been the youngest child and not married when the will was written. I know from the 1880 census "Lizzie" is shown still living at home with parents and her older brother William. Violet, Alexander and Oliver were all married and each headed up their own household.

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Morehead City, Carteret, North Carolina; Roll: 956; Family History Film: 1254956; Page: 115D; Enumeration District: 024; Image: 0232. Source Information:  Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA

With the other children already established, perhaps my 3rd great grandmother wanted to make sure Elizabeth was taken care of when she was gone. Which leads to the question, what happened to Elizabeth Jones?

I knew from prior research that some of the Jones descendants had moved to Philadelphia. Would I find her there?