This week on #52ancestors I am writing about Mary “Stella May” Jones. She was the ninth child of Benjamin (1833-1896) and Mary Elizabeth Carrell (1840-1922) Jones, born on 22 June 1881. My great grandfather Arthur Wells Jones was her older brother. I am not sure exactly why or when she became “Stella May” but that is the name she went by most of her adult life.
The first time I found her in the census was in the 1885 New Jersey state census, where she is called May. I thought it might have been a misspelling of Mary. But in the 1895 NJ Census, she is also called May. In 1900, She is living with her mother and two sisters and is identified as Stella Mae. Marriage notices in local papers used this spelling as well:
Stella Mae and Oscar lived most often in Freehold in Monmouth County but seem to have come back to Pemberton regularly. Oscar appears to have worked with his father as a monument maker but also is listed in various Census and military draft records as a clerk, railroad worker and as a motor delivery man for the Courier-News.
They had a little girl in 1909 named Mae Ayres, who died shortly after birth and is buried in the Methodist Cemetery in Pemberton. They do not, however, appear to have been active in the Methodist Church.
According to her obituary and other newspaper articles I found, Stella Mae does not appear to have been robustly healthy towards the end of her life. She may have suffered from complications from an appendectomy. Estella Mae Ayres died on 18 December 1946 at Seaside Park, NJ at the home of her nephew Arthur Rue after a stroke. She is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery.
Names can evolve over a person’s lifetime. This can present a challenge when trying to determine if the record you are viewing is, in fact, the person you are researching. The trick, I think, is being open to the fact that your ancestor may have used different names in different contexts. My own mother could slide fluidly back and forth from Anne Tompkins Jones to Mrs. Barclay G. Jones to Annebo, depending on the circumstances.
This week in #52ancestors I once again come up against that age old genealogical principal of looking for one record and finding not that record but another that solves a different mystery.
Chandler and family appear to have been involved in the Presbyterian Church, as on 14 January 1845, Chandler Prince puts up $5.00 toward the building of a Presbyterian church in Rome, Pennsylvania.
Mary Sleght Brown is a recent discovery and an excellent reminder to return to people every few years for whom you have had no success. For some time I knew that Abraham V.W. Tompkins had married a Caroline Brown, but I could find no firm information about where she came from. Then one day I returned to Abraham, thinking surely by now, someone has put up some record on this family.
According to the bible, Mary Sleght was born on 4 June 1785 and married 
This week in #52Ancestors I’d like to finish the other half of the 
The Gibbs family appears in Quaker meeting records moving from Upper Springfield meeting to Mount Holly meeting in 1817, but the next time I find them is in 1835, when the entire family is being “disowned” by the Mount Holly meeting. This may be due to the fact that Susan and her sisters seem to have each married outside the faith. 
The marriage for Richard Jones and Susan Gibbs was performed by a justice of the peace in Burlington County on 13 June 1833.
While I know that Richard Jones lived at Mary Ann Furnace later in the 1840’s I do not know if this is where Susan E. Gibbs lived with him during their short marriage. Because she entered and left the family history between two censuses and because her two boys had so little time with her, it is hard to find details.
This week of #52Ancestors lead me to Vincent Van Nest, whose birthday is 25 April 1837 and who joins the family tree by marrying Margaret Ann Mount, older sister to my direct ancestor Mary Jane Mount (1844-1917). The Van Nest surname can hide in records as Van Nest, VanNest and Vannest, making it a bit tricky to find them. Also I discovered this family marrying Mounts in many generations. But the really interesting discovery happened when I tried to document Vincent’s parents.
Joseph Roach is listed in records as a merchant, but I can find little to document what and where he did business.
My first introduction to Sabrina Arzilla Hine was in 1990 or so. I was visiting Dad’s cousin Edith Hine in Athens, Pennsylvania, and she handed me an envelope and asked me to take good care of the contents. Inside were some family letters to Sabrina from her brothers written during the 1860’s. How cool! And how honored I was to receive such a gift. And so it is with pleasure that I share these treasures this week of #52ancestors, especially as she is an aunt although not maiden one!
Sabrina’s brother Percival joined the 141 Pennsylvania Volunteers at the start of the American Civil War, and served in Company D along with many friends and neighbors. This was the war in which the Americans would learn that while on paper the idea of serving with your brothers and neighbors might look like it would inspire bravery, but in reality it destroyed whole communities when their young men were wiped out in a single battle. Percy’s letters comment on his comrades, many of whom Sabrina knew, including their own father.
Chester appears to have suffered a heart attack on 26 March 1913 and died at home. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Clinton. There is no will, and he was a relatively young man. In 1915, the New Jersey state census puts his widow Anna living with her daughter’s family in North Readington. Later this family will move to Elizabeth and Anna goes with them. It is possible that the farm was sold, as the sons do not appear to have followed their father’s occupation.
Unfortunately, the obituary (Trenton Evening Times) is how I learned the most about Clarence Brearley Mount. He was involved in the insurance business, namely the Automobile Club of Central New Jersey and the Loyalty Group Insurance Company. More locally, he was an overseer of the poor and a director of emergency relief in Hamilton Township. He and his wife Fairy were actively involved in the Presbyterian Church, appearing in newspaper story after story about this church fete or that. He was a member of several fraternal organizations: the Mount Moriah Lodge 28 (F&AM), the Knights Templar, the Masons, the IOOF, and the Railroad Square Club. His funeral services reflect this as both Presbyterian and Baptist ministers officiated at his funeral and the Masonic Temple held a separate service.
Lois Buttles was born on 17 March 1782 in Granby, Connecticut to Jonathan and Lois Viets Buttles. Even in 2018, Granby is described as a rural town, located in the foothills of the Litchfield Hills of the Berkshires…and… the outskirts of town are filled with dense woods and rolling hills and mountains. Imagine it in the 1820’s. Lois married Samuel Platt Whitney on 10 March 1799 in North Granby and they preceded to have 12 children, all but one living to adulthood.
In 1870, they celebrated their silver wedding anniversary at the home of their son John Viets Whitney. This story not only made the local Geauga press paper but also appears in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Telling My Story 