Tag: Jones family

Joseph Gibbs Jones

What is there not to love about mutton chop whiskers? #52ancestors #52familyphotographs

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Joseph Gibbs Jones (1834-1895)

Joseph G. Jones was the younger brother of my great, great grandfather, Benjamin Jones.  His parents were Richard Jones and Susan Ellis Gibbs Jones.  I know very little about this man and I have learned that somewhat randomly.

Joseph was born on 29 June 1834 at Hanover, New Jersey.  He appears to have attended a school run by Jesse Davis, and OSP clergyman in New Hanover.  I cannot determine that he served in the Civil War but he was living in Brooklyn, New York when he married Christine Kellog (daughter of Martin Kellog and Marilla Cooley Kellog). They had one son, Joseph Walter Jones, who tragically died before he was six months old in 1866.  The couple was in Florence, New Jersey at the time.

At this point the details get sketchy.  I found Joseph and Christine living in Eden, Pennsylvania on 12 July 1870 but I do not find him again on another census in any state. Curiously, Joseph’s death certificate listed him as a widower on 25 March 1895 when he died in New York at 229 W. 12th St. However, Christine did not predecease him.

In 1875 Christine was living in Caldwell, NY near Lake George within the household of her mother Marilla Kellog. And in 1884 she married Henry Lewis Gregg in Newton, Massachusetts.  She was living in Hudson, NY with her husband when she died on 12 August 1889.

Andrew Jones and family

That moment when the identified photograph ends up being more confusing than the unknown? That’s this weeks #52ancestors and #52familyphotographs rolled into one!

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Andrew Jones and family

The man sitting in the plus fours is my great grandfather’s older brother.  Born Elwood Andrew Jones on 12 October 1869 to Benjamin and Mary Carroll Jones,   He may have worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as an engineer.  In 1891 he married Amy Emmons.  They lived in Pemberton and raised five children: Inez, Paul, Oscar, Gladys and Myrtle.

I think the people named on the label are as follows left to right:

I have no idea who Jr. is.  If you do, please let me know!

 

Stella Mae Jones

Jones_Mary_StellaMay_imageThis 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:

Ayres_Jones_wedding_The_Freehold_Transcript_and_The_Monmouth_Inquirer_Fri__Apr_18__1902_

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.

Ayres_Mae_grave_PembertonMethodistCemeteryThey 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.Ayres_EstellaM_grave_1946_MountHollyCemetery

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.